NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament


The NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, also known and branded as NCAA March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, to determine the national championship. The tournament was created in 1939 by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and was the idea of Ohio State coach Harold Olsen. Played mostly during March, it has become one of the most famous annual sporting events in the United States.
It has become extremely common in popular culture to predict the outcomes of each game, even among non-sports fans; it is estimated that tens of millions of Americans participate in a bracket pool contest every year. Mainstream media outlets such as ESPN, CBS Sports and Fox Sports host tournaments online where contestants can enter for free. Also, there are many sites that cater to corporate marketing and public relations to get in on the excitement such as BigTourney.com. Employers have also noticed a change in the behavior of employees during this time: they have seen an increase in the number of sick days used, extended lunch breaks and even the rescheduling of conference calls to allow for more tournament watching. There are also many handicappers and pundits which offer advice for winning their own bracket.
The tournament teams include champions from 32 Division I conferences, and 36 teams which are awarded at-large berths. These "at-large" teams are chosen by an NCAA selection committee, then announced in a nationally televised event on the Sunday preceding the "First Four" play-in games, currently held in Dayton, Ohio, and dubbed Selection Sunday. The 68 teams are divided into four regions and organized into a single-elimination "bracket", which pre-determines, when a team wins a game, which team it will face next. Each team is "seeded", or ranked, within its region from 1 to 16. After the First Four, the tournament occurs during the course of three weekends, at pre-selected neutral sites across the United States. Teams, seeded by rank, proceed through a single-game elimination bracket beginning with a "first four" consisting of 8 low-seeded teams playing in 4 games for a position in the first round the Tuesday and Wednesday before the first round begins, a first round consisting of 64 teams playing in 32 games over the course of a week, the "Sweet Sixteen" and "Elite Eight" rounds the next week and weekend, respectively, and – for the last weekend of the tournament – the "Final Four" round. The Final Four is usually played during the first weekend of April. These four teams, one from each region, compete in a preselected location for the national championship.
The tournament has been at least partially televised on network television since 1969. Currently, the games are broadcast by CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV under the trade-name NCAA March Madness.
These networks paid the NCAA to broadcast the games in 2011. The contract was for 14 years and they paid $10,800 million. However, in 2018 that contract was extended for another seven years making it valid through the year 2032. The average payment over the years comes out to be $891 million annually.
Since 2011, all games are available for viewing nationwide and internationally. As television coverage has grown, so too has the tournament's popularity. Currently, millions of Americans fill out a bracket, attempting to correctly predict the outcome of 63 games of the tournament.
With 11 national titles, UCLA has the record for the most NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships; John Wooden coached UCLA to 10 of its 11 titles. The University of Kentucky is second, with eight national titles. The University of North Carolina is third, with six national titles, and Duke University and Indiana University are tied for fourth with five national titles. The University of Connecticut is sixth with four national titles. The University of Kansas & Villanova University are tied for seventh with three national titles. The University of Cincinnati, the University of Florida, University of Louisville, Michigan State University, North Carolina State, Oklahoma State, and the University of San Francisco all have two national titles. The tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1988, and to 68 in 2011.
Both 2020 men's and women's tournaments were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Current tournament format

The NCAA has changed the tournament format several times since its inception, most often being an increase of the number of teams. This section describes the tournament as it has operated since 2011.

Qualifying

A total of 68 teams qualify for the tournament played during March and April. Thirty-two teams earn automatic bids as their respective conference champions. Of the 32 Division I "all-sports" conferences, all 32 currently hold championship tournaments to determine which team receives the automatic qualification. The Ivy League was the last Division I conference that did not conduct a tournament; through the 2015–16 season, it awarded its tournament berth to the regular-season champion. If two or more Ivies shared a regular-season championship, a one-game playoff was used to decide the tournament participant. Since 2017, the league conducts their own postseason tournament.
The remaining 36 tournament slots are granted to at-large bids, which are determined by the Selection Committee in a nationally televised event on the Sunday preceding the First Four play-in tournament and dubbed Selection Sunday by the media and fans, by a group primarily of conference commissioners and school athletic directors who are appointed into service by the NCAA. The committee also determines where all sixty-eight teams are seeded and placed in the bracket.

