2026 NCAA March Madness First Four tips off today with Duke as overall No. 1 seed

March Madness is officially here. The 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament begins Tuesday with the First Four games in Dayton, Ohio, and for the first time since 2022, Duke enters as the overall No. 1 seed. The Blue Devils claimed the ACC Championship and built a resume strong enough to convince the selection committee they belong at the top of the entire 68-team field. Full first-round action starts Thursday and Friday across CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV.

Duke's case for the top overall seed

Duke enters the tournament as the ACC champion and the East Region's No. 1 seed. The Blue Devils finished the regular season with one of the nation's top NET rankings, a metric the NCAA selection committee weights heavily alongside strength of schedule and road performance. Head coach Jon Scheyer's squad has been one of the more consistent teams in the country this year, with no losing streaks longer than one game entering the postseason.

Being the overall No. 1 seed comes with real implications beyond seeding. Duke will receive the most favorable regional placement and avoid other top seeds until the Elite Eight at the earliest, assuming bracket chalk holds. The East Region's path to the Final Four runs through Newark before potentially reaching the regional final site. Duke has not won a national championship since 2015 under Mike Krzyzewski, and Scheyer has been building toward this kind of tournament positioning since taking over the program in 2022.

Purdue earns the No. 2 seed in the West after Big Ten title

Purdue locked up the West Region's No. 2 seed after defeating Michigan 80-72 in the Big Ten Championship. The Boilermakers are now back in the tournament after a run to the national championship game in 2024, where they lost to Connecticut. Matt Painter's team has the size and experience profile that typically translates well to the NCAA Tournament's physical late rounds, and a No. 2 seed gives them a realistic path to the Final Four without having to play a No. 1 seed until the Elite Eight.

The 80-72 final over Michigan was not particularly close after halftime. Purdue's frontcourt controlled the boards in the second half, and the Boilermakers held Michigan to 38% shooting over the final 20 minutes. That kind of defensive execution in a conference title game tends to get committee attention when the seeding discussions happen.

How the First Four works and why it matters

The First Four consists of four games played on Tuesday and Wednesday in Dayton at UD Arena. Two games feature the last four at-large teams selected for the field, and two feature the lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers from smaller conferences. Winners of all four games advance to the main 64-team bracket and play their first-round games Thursday or Friday.

The First Four was introduced in 2011 when the field expanded from 65 to 68 teams. Dayton has hosted all editions of the event since then, making UD Arena one of the more reliably electric early-week tournament venues. Teams that win First Four games and then pull off first-round upsets are a consistent feature of the tournament, and at least one First Four winner has reached the Sweet 16 in six of the last ten tournaments.

The full four regions and top seeds

The four regions this year are the East, West, South, and Midwest. Duke holds the East's No. 1 seed. Purdue is the No. 2 seed in the West, slotted behind that region's No. 1. The South and Midwest regions each have their own No. 1 seeds, with those matchups and paths to the Final Four in San Antonio unfolding over the next three weeks. The national semifinals and championship game are scheduled for April 4 and April 6 at the Alamodome.

The selection committee's full bracket, released Sunday evening, drew the typical mix of consensus agreement and debate. A few bubble teams that finished the season on strong runs ended up as No. 11 seeds in the First Four rather than receiving at-large bids directly into the main bracket. Those placement decisions tend to generate the most bracket-room argument in the days before the tournament tips.

TV schedule and where to watch

Tuesday's First Four games air on TruTV. Wednesday's First Four games are split between TBS and TruTV. The main bracket begins Thursday morning on CBS, with games running concurrently across CBS, TBS, TNT, and TruTV through Sunday's second-round completion. All games are also available to stream through the NCAA March Madness Live app and Max, which carries the TBS and TNT feeds.

The Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games run March 26 through March 29, with the Final Four set for April 4 in San Antonio. Duke's first-round opponent and tip time will be confirmed after Tuesday's First Four results determine the final bracket positions for all teams currently in play-in games.