Frozen Four bracket 2025: NCAA DI men's hockey tournament TV schedule, key dates and more explored 

The Frozen Four bracket is officially here. College hockey teams will have their own tournament mirroring the NCAA basketball tournament, but it's appropriately named frozen because it's the ice hockey Final Four in essence. Here's everything you need to know about it.

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Key dates for Frozen Four

Thursday, March 27, is the first key date to know. That's when the NCAA men's hockey tournament begins. The regional section of the tournament begins then and ends on Sunday. After that, the semifinal round begins on April 10.

The Frozen Four is here (Imagn)

That will be a much shorter round, and it will be over quickly. The championship between the final two teams remaining will be on April 12, so the entire 16-team tournament lasts a little over two weeks.

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TV schedule

Here is the TV schedule for the NCAA D1 hockey tournament so far. Keep in mind that the matchups for round two and beyond have not been set and will not be scheduled and given a TV designation until they are.

• First round: March 27
• Boston U. vs. Ohio State at 2 pm ET (ESPNU)
• No. 4 Western Michigan vs. MSU-Mankato at 5 pm. ET (ESPNU)
• No. 2 Michigan State vs. Cornell at 5:30 pm ET (ESPN+)
• Minnesota vs. UMass at 8:30 p.m. ET (ESPN2)
• First round: March 28
• No. 1 Boston College vs. Bentley at 2 pm ET (ESPNU)
• UConn vs. Quinnipiac at 5 pm ET (ESPNU)
• Providence vs. Denver at 5:30 pm ET (ESPN+)
• No. 3 Maine vs. No. 4 Penn State at 8:30 pm ET (ESPN2)
• Second round on March 29 and 30
• Men’s Frozen Four semifinals on April 10
• Men’s Frozen Four national championship on April 12 (ESPN2)

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Teams involved in tournament

There are 16 college hockey teams in the NCAA tournament, and they're all competing for a chance to win a national title. Here are the 16 teams that've made it this far and will have a chance at glory:

• Boston College
• Bentley
• Providence
• Denver
• Western Michigan
• Minnesota State
• Minnesota
• Massachusetts
• Maine
• Penn State
• UConn
• Quinnipiac
• Michigan State
• Cornell
• Boston University
• Ohio State

Similar to March Madness, this is a bracket tournament that takes place with college teams in March and April. It's just a little bit smaller.

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Frozen Four format

The tournament is in standard, single-elimination bracket format. Each team has a first-round matchup. They're listed down one side of a bracket. When a team wins, it moves to the next matchup and faces the winner of the matchup directly below them.

This will continue for several rounds. 16 teams will become eight, eight will become four (a frozen quad of teams), and then four will become two. Those two will face off for the ultimate prize, a national title for their school.