Let the madness begin.
March roars in like a lion and roars out like one, too when it comes to college basketball. The 2025 Men’s Basketball Tournament is one of the most exciting multi-day sports events in the world. In one weekend, for example, it goes from 64 teams to 16 and the often wild results and hard-to-fathom upsets make it maddening to millions who fill out brackets. That’s why it’s called March Madness and it all starts on Thursday, March 20, March 18 if you count the feed-in games.
In San Diego, alumni of teams in the tournament and others who have filled out brackets roll into sports bars to cheer for their teams in order to experience the thrills of victories and agonies of defeats in the presence of fellow fans. Locally, San Diego State – which made the championship game just two seasons ago – and UC San Diego could be in the tournament and might prove to be dangerous to unspecting teams. If so, that could heat up the intensity – and party scene – at the bars.
Here’s a rundown of bars to watch the games along with their beer and food specials.
March Madness 2025 Dates
- Selection Sunday: Sunday, March 16, 3 p.m (CBS)
- 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 5 , Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas
- NCAA championship game: April 7
Gaslamp Quarter March Madness Bars
One of the most lively places in all of San Diego for March Madness will be The Smoking Gun, now the official home of San Diego Bama Fans in partnership with University of Alabama Alumni. If the Tide, which made its first-ever Final Four last year, repeats the feat and even gets to the championship game then it will be smokin’ fun at The Smoking Gun. For games, there are Happy Hour beers ($6) plus “Bama” food and drink specials for arond 10 bucks.
If you don’t have a team and want to tear up your brackets with others, then barleymash is the place to be in the Gaslamp Quarter. It will have all the games on its many TVs. It also has a barleymash’s free bracket challenge and opens for the early-round games at 9 a.m.
Hasta Mañana Cantina also has a March Madness bracket challenge; e-mail your brackets to keith@hastamananacantina.com on Selection Sunday for the chance to win a $300, $200, or $100 gift card. Its Cocktail of the Month is called, appropriately, the Slam Dunk, with Cincoro Blanco, grapefruit, lime, lemon, and agave. A feel-good bonus is that $1 from each cocktail will benefit Corazon De Vida’s Phillip Alonzo Collum Scholarship Fund.
Pacific Beach March Madness Bars
Duck Dive has gametime specials: $10 fried pickles, $12 duckin’ onions, $12 shot and beer, $15 cheesy garlic parmesan fries, and $20 carne asada fries. Duck Dive will also be offering a $35 Slam Dunk Platter consisting of fried pickles, chicken wings, calamari, garlic parmesan duck fat fries and dipping sauces, along with $35 High Noon buckets of five seltzers.
A couple blocks away, Hideaway has several drink specials, among them 32-ounce drafts for $12.25 and $13.50, buckets of six beers for $40, a $22-ounce margarita for $12.25 and $17 for a “Rowdy Rider” which is not a play on a March Madness team mascot but an Easy Rider draft with a shot.
San Diego March Madness Breweriese
Karl Strauss Brewing Company is offering a $12 glass-and-fill promotion of any Karl Strauss icon beer (8% ABV and under) in a special 20-oz Follow the Sun mug from Sunday, March 16 – Monday, April 7. Beers are: Follow the Sun Lager, Red Trolley Ale, Boat Shoes Hazy IPA, Aurora Hoppyalis IPA, Tower X West Coast IPA, Mosaic IPA, or Windansea Wheat in the take-home glass that honors Karl Strauss’ newest core beer. Same-day refills are $8.
Carlsbad Village March Madness Bars
PRK 101 has an enormous LED Jumbotron with $5 Michelob Ultras and BBQ inspired plates and shareables. On March 21st it’s hosting a Pop-A-Shot tournament starting at 6 p.m,. with “Mini Hoops Mania” with a chance to advance towards the Pop-A-Shot national championship in the fall.
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