Update Sunday, March 17th, 2024: I’ve put the entire first round (32 games) and the First Four games (4 games) into the calendar.
Here is the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament calendar, in ics (iCal) form. It’s as up-to-the-minute as I can make it and I’ll keep updating it as games are played. Game times are correct for your time zone– none of that “All Times Eastern” stuff. The scores will be added as the tournament progresses.
Bonus: if you subscribe to the calendar this year, next year you won’t have to do a thing. The games will magically appear in your calendar next March. I’ve been doing this since 2019’s tournament and I plan to keep doing it every year.
I do a calendar for the Women’s NCAA March Madness Basketball Tournament also.
Getting the calendar is easy: all you have to do is click this link (from a Mac, an iPhone, or an iPad). When you do that, you’ll probably be asked whether it’s OK for Calendar to open the link. The answer is YES. When adding the calendar to your Mac you’ll get a box like this:
Then you’ll get a box like this:
If you subscribe on the Mac and you add the calendar to your iCloud account it will show up on your iPhone automatically.
If you are subscribing using your iPhone you’ll see screens like these two. Notice I saved the calendar to my iCloud account here too.
Here’s the calendar on the iPhone. The games all have a little basketball icon so you can spot them quickly. To get the calendar, tap the link and when asked about subscribing to the calendar “March Madness,” click “Subscribe.”
Here’s a version that works with Google Calendar
Just right-click this link and copy it, go to Google Calendar (that is, use a web browser to go to calendar.google.com), and click the “+” to add a calendar. Choose the option to “Add from URL.” Paste in what you copied and you’re done. Once added via a web browser you should see the calendar (in a few minutes) as an option in your Google Calendar. In the Google Calendar iPhone app, go to Settings (the three horizontal lines at top left), then “Show more” (below “Events” and “Reminders”). Check the box for March Madness and you’re all set.)
(The calendar can easily be turned off by unchecking it in the Calendar app on the iPhone, Mac, and iPad. Same thing in Google Calendar.)
The official March Madness app (for iPhone and iPad) has a lot of great features (best one: you can watch the games on your iPhone) but it doesn’t integrate with the Calendar app on your iPhone, Mac, or iPad. That’s where my calendar comes in: it shows up in the Calendar app. I couldn’t find such a calendar online so I made it myself. If you like it, tell a friend. to the best of my knowledge, this is the only calendar of its kind available on the web. Shocking but true.
I make a similar calendar for the College Football Bowl Games every year. Subscribe to that one and get the schedules, year after year. I do listen to feedback so please let me know (via the comments) if you have a suggestion or correction. I’d really appreciate it.
The complete list of my calendars is available here.
Women’s tournament link here.
Did this article help you?
Maybe you'd like to contribute to theChristian Boyce coffee fund.
Want some some quick iPhone how-tos?
Visit me at iPhoneinaminute.com.
Looking for quick tips about Macs?
See my One-Minute Macman website!
Thank you for creating this!
You’re welcome!
Awesome! Added to my desktop and phone. Feedback – “Yes, sir, may I have some more!” – Matt
Thanks for that, Matt! I appreciate the comments. Tell a friend! Every “share” helps.
Big day today: 16 games to monitor and update.
Bitchin!
Straight to the point! 😃
Love this! Are you doing one for 2020?
Yes I will do it as soon as the info is made available.
Great work on the 2021 March Madness ICS calendar. Love how all games are in a heads-up view on my phone calendar.
Thanks Gordzilla8it! Tomorrow starts the updating with scores and who advances, etc. Friday and Saturday are the busiest with 32 games total.
This is awesome!!
2022 Coming? 😀 I really hope so!
Yes! As soon as I get the information (this Sunday).
I keep getting an error saying that it is an invalid URL when trying to add it to my Google Calendar. I also tried to Subscribe using the link on my iPhone and I get an error saying “Validation failed. Please edit the URL and try again.”
Sorry, I did make a mistake. This is the right link.
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/phldtfasr6hkvlqtspfsnhqkg0%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics
Works for me! Try it.
Great work once again! Thank You!!!
Hey Christian! This is awesome and exactly what I’ve been looking for! It seems that there is an issue with the ical link provided. The error reads: “There was an error subscribing to the calendar. There was an unexpected error with the request on subscribed calendars (error -1).”
Interesting. iCal calendars on iCloud can be an issue.
If you’re using a Mac or iPhone and the Apple Calendar app, use this link:
webcal://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/phldtfasr6hkvlqtspfsnhqkg0%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics
Here’s the google calendar link– use this one if you’re adding it to Google Calendar.
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/phldtfasr6hkvlqtspfsnhqkg0%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics
I’ve tried subscribing to the March Madness calendar on both my iPhone and iPad, but I just get a validation failed message on both and was asked to edit the URL and try again.
(Responding to an older comment here)
the problem has been fixed.
The iCal link still says validation failed when trying to subscribe?
I had to switch to a Google calendar– iCloud would not work. Use this–
webcal://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/phldtfasr6hkvlqtspfsnhqkg0%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics
As far as I can tell, it works! Let me know.
Thank you for adding this! Will you be creating one for the women as well? Former women’s basketball player. Would love to have the schedule on my phone as well.
Thank you!
What a great idea. Seems as if SOMEONE should do it… maybe me. At the moment I don’t see a complete listing of games and times and TV anywhere. If YOU find it, send it to me, and I’ll see what I can do.
Done! Here’s the link.
Just checked and my calendar is already updated from my subscription years ago. THANK YOU again! Cheers!
Fantastic. Welcome back.
Thanks for doing this each year, Christian! You make my favorite time of year easy to keep track of! I love March Madness!
Thanks so much for making this and sharing it!
Thanks very much for doing this and sharing it with us!
Thanks for your efforts.
Thanks for making this. Just an FYI, the link on this page (not the woman’s) that says “all you have to do is click ” appears to be pointing to the woman’s calendar now.
Any chance you would consider adding the “TBD” schedule as listed here? I’d love to reserve the times the games will be played, despite not knowing the specific teams.
I’m always looking for information about the games but I have had a hard time getting info more than one round in the future. We know everything about the Sweet 16 (but note: even though we knew 8 of the sixteen participants by Saturday night we had to wait until almost all of the Sunday games were complete before getting any game times on any of the sites I’ve been looking at), but we don’t have anything other than the days of the Elite 8. I do have the Final now and the first semi-final’s time is also set. I guessed at the second semi-final and will make it right when I get the info. If you have a source for the Elite 8 game times send that to me– I can use the help!
I meant to include a link to the schedule: https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2023-03-19/2023-march-madness-mens-ncaa-tournament-schedule-dates-times
Thanks Brian B. It’s fixed now. Appreciate the heads-up.
Glad I could help. And thanks for adding the “TBDs”!
Do you have a google link for the women, Message says can’t add at this time.
Hi Jim. I just now put up the First Four games. The link is the same as last year. You should not have to add it again. Just refresh and see the games come in. Let me know how it goes.
Got it, I found the other web page for the women’s. Thanks again.
Super. If you can point me to the bad link I will see about fixing it.
Did indeed appear just like magic! 😉 Here we go!
Fantastic. Nice to see something working right!
Do you have a link for the women’s tournament for google calendar, the link above for the women’s does not work for google. Thanks, your ability to provide these types of events is fantastic.
This is pretty cool! Just what I was looking for! Thanks!
Glad you like it! Tell a friend. Can you believe that this isn’t available anywhere else? If it was, I wouldn’t have to do it myself.