Regions

The tournament is divided into four regions and each region has at least sixteen teams, but four additional teams are added per the decision of the Selection Committee. The committee is charged with making each of the four regions as close as possible in overall quality of teams from wherever they come from.
The names of the regions vary from year to year, and are broadly geographic. From 1957 to 1984, the "Mideast", roughly corresponding to the Southeastern region of the United States, designation was used. From 1985 to 1997, the Mideast region was known as "Southeast" and again changed to "South" starting from 1998. The selected names roughly correspond to the location of the four cities hosting the regional finals. From 2004 to 2006, the regions were named after their host cities, e.g. the Phoenix Regional in 2004, the Chicago Regional in 2005, and the Minneapolis Regional in 2006, but reverted to the traditional geographic designations beginning in 2007. For example, during 2012, the regions were named South, East, Midwest, and West.

Seeding and bracket

The selection committee ranks the whole field of 68 teams from 1 to 68. The committee then divides the teams amongst the regions. The top four teams will be distributed among the four regions, and each will receive a No. 1 seed within that region. The next four ranked teams will then be distributed among the four regions, each receiving a No. 2 seed in their region, and the process continues down the line, with some exceptions. Carried to its logical conclusion, this would give each region seventeen teams—seeded from No. 1 to No. 17—but, each region has only sixteen teams. As can be seen below, the actual seeding depends on the rankings of the eight teams that the committee selects for the "First Four" opening round.
The selection committee is also instructed to place teams so that whenever possible, teams from the same conference cannot meet until the regional finals. Additionally, it is also instructed to avoid any possible rematches of regular-season or previous year's tournament games during the First and Second rounds. Further restrictions are listed in the [|Venues] section below. To comply with these other requirements, the selection committee may move one or several teams up or down one seed from their respective original seed line. Thus, for example, the 40th overall ranked team, originally slated to be a No. 10 seed within a particular region, may instead be moved up to a No. 9 seed or moved down to a No. 11 seed. In addition, the rankings of the eight teams selected for the "First Four" play-in round will likewise affect the final seedlings.
The bracket is thus established, and during the semifinals, the champion of the top-ranked number 1 seed's region will play against the champion of the fourth-ranked number 1 seed's region, and the champion of the second-ranked number 1 seed's region will play against the champion of the third-ranked number 1 seed's region.

Venues

In the men's tournament, all sites are nominally neutral; teams are prohibited from playing tournament games on their home courts prior to the Final Four. By current NCAA rules, any court on which a team hosts more than three regular-season games is considered a "home court". The exception to this rule is the University of Dayton, which would be allowed to play a game in the "First Four" round in their home arena as they did in 2015.
However, while a team can be moved to a different region if its home court is being used during any of the first two weeks of the tournament, the Final Four venue is determined years in advance, and cannot be changed regardless of participants. For this reason a team could potentially play in a Final Four on its home court, though this is unlikely, since the Final Four is staged at venues larger than most college basketball arenas.

Rounds

The tournament consists of several rounds. They are currently named, in order of first to last:
The tournament is single-elimination, which increases the chance of an underdog and lower-seeded "Cinderella team" advancing to subsequent rounds. Although these lower-ranked teams are forced to play stronger teams, they need only one win to advance.

