How to Stream Every March Madness Game for Free

The NCAA Tournament is 67 games over the course of three weeks, almost an entire NBA season of games condensed into less than a month. March Madness is (in my opinion) the single most entertaining tournament in the entire world of sports.

But man, it’s low-key stressful to keep up with all the games. You never know when the next Laettner-level shot will happen, and there’s so many things that can go wrong—eternal buffering wheels, getting kicked out of the streaming service you share with seven other people, suddenly realizing you have no idea what truTV is.

The easiest way to watch the tournament is through the NCAA March Madness app, but since almost everybody knows that, the app will surely get overloaded.

The most annoying part is that the app tends to crap out during the end of exciting games. Also, keep in mind that you’ll need to sign in with your TV provider to access the app in the first place.

Okay, so here’s our goal: Legally watch the entire March Madness tournament for free, armed with a plan B in case a streaming app gets overloaded.

Here’s my proposal: Hop from one streaming free trial to the next over the course of four weeks.

It’s bold, it will take discipline, but we can get through the entire tournament without spending a dime and getting the best streaming experience possible. With our free trial streaming login, we’ll have access to the NCAA March Madness app, but we’ll also have the stand-alone streaming app as a backup plan if you can’t get a reliable stream.

Okay, let’s break down the schedule.

Let's break this March Madness free trial down into weeks and rounds. 

Channels we’ll need: CBS, TruTV, TNT, TBS

Free trial recommendation: DIRECTV Stream 5-day trial

As we all know, the first couple days of March Madness are absolutely, well, insane. We’ve got 16 games on March 14, and then another 16 games on March 15, and all of them are a big deal.

Let’s start with the 5-day DIRECTV Stream free trial, which will cover us for the entire weekend of games. Rest assured, you’ll get all the essential channels, and you’ll be able to use the NCAA March Madness app with your free trial.

Check out our review of DIRECTV Stream if you want the full scoop, but since we’re trying to save a buck, make sure to cancel your subscription by Monday on March 20. Seriously, set a reminder in your phone to cancel the sub, or our metaphorical heist falls apart.

Now that we’re done with that wild weekend of games, it’s time to hop to another streaming service for all the regional games.

Channels we’ll need: CBS, TBD

Free trial recommendation: fuboTV 7-day trial

Now that we’re onto the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, it’s time to hop to another streaming option. Thank you for your contributions to our heist, DIRECTV Stream. For this next week of March Madness we recommend taking advantage of fuboTV’s 7-day free trial, which will give you all the channels you need for the upcoming games.

The NCAA tournament games for the week start on March 23 and end on March 26, so just make sure that your free trial window covers those dates. Once the games wrap up on March 26, feel free to cancel your free trial whenever it works for you. Just don’t forget to cancel or else you’ll automatically get charged $74.99 for another month of service.

Channels we’ll need: TBD

Free trial recommendation: YouTube TV

We’re reaching the pinnacle of our heist–watching the NCAA Final Four and National Championship games for free. Thanks for your service fuboTV, we had some good times, but now it’s over. Let’s sign up for the YouTube TV free trial.

The Final Four begins on April 1 and the tournament sadly comes to a close on April 3. Our free trial will have us covered for all the remaining games in the tournament. Almost teared up writing that last sentence.

Don’t forget to cancel your free trial after the final game and then our mission will be accomplished.

If you’ve ever seen Oceans 11, I’m picturing the end scene where the whole crew hangs out in front of the fountains in Las Vegas while Claire de Lune plays in the background. We did it, ya’ll–the entire March Madness tournament for free. See you next year where hopefully we all have new credit cards and new email addresses and can pull this off again.