Fans Upset After Duke-Alabama Elite Eight Tipoff Time Announced

No. 1 seed Duke and No. 2 seed Alabama both scored at least 100 points in their respective wins over No. 4 Arizona and No. 6 BYU in the Sweet 16 on Thursday night.

The next stop for the two explosive squads in this year’s NCAA Tournament is the Elite Eight, where the Blue Devils will face the Crimson Tide on Saturday in the East regional final in Newark.

With Naismith Trophy finalists Cooper Flagg and Mark Sears both coming off historic individual performances, the Duke-Alabama game has all the elements of a must-watch primetime matchup.

CBS agrees, as the network announced that the ACC-SEC showdown would tip off at 8:49 p.m. ET on Saturday night. The other Elite Eight matchup, featuring No. 3 Texas Tech and No. 1 Florida in San Francisco, was given the earlier 6:09 p.m. ET tipoff slot.

Duke Blue Devils forward Cooper Flagg (2) reacts after during an East Regional semifinal in the 2025 NCAA TournamentVincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

It makes two late games in a row for Duke faithful, who were among the legion of college hoops fans on social media left upset by the decision.

“Another late night on Saturday,” lamented an ACC journalist.

“Late game again,” said another disappointed fan.

Many responses agreed that the most bewildering part about the decision was how it failed to factor in the local time zones the games were being played in.

The Florida-Texas Tech game in San Francisco will tip off just past 3 p.m. local time on Saturday. If the time slots had been flipped, both games could have started around 6 p.m. local time.

“yes obviously you’d put the west coast game earlier and the east coast game later,” said one sarcastic response on X.

“Absolutely wild that the game in San Francisco starts first, before the game in Newark,” replied a user. “Makes zero sense.”

Television ratings were certainly a factor in CBS’ decision, with the later tipoff time typically reserved for the teams that draw the best ratings. All three of the Blue Devils’ NCAA Tournament games so far have also been aired on wider-reaching CBS, as opposed to TBS, TNT or TruTV.

ESPN’s end-of-season numbers showed that nine of the top 10 most-viewed games of the regular season on the network involved either Duke or Alabama. None of them included Florida or Texas Tech.

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Fans Upset After Duke-Alabama Elite Eight Tipoff Time Announced

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