First Four

First held during 2011, the First Four are games between the four lowest-ranked at-large teams and the four lowest-ranked automatic-bid teams.
;First Four At-large seeds
SeedCountYears
1132011, 2013, 2014
1232011, 2012, 2014
1312013
1412012

First and Second Rounds

During the First Round, the No. 1 seed plays the No. 16 seed in all regions; the No. 2 team plays the No. 15, and so on. The effect of this seeding structure ensures that the better a team is ranked, the worse-ranked their opponents will be. Sixteen first-round games are played on the Thursday following the "First Four" round. The remaining sixteen first-round games are played Friday. At this point the contestants are reduced to 32 teams.
The Second Round is played on Saturday and Sunday immediately after the first round. The second round consists of Thursday's winners playing in eight games on Saturday, followed by Friday's winners playing in the remaining eight second-round games on Sunday. Thus, after the first weekend, 16 teams remain, commonly known as the "Sweet Sixteen."

Regional semifinals and finals

The teams that are still competing after the first weekend advance to the regional semifinals and finals, which are played during the second weekend of the tournament. Unlike hockey, teams are not re-seeded where the number one seed in each conference would play the lowest ranked. Four regional semi-final games are played Thursday and four are played Friday. After Friday's games, 8 teams remain. Saturday features two regional final games matching Thursday's winners and Sunday's two final games match Friday's winners. After the second weekend of the tournament, the four regional champions are the "Final Four."

Final Four

The winners of each region advance to the Final Four, where the national semifinals are played on Saturday and the national championship is played on Monday. As is noted [|above], which regional champion will play which, and in which semifinal they play, is determined by the overall rankings of the four No. 1 seeds in the original bracket, not on the ranks of the eventual Final Four teams themselves.

Winners

Titles by year

Titles by school

SchoolTitlesYears
UCLA111964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1995
Kentucky81948, 1949, 1951, 1958, 1978, 1996, 1998, 2012
North Carolina61957, 1982, 1993, 2005, 2009, 2017
Duke51991, 1992, 2001, 2010, 2015
Indiana51940, 1953, 1976, 1981, 1987
UConn41999, 2004, 2011, 2014
Kansas31952, 1988, 2008
Villanova31985, 2016, 2018
Cincinnati21961, 1962
Florida22006, 2007
Louisville2*1980, 1986
Michigan State21979, 2000
NC State21974, 1983
Oklahoma State21945, 1946
San Francisco21955, 1956
Arizona11997
Arkansas11994
California11959
CCNY11950
Georgetown11984
Holy Cross11947
La Salle11954
Loyola–Chicago11963
Marquette11977
Maryland12002
Michigan11989
Ohio State11960
Oregon11939
UNLV11990
Stanford11942
Syracuse12003
UTEP11966
Utah11944
Virginia12019
Wisconsin11941
Wyoming11943
* 2013 title vacated by NCAA.

