A March Madness champion will be crowned Monday. No. 1 seeds Florida and Houston meet to cap an NCAA tournament dominated by the favorites.
The contest promises to be a close one. Not much separates the two teams. After a narrow comeback against Texas Tech, Florida surged past Auburn to punch their ticket to the national championship. Houston, meanwhile, pulled off a miraculous comeback against Duke to advance to the title game.
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Which team will come out on top? Viewers can look forward to finding out Monday. Here’s where you can watch the NCAA final — and get predictions and betting lines — as Florida and Houston battle it out.
- Streaming: Paramount+, DirecTV, Fubo
Florida vs. Houston will air on CBS. It can also be streamed via various services, including Paramount+, DirecTV and Fubo.
- Location: Alamodome, San Antonio, TX
The game will be played Monday at 8:50 p.m. ET. Florida and Houston will play in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, which is located in the Central time zone.
Monday’s game should be competitive. While Florida is favored to win, the margin is small. The Gators are only -1.5 favorites over the Cougars. Both teams enter the contest with a 35-4 record.
The national championship game features two evenly-matched teams. Still, Yahoo Sports’ Frank Schwab believes Kelvin Sampson’s Cougars have the toughness to get the job done.
Houston is one win from not having to worry about being disrespected again. Florida doesn’t really have a weakness either. The Gators are good on both ends, have size and great depth, have proven a few times in this NCAA tournament that they won’t be scared when they face a deficit late in a game and surely have played the type of schedule that prepared them for this moment. But in picking between two worthy teams, it’s not a bad angle to assume Houston will just find a way. Sampson’s Cougars have a toughness that’s pretty special.
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Despite making it to the NCAA championship in 1983 and 1984, Houston has never won it all. The Cougars lost to NC State, 54-52, in 1983, and then to Georgetown, 84-75, the following year. The Cougars made six March Madness appearances between 1987 and 2019 but never advanced past the Sweet 16.
That changed in 2021, when the team marched all the way to the Final Four. Houston has made the NCAA tournament every year since then. Despite being a No. 1 seed in both 2023 and 2024, the Cougars fell in the Sweet 16 in both years. They got over that hump in 2025 and are on the verge of their first NCAA championship.
Monday marks the fourth time the Gators have made it all the way to the NCAA title game. They failed to win it all in 2000, falling to Michigan State, 89-76. Florida didn’t take long to get back to the national championship game, though. The school made it back to the final in both 2006 and 2007 and came away with wins in both years. Florida defeated UCLA, 73-57, in 2006 and took down Ohio State, 84-75, in 2007.
The Gators have played in the NCAA tournament often since those championships, even reaching the Four Four in 2014. After missing out on the tournament in 2022 and 2023, Florida returned to March Madness in 2024, but lost in the first round. The Gators returned much stronger in 2025 and could take home their third NCAA championship Monday night.
