Division III basketball games are generally free and easy to watch but that always seems to change once we reach the final weekend of the tournament.
The viewer experience in the earlier rounds of the tournament was as good as ever with the introduction of the NCAA Championships Pass making it easy to find and switch between games on the web or through a streaming device hooked up to a television. But, as usual, the viewing options change for the final Championship rounds.
Fortunately, the broadcast of Division III men’s and women’s semifinals and championship games will no longer be subject to programming decisions and television plan availability of CBS Sports Network. Unfortunately, the games do move into a required streaming subscription starting this season. As part of the NCAA’s new eight-year media rights deal with ESPN, Division III men’s and women’s basketball championships make the move to ESPN platforms, namely ESPN+.
While it would be nice to be able to flip on the TV and see these games on an easy to access channel that you already have access to it really didn’t work out that way previously. We often heard from fans trying to figure out where the game was and scrambling to see if CBS Sports Network was part of their cable or satellite package. More often than not it wasn’t without an additional sports package add-on and even then the games were not always broadcast live.
Now it is more cut and dried. Games will air live on ESPN+ and access is just a matter of whether or not you’re a subscriber. The good news is it is hardly an obscure streaming service and one many people already may have access to, whether directly or as part of a bundle with Hulu or Disney. Even if not, a month of ESPN+ is just a few bucks per game if all you wanted to get out of it was to watch the final games of this D3 basketball season. Just be sure to confirm or secure access ahead of time instead of having to work through that as the games are tipping off on Thursday.
Hopefully the ESPN+ platform makes it easy to find the games as soon as a user logs in but here is the full schedule for the weekend with direct links for each game.
Men’s Semifinals – Thursday March 20, 2025
Trinity (CT) vs. Wesleyan – 5:30 PM ET (ESPN+)
WashU vs. NYU – 8:00 PM ET (ESPN+)
Men’s Championship Game – Saturday March 22
Semifinal 1 winner vs. Semifinal 2 winner – 4:00 PM ET (ESPN+)
Women’s Semifinals – Thursday March 20, 2025
UW-Stout vs. NYU – 5:00 PM ET (ESPN+)
UW-Oshkosh vs. Smith – 7:30 PM ET (ESPN+)
Women’s Championship Game – Saturday March 22
Semifinal 1 winner vs. Semifinal 2 winner – 4:00 PM ET (ESPN+)
Fans able to attend in person can get tickets in advance. Tickets for the Men’s Basketball Championship in Fort Wayne, IN are available through Ticketmaster. Online ticket sales for the Women’s Basketball Championship in Salem, VA are available through Hometown Ticketing.
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