Tournament history

Mid-major teams

Mid-major teams—which are defined as teams from the America East Conference, Atlantic Sun Conference, Big Sky Conference, Big South Conference, Big West Conference, Colonial Athletic Conference, Conference USA, Horizon League, Ivy League, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Mid-American Conference, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, Missouri Valley Conference, Mountain West Conference, Northeast Conference, Ohio Valley Conference, Patriot League, Southern Conference, Southland Conference, Southwestern Athletic Conference, Summit League, Sun Belt Conference, West Coast Conference, and the Western Athletic Conference —have experienced success in the tournament at various times.
The last time, as of, a mid-major team won the National Championship was 1990 when UNLV won with a 103–73 win over Duke, since UNLV was then a member of the Big West and since 1999 has been a member of the MW; the Big West was not then considered a power conference, nor is the MW today. However, during the tenure of UNLV's coach at the time, Jerry Tarkanian, the Runnin' Rebels were widely viewed as a major program despite their conference affiliation. The last time, as of, an independent mid-major team won the National Championship was 1977 when Marquette won with a 67–59 win over North Carolina. However, at the time, a significant minority of NCAA Division I schools were still independents, with several of these, including Marquette, being traditional basketball powers. The last time, as of, a mid-major team from a small media market won the National Championship was arguably 1962 when Cincinnati, then in the MVC, won 71–59 over Ohio State of the Big Ten, since Cincinnati's TV market is listed 35th in the nation as of. However, there was much less of a division between "major" and "mid-major" conferences in 1962, and the MVC was generally seen in that day as a major basketball conference.
The last time the Final Four was composed, as of, of at least 75% mid-major teams, i.e. excluding all present-day major conferences or their predecessors, was 1979, where Indiana State, then as now of the Missouri Valley Conference ; Penn, then as now in the Ivy League; and DePaul, then an independent, participated in the Final Four, only to see Indiana State lose to Michigan State. The last time, as of, the Final Four has been composed of at least 50% mid-major teams was 2011, when VCU, then of the Colonial Athletic Association, and Butler, then of the Horizon League, participated in the Final Four, only to see Butler lose to Connecticut. Two of the three most recent Final Fours have involved a single "mid-major" team by the definition used here—the 2017 and 2018 tournaments, in which Gonzaga and Loyola–Chicago were respectively involved. To date, as of, no Final Four has been composed of 100% mid-major teams, therefore guaranteeing a mid-major team winning the National Championship.
Arguably the tournament with the most mid-major success was the 1970 tournament, where the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four, and National Championship Game had 63% representation of mid-major teams in the Sweet 16, 75% representation in the Elite 8, 75% representation in the Final 4, and 50% representation in the National Championship Game. Jacksonville lost to UCLA in the National Championship, with New Mexico State defeating St. Bonaventure for third place.
Below is a table that shows the performance of mid-major teams from the Sweet Sixteen round to the National Championship Game from 1939—the tournament's first year—to the present day.
;Notes
Mid-Major ConferenceSweet SixteenElite EightFinal FourChampionship GameNational Champion
America East–––––
ASUN Florida Gulf Coast ––––
Big SkyWeber State, Montana, Idaho Idaho State –––
Big South–––––
Big WestLong Beach State, UNLV, Fresno State, New Mexico State Long Beach State, Cal State Fullerton, UNLV UNLV –UNLV
CAANavy, Richmond –George Mason, VCU –
C-USALouisville, Cincinnati, UAB, Memphis Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis Marquette, Louisville Memphis –
HorizonLoyola , Xavier, Butler, Milwaukee ––Butler –
IvyPrinceton, Columbia, Cornell Dartmouth Princeton, Penn ––
MAAC–––––
MACBowling Green, Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Toledo, Ball State, Eastern Michigan, Miami , Ohio Ohio, Kent State –––
MEAC–––––
MVCSaint Louis, Cincinnati, Creighton, Tulsa, Southwest Missouri State, Southern Illinois, Wichita State, Bradley, Northern Iowa Creighton, Saint Louis, Bradley, Wichita State, Drake Oklahoma A&M, Cincinnati, Wichita State, Drake, Loyola–Chicago Bradley, Cincinnati, Indiana State Oklahoma A&M, Cincinnati
MWUtah, UNLV, BYU, San Diego State, Nevada ––––
NEC–––––
OVCMorehead State, Austin Peay ––––
Patriot–––––
SoConEast Tennessee State, Furman, VMI, Chattanooga VMI, Davidson –––
SouthlandLamar, Louisiana Tech ––––
SWAC–––––
SummitCleveland State, Valparaiso ––––
Sun BeltWestern Kentucky UAB UNC Charlotte ––
WCCSanta Clara, Pacific, Pepperdine, San Francisco, Gonzaga, St. Mary's St. Mary's , Pacific, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Loyola Marymount, Gonzaga Santa Clara, San Francisco Gonzaga San Francisco
WACColorado State, New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah, UTEP, Nevada BYU, Utah, Tulsa Utah Utah Texas Western

