The Athletic provides live updates for the 2026 Men’s March Madness opening round.
“ABSOLUTELY AWESOME, BABY!”
“Simply dreadful.”
Tonight, college basketball’s iconic commentator teams up with the NBA’s legendary voice to broadcast a relatively minor March Madness game. This pairing injects the NCAA Tournament’s First Four with a surge of celebrity appeal, making it a must-watch event irrespective of the teams playing.
Dick Vitale and Charles Barkley, two unparalleled and celebrated sports broadcasting personalities, are set to collaborate for the latter part of Tuesday’s “First Four” doubleheader. This game features bubble teams Texas and NC State, both 11-seeds, vying for a spot in Thursday’s West region first-round contest against 6-seed BYU.
The highly anticipated Vitale-Barkley broadcast is slated to begin at 9:15 p.m. ET, live from Dayton, Ohio, on truTV (details to follow). Brian Anderson, the play-by-play announcer, faces the unique task of navigating the dynamic duo, while Jenny Dell will report from the sidelines.
This event is a special delight for enthusiasts, breathing life into a segment of the NCAA Tournament often overlooked or met with disdain by many. While First Four outcomes can’t typically be factored into initial bracket selections, a strong performance might prompt last-minute adjustments before Thursday’s noon ET bracket submission deadline. (A word of caution: First Four victors frequently fall in their subsequent match!)
Witnessing Vitale and Barkley broadcast side-by-side is akin to an unprecedented pop culture crossover: Superman meeting Spider-Man on screen, Picasso and Monet collaborating on a masterpiece, or a “Wire/Sopranos” joint venture—the ultimate fan fantasy made real. This dream scenario materialized when ESPN secured licensing rights to Turner Sports’ “Inside the NBA,” thus integrating Barkley into the ESPN Cinematic Universe.
While the network trialed the duo during an Indiana-Kentucky game on ESPN in December, the true target date for their joint broadcast was always mid-March. Astonishingly, this marks Vitale’s inaugural NCAA Tournament game commentary for a U.S. television audience. (Commendations to ESPN, CBS, and Turner for their cooperation in making this possible.)
Anticipate unparalleled positivity, strong camaraderie, and explosive energy (except, perhaps, when Barkley, an Auburn basketball icon, laments his Tigers’ exclusion from the tournament in favor of teams like SMU, playing in Wednesday’s First Four). The fact that major programs like Texas and NC State are involved only adds to the appeal.
The First Four presents an intriguing example of product modification: introducing additional at-large teams, scheduling several unsolicited early-week games, and disrupting the otherwise immaculate structure of the classic bracket. Its dynamic has always been peculiar: half of the teams are eliminated before the main tournament officially begins on Thursday, and numerous college basketball purists still appear to disapprove of the concept entirely.
Established in 2011, the First Four introduced additional berths for the most marginal bubble teams—pitting the “last four in” against each other for a first-round spot—along with extra 16-seeds, compelled to compete in an elimination game that can send a conference champion packing before the excitement truly begins. (Notably, in 2001, the NCAA had already added a single 16-versus-16 expansion game featuring the two lowest-ranked automatic qualifiers.)
A decade and a half later, the First Four’s performance has yielded varied results, both in terms of on-court competition and its ability to attract television viewership.
During its debut year in 2011, 11-seed VCU remarkably surged from the First Four all the way to the Final Four, much to the displeasure of fans and analysts who opposed tournament expansion. Similarly, in 2021, 11-seed UCLA utilized the First Four as a launchpad for its own journey to the Final Four. While three other First Four teams have reached the Sweet 16 (LaSalle in 2013, Tennessee in 2014, Syracuse in 2018), most First Four victors, upon entering the “main” bracket, are eliminated in their subsequent game.
(A special acknowledgment goes to Fairleigh Dickinson in 2023, who not only triumphed in their 16-versus-16 First Four game but then stunningly ousted 1-seed Purdue just two days afterward.)
Television viewership has been modest, attributable partly to fans not perceiving these games as “official” tournament play, and partly because CBS and Turner Sports consistently broadcast them on truTV, a cable channel sports aficionados typically seek out only once annually. (The recurring March joke about Googling “how to locate TruTV” remains perennially amusing.)
Nevertheless, the First Four experienced a television viewership surge last year, recording its highest ratings to date. Tuesday night’s feature game between UNC—a premier program usually advancing deep into the tournament, not typically in the First Four—drew a record 2.2 million viewers for a single game. The following evening, Texas’s thrilling victory over Xavier established a new record with 2.4 million viewers. The clear takeaway: showcasing major athletic brands in the First Four guarantees audience engagement. (Additionally, I anticipate curious viewers will tune in Wednesday to observe the buzz surrounding the controversial 31-1 Miami (Ohio) team as it faces the questionably included SMU, both focal points of significant Auburn fan frustration.)
This underlying tension escalates as the NCAA contemplates further tournament expansion by four or eight teams within the coming year or two. The cherished 64-team structure, commencing on Thursday after Selection Sunday, will endure unchanged. However, the First Four could potentially swell into a First Eight or First 12 (creative moniker suggestions encouraged… perhaps “The ‘Ugh’ Eight?” or “The Purists’ Painful Dozen?”), signifying that these somewhat clunky early-week contests are here to stay.
Therefore, there’s even more incentive to revel in this “Dickie V” and “Sir Charles” collaboration. Watching the broadcast promises entertainment, regardless of the basketball action’s minimal impact on your bracket predictions.