We are a little over a month away from the Men’s and Women’s NCAA March Madness tournament, so now is the time to start prepping “The Big Dance.”

Last year, the men’s championship game peaked at 21.1 million viewers, the biggest championship audience since 2019. During the first two rounds, the NCAA men’s tournament averaged 9.4 million viewers per game, the highest average audience through the round of 32 since 1993, according to Nielsen ratings.

The women’s championship peaked at 9.9 million viewers, the third largest audience since 1996. Overall, the women’s 2025 tournament was the second-most-viewed on record.

That’s a lot of fans watching a lot of games. Both dedicated sports bar and the casual venues can stand to win big with the tournament. In this blog, we’ll go over a handful of ideas to make March Madness a slam dunk for your business.

Key March Madness Dates

NCAA March Madness basketball tournament

Mark these on your calendar for the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament

  • Selection Sunday: Sunday, March 15
  • First Four: March 17-18
  • First Round: March 19-20
  • Second Sound: March 21-22
  • Sweet 16: March 26-27
  • Elite Eight: March 28-29
  • Final Four: April 4
  • NCAA Championship: April 6

Key dates for the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament

  • Selection Sunday: Sunday, March 15
  • First Four: March 18-19
  • First round: March 20-21
  • Second round: March 22-23
  • Sweet 16: March 27-28
  • Elite Eight: March 29-30
  • Final Four: April 3
  • NCAA Championship: April 5

For a full, updated schedule and station info on this year’s March Madness tournament and every other sporting event on TV, check your SportsTV Guide/FANZO guide. If you’re not a subscriber, now’s a great time to start your free trial.

Team Up with an Alumni Group

NCAA college basketball fans watching the game

Having a team of regulars is a great way to build predictable business, especially with events like March Madness. One way of doing that is reaching out and partnering up with alumni groups and college sports fan clubs, especially if their team is likely to make the tournament.

The upside with alumni groups is that if you get them on board, you can more easily predict a bottom figure of how many guests you’ll have in for the games. The downside is their interest may dwindle if/when their team gets knocked out of the tournament. But that’s a risk one way or another.

Partnering up with local alumni fan clubs can be a nice short-term boost to your business as well as bring some exciting energy to your tables.

Build Hype Before the Tournament

College basketball game. One player about to dunk on the other.

While you’ll definitely have the yearly March Madness diehards, the more casual fans might need a little prompting to get stoked for the tournament. Use the weeks leading up to Selection Sunday and the first round to get your guests and fans in the area excited about the games.

You can build hype in a few ways:

  • Show NCAA men’s and women’s basketball games, including conference tourneys, leading up to the tournament on your screens.
  • Run regular social media posts about games and specials you’ll be offering during March Madness.
  • Email your guests about how you’re celebrating.
  • Put up posters, flyers and table tents letting folks know about the tournament.
  • Slowly decorate for March Madness over the course of a few weeks.
  • Hang up a March Madness flag outside your venue.

Don’t Skip Selection Sunday

Selection Sunday is when the NCAA announces the 68 teams vying for the championship. It includes 31 automatic bids and 37 at-large teams. Most of those at-large are on the bubble of making the tournament and won’t know if they’ve made the tournament until the bracket is officially announced.

It makes for a dramatic reveal that bars and restaurants can capitalize on. Make it the main event for your TVs and market it like any other big game.

You can spice up Selection Sunday with some games to get guests and fans more invested in the outcomes. Some ideas:

  • Pick the 68. Have guests guess what the 68 team field will look like. Every correct team nets them a point. Have them choose four #1 seeds as tie-breakers.
  • Selection Sunday Bingo. Hand out bingo cards with schools’ names on them and play it like regular bingo. As a school is announced, guests can mark off their card. First person to get bingo wins.

This is also a good opportunity to promote your March Madness offerings to guests, be it menu special, bracket competitions, etc.

If you do any sort of tournament-long promotions (like “chicken wing cards”), consider giving Selection Sunday guests a head start for their dedication.

