Where To Watch March Madness 2024 In Arlington Heights

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL —Madness is about to descend on Arlington Heights.

The NCAA’s 2024 March Madness gets underway this weekend with Selection Sunday, where the men's 68-team bracket will be unveiled at 5 p.m. Central, followed by the women's bracket at 7 p.m. The selection will air on ESPN.

Many sports bars in and around Arlington Heights will likely have the annual spectacle on their TVs.

Here are some popular options:

• Sports Page Bar & Grill Arlington Heights, 1330 E. Rand Road, Arlington Heights (family-run sports bar with more than 30 TVs)
• Bird's Nest, 11 W. Davis St., Arlington Heights (Chicago staple recently opened in Northwest suburbs)
• Gatsby's Pizza & Pub, 427 E. Rand Road, Arlington Heights (with over 80 TVs, delicious food and daily specials)
• Peggy Kinnane's Irish Restaurant and Pub, 8 N. Vail Ave., Arlington Heights (authentic Irish pub)
• Cortland's Garage Arlington Heights, 1 N. Vail Ave., Arlington Heights (neighborhood sports bar serving high-end food)
• Buddy's Bites & Brews, 702 N River Road, Mount Prospect ("Home of the Jumbo Slider")
• Union Ale House Pub, 1211 S Wolf Road, Prospect Heights (family-owned pub and eatery offering craft beers)

Here is the schedule for this year’s March Madness rounds.

• First Four: March 19-20
• First round: March 21-22
• Second round: March 23-24
• Sweet 16: March 28-29
• Elite Eight: March 30-31
• Final Four: Saturday, April 6 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
• NCAA championship game: Monday, April 8 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

This year, oddsmakers put the best odds to make the championship on No. 2 UConn, No. 1 Houston and No. 3 Purdue, with No. 6 Arizona and No. 5 Tennessee tied for the fourth best odds.

The Huskies were the favorites to take home the men’s national championship as of Wednesday, March 13, with a roughly 16 percent chance, according to the odds-aggregating website Oddschecker.com.

The Houston Cougars were given the second-highest chance to win the title at 13 percent, followed by about 12 percent for the Boilermakers and about 7 percent each for the Wildcats and Volunteers.

From Illinois, teams that hope to dance in March include Illinois, DePaul, Loyola and Northwestern.

For the uninitiated - stars to watch on the men’s side this year include Boilermaker Zach Edey, the favorite to win the 2024 Wooden Award, Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht, North Carolina’s RJ Davis and Kansas’ Hunter Dickinson.

In the women’s bracket, Fanduel gives the best odds to win the championship this year to No. 1 South Carolina (32-0). Those oddsmakers gave the Gamecocks a roughly 53 percent chance to take home the title.

All eyes this year will be on the NCAA’s newly minted scoring record-holder, Caitlin Clark, and the No. 2 Iowa Hawkeyes (29-4). Oddsmakers gave both the Hawkeyes and No. 8 LSU (28-5) — with fellow superstar Angel Reese — the second-best odds to win it all at 14 percent. The No. 4 Stanford Cardinal team has the fourth-best odds at roughly 5 percent.