National championship game | |||||||||||||
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Date | April 5, 2021 | ||||||||||||
Venue | Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, Indiana | ||||||||||||
MVP | Jared Butler, Baylor | ||||||||||||
Favorite | Gonzaga by 4.5[1] | ||||||||||||
Referees | Randy McCall, Bo Boroski, Keith Kimble | ||||||||||||
National anthem | Greater Indianapolis area front line workers and first responders | ||||||||||||
United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||
Network | CBS | ||||||||||||
Announcers | Jim Nantz, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill and Tracy Wolfson | ||||||||||||
Nielsen Ratings | 9.39 (16.9 million viewers) | ||||||||||||
The 2021 NCAA Division I men's basketball championship game was the final game of the 2021 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.
The Baylor Bears were crowned as the national champion for the 2020–21 season after beating the then-undefeated Gonzaga Bulldogs, 86–70. The game was played on April 5, 2021, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.[2]
Gonzaga was the first team to enter the national championship game undefeated since Indiana State in 1979.[3] Baylor became the second consecutive first-time NCAA champions following Virginia in 2019 (no tournament was held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic).