From 1982 to 2015, CBS Sports obtained broadcast television rights to the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, replacing NBC which had been airing the game since 1969.

The March 16 doubleheader Maryland Eastern Shore vs. Manhattan and Purdue vs. North Carolina went up against the 1974 NCAA tournament on NBC.

CBS also signed Billy Packer away from NBC to be its top analyst (teaming with play-by-play announcer Gary Bender,[5] and later Brent Musburger and Jim Nantz).

During the 1982 NCAA tournament, CBS introduced 11:30 p.m. (Eastern Time Zone) games on Thursday and Friday nights for the first two weekends.

So Brown shifted to play-by-play (for the first time ever) and Washington State head coach George Raveling came out of the stands to serve as analyst for the remainder of the game.

This resulted in Neal Pilson, then president of CBS Sports, apologizing to Louisville school officials and later suspending Brookshier for the last weekend of the NFL regular season.

Brookshier later apologized, calling his remark "stupid" and "dumb," but was angered over CBS' reaction, saying "I'm not about to be judged on one comment."

"[6] The apology was accepted by the university, as its president, Donald Swain, invited Brookshier to be the featured speaker at the school's annual football kickoff luncheon in Clarksville, Indiana on August 2, 1984.

Also that year, Brent Musburger took over from Gary Bender in the top CBS play-by-play role (but worked in the studio on the first weekend).

Back on January 18, Nantz did play-by-play on his first college basketball game for CBS, a regional telecast between Arizona and Miami.

1987 would also prove to be the last time that CBS used its #1 announce team (in this case, Brent Musburger and Billy Packer) on two regional finals.

Although Musburger was fired on April Fools' Day (which fell on the Sunday of Final Four weekend that year), he still did play-by-play for the championship game.

65 seeds – is televised by ESPN, except for the first one, which was aired on then-CBS owned cable channel Paramount Network, and used CBS graphics and announcers).

McGuire wasn't sure he could handle four games on the first round, so CBS used Greg Kelser for the afternoon session in Milwaukee alongside Dick Stockton.

With the 1998 tournament, CBS started using the team of Jim Nantz and Billy Packer to call games the first weekend.

The previous several years, Nantz worked the studio on the first weekend (as was the case with his predecessor, Brent Musburger) while Packer called games with various partners.

1998 also marked first tournament appearance for Ian Eagle, who teamed with Jim Spanarkel in early round games in Sacramento.

In 2001, CBS assigned the team of Jim Nantz and Billy Packer to a Thursday/Saturday tournament regional for the first time ever.

Also in 2001, the NCAA expanded the tournament to 65 teams and created a Tuesday night "play-in" game on TNN (which was called by Tim Brando and Rick Pitino from Dayton).

[10] For 2004, CBS assigned Jim Nantz and Billy Packer to a Thursday through Saturday regional for the third time in four years.

That year, CBS sold access to March Madness On Demand for US$9.95, which provided games not otherwise shown on broadcast television.

[11] In 2005, the service charged US$19.95 for a subscription, but offered enhanced coverage of pregame and postgame interviews and press conference.

Most notably, WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina provided four separate feeds on its digital signal from 2000 to 2010 in order to show all of the games.

Upgrades at the CBS Broadcast Center allowed all feeds, flex and constant, to be presented in high definition for the 2008 tournament.

For 2008, CBS moved the Saturday regional final doubleheader to 6:30 p.m. 2008 also marked the last NCAA tournament in which Billy Packer would serve as a color commentator, a run that started in 1974 (he would be replaced by Clark Kellogg for 2009).

However, on January 17, 2015, halfway through the 2014–15 season, CBS announced Anthony would be suspended indefinitely following his arrest in Washington, D.C. the previous day on charges of soliciting prostitutes.

[22] Under a sub-licensing agreement with its new rightsholder Fox (following their breakaway from the football-playing members, now known as the American Athletic Conference), CBS acquired rights to selected Big East Conference games beginning 2013–14, mainly airing on CBS Sports Network (but with selected games airing on broadcast television).

[26] The 2022–23 season would mark the last for Jim Nantz, who would step down after 38 years between the studio and play-by-play to spend time with family (he will continue with his NFL and golf assignments).

The theme has also been used for tournament coverage on TBS, TNT and TruTV as part of its broadcast partnership with CBS.

At the end of CBS' coverage, a highlight reel featuring memorable moments from the tournament is shown, set to the song "One Shining Moment" originally written and performed by David Barrett (1987–1993 and 2000–2002), and subsequently covered by Teddy Pendergrass (1994–1999), Luther Vandross (2003–2009 and since 2011) and Jennifer Hudson (2010).