March Madness 2025: Illinois men's and women's basketball ready for NCAA tournament debuts
University of Illinois basketball – both men's and women's teams – are getting ready for their 2025 NCAA Tournament debuts.
The first NCAA Tournament in 1939 consisted only of eight men's teams. Today, it's a 68-team bracket that includes multiple single-elimination rounds.
The Fighting Illini men's team, the No. 6 seed after a 21-12 season, will face either Texas or Xavier, who are playing each other in a First Four game on March 19. Illinois will play their first game at Fiserv Arena in Milwaukee on Friday, March 21.
The Illini are one of only three Big Ten teams who have earned a bid in each of the last five tournaments; it would have been sixth, but the 2020 NCAA tournament was canceled due to COVID-19.
This is also the fifth consecutive bid under head coach Brad Underwood.
Join the 2025 NCAA Bracket Challenge
Every game of the men's tournament will be aired on television, here on CBS as well as on TNT, TBS and TruTV. See a full broadcast listing of men's tournament game times and stations by clicking here.
Illinois women, who nabbed the No. 8 seed, will play Creighton in their first game at 6:15 p.m. Saturday, March 22 at Moody Center in Austin, Texas. This is only the 10th time the team has neared a berth in the NCAA tournament, and their first appearance in the first round since 2003.
They enter the tournament with a 21-9 record, tying a program record with their 21 regular season wins, according to the university.
A year ago, the women's NCAA championship game drew a bigger television audience than the men's title game for the first time, with an average of 18.9 million viewers watching undefeated South Carolina beat Iowa and superstar Caitlin Clark. Some wondered if fans would step away last season's stars went to the WNBA, but instead, the women's game has featured a compelling bunch of stars all over again, from Paige Bueckers at UConn to JuJu Watkins at USC, Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame and Madison Booker of Texas.
Women's games will air primarily on ESPN channels. Click here for a full broadcast schedule.
Why is it called March Madness?
The term "March Madness" was first used by Henry V. Porter, a high school official in Illinois, in 1939. But the term wasn't officially used in reference to college basketball until 1982, when CBS broadcaster Brent Musburger used it during that year's coverage.
Most of the tournament rounds have adopted their own names as well. There's the First Four, Sweet 16, the Elite Eight, and of course, the Final Four.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