Run a Bracket Competition

March Madness basketball bracket

Brackets are half the fun of March Madness. Even the most casual of sports fans will often fill out a sheet to see if they can win a prize. This offers bars and restaurants an enticing marketing opportunity – run your own bracket competition.

You can do it the old fashion way by having folks fill out paper brackets and turning them in or you can host a bracket tournament online using a third-party service that does all the math for you.

While the men’s tournament tends to be the traditional bracket competition, don’t forget about the women’s tournament, too.

Spice it up by offering some sort of prize for individual round winners as well as the overall winner. This can be a cash prize, a tablet, autographed memorabilia, or even as simple as a long-term discount at your venue. Be sure you know the local laws if you run any sort of cash-prize.

Create a Tournament-Long Hook

Template design for a March Madness wing loyalty program

More than a third of consumers (34%) choose to go to a bar or restaurant that offers special deals for the games. So, at minimum, you’ll want to consider building some sort of game day special or menu for the games. This can also help during the weekday games during lunch.

Bar and restaurant operators may also want to consider building tournament-long specials or hooks that keep fans coming back every round. Interest in the tournament starts to dwindle as more and more schools get knocked out. But tournament-long hooks can combat that by giving fans a reason to keep returning to your seats even after their team gets eliminated.

For example: You could run a special wings deal for the tournament. Every time a guest comes in and orders wings, their card gets punched. The next time they visit, the price gets a little cheaper or the price stays the same but they get something extra special on their 5th visit, etc. It’s basically a short-term loyalty card. You can have fun and creative with your approach.

Don’t Overlook the Women’s Tournament

College women basketball players

The Men’s NCAA Basketball tournament tends to get the vast majority of attention but bar operators shouldn’t overlook the marketing potential of the women’s tournament.

According to a Nielsen study, 84% of sports fans are interested in watching women’s sports. And basketball is one of the more popular women’s sports.

Some easy benefits of showing the Women’s NCAA Basketball tournament:

  • Double the games for your TVs with just 50% overlap in scheduling
  • Casts a wider net to catch more fans, especially women’s sports fans
  • Shows that you’re more serious about March Madness than other bars in the area

So when building your March Madness plan for the year, see how the women’s tournament can fit in and be a strong feature to your offerings.

Check What are Other Bars are Doing

BBQ chicken wings on a plate

When in doubt, you can always check to see what your competitors or the big-name sports bars are doing. This is especially true with successful franchises who have the resources to research what the market wants.

Some examples from the past few years:

  • Buffalo Wild Wings gave rewards members six free boneless wings if any men’s or women’s games went into overtime. The deal was valid for 30 days after the tournament ended.
  • Dave & Busters ran a $2 beers and $5 shots special during games; an all-you-can-eat wings paired with a $10 Power Card; plus a bracket competition.
  • Domino’s gave 50% off all menu-priced pizzas.
  • Apple Bee’s ran a $0.50 wing special while placing a to-go order on the chain’s app or website.
  • Houston TX Hot Chicken customers saved $5 when they spent $25 or more during the tournament.
  • The Budlong Southern Chicken gave customers 20% off orders of $35 or more in-store and online using a special discount code.
  • The Greene Turtle offered fans discounted beer buckets, tall Coors Light and Turtle IPA, seltzers and house margaritas. They also gave guests $5 Turtle Bucks for their next visit during the tournament
  • Yard House ran an “IPA Madness” event in 2025. Guests could buy a flight of four IPAs and choose a full pint of their favorite, all for just $15. The IPA that got the most orders was added to the core Yard House menu for a year.

As you can see, there’s a lot of room for building tournament hooks and specials that align with your brand.

🫡 Good Luck

March Madness is an exciting tournament for sports fans. But the nature of the tournament means it starts off red hot and cools off with each round as schools get knocked out and brackets get busted. So build a plan with that in mind and look for fun ways of keeping folks engaged for the entire tourney run.

Have fun and best of luck to your business this season.