Defunct conferences and independents

This table shows mid-major teams that saw success in the tournament from now-defunct conferences or were independents.
The Metro Conference, which operated from 1975 to 1995, is not listed here because it was considered a major basketball conference throughout its history. Most notably, Louisville, which was a member for the league's entire existence, won both of its NCAA-recognized titles while in the Metro.
Mid-Major ConferenceSweet SixteenElite EightFinal FourChampionship GameNational Champion
Border Intercollegiate Athletic ConferenceNew Mexico State Arizona State –––
East Coast Conference–Saint Joseph's –––
Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League–Dartmouth –Dartmouth –
Great Midwest ConferenceMarquette, Memphis Memphis State, Cincinnati Cincinnati ––
Metropolitan New York ConferenceNYU, Manhattan City College of New York NYU NYU City College of New York
Middle Atlantic ConferenceSaint Joseph's Saint Joseph's Saint Joseph's ––
Mountain States ConferenceBYU Wyoming Utah State –Wyoming
New Jersey-New York 7 Conference–St. John's –––
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association–Western Kentucky –––
Southwest Conference–Rice –––
Western New York Little Three ConferenceCanisius Canisius –––
Yankee ConferenceUConn UConn –––
IndependentsMontana State, Dayton, DePaul, Seattle, Butler, Utah State, Niagara, Cincinnati, Detroit Brown, Springfield, Oklahoma City, Boston University, Utah State, DePaul, Dayton Duquesne, DePaul, Bradley, New Mexico State, St. Bonaventure, Rutgers Bradley, La Salle, Seattle, Dayton, Jacksonville Utah, Holy Cross, La Salle, Loyola , Texas Western, Marquette

Tournament droughts

List of schools with the longest time between NCAA tournament appearances :
SchoolAppearanceNext AppearanceYears
Harvard1946201266 years
Dartmouth1959–59 years & ongoing
Yale1962201654 years
Tennessee Tech1963-55 years & ongoing
Bowling Green1968-50 years & ongoing
Columbia1968-50 years & ongoing
Seattle1969-49 years & ongoing
Rice1970-48 years & ongoing
Stanford1942198947 years
Brown1939198647 years
Wisconsin1947199447 years
Air Force1962200442 years
Iowa State1944198541 years
Duquesne1977-41 years & ongoing
VMI1977-41 years & ongoing
Washington State1941198039 years
Baylor1950198838 years
Toledo1980–38 years & ongoing
Drake1971200837 years
Portland1959199637 years
Oregon1961199534 years
Loyola-Chicago1985201833 years
Georgetown1943197532 years
Marist1987–31 years & ongoing
Marshall1987201831 years
Massachusetts1962199230 years
California1960199030 years
Cal State Fullerton1978200830 years
Saint Mary's1959198930 years
Mercer1985201429 years
Idaho1990–28 years & ongoing
Loyola Marymount1990–28 years & ongoing
Mississippi State1963199128 years
Gonzaga1967199427 years
Louisiana Tech1991–27 years & ongoing
Rutgers1991–27 years & ongoing
Fordham1992–26 years & ongoing
Oregon State1990201626 years
Penn State1965199126 years
East Carolina1993–26 years & ongoing
Georgia Tech1960198525 years
Navy1960198525 years
LSU1954197925 years
Northeastern1991201524 years
FIU1995–23 years & ongoing
Tulane1995–23 years & ongoing
Santa Clara1996–22 years & ongoing
Northern Illinois1996–22 years & ongoing
Southern Methodist1993201522 years
East Carolina1972199321 years
Southern Miss1991201221 years
Baylor1988200820 years
Cornell1988200820 years
Green Bay1996201620 years
Navy1998–20 years & ongoing
Illinois State1998–20 years & ongoing

Through 2018, four schools that were considered "major college" by the Associated Press when it published its first college basketball rankings in 1948, and have been continuously in the AP's "major" classification, have yet to reach the national tournament. While the NCAA did not split into divisions until 1956, the AP has distinguished "major colleges" from "small colleges" throughout the history of its basketball rankings.
School
Army
The Citadel
St. Francis Brooklyn
William & Mary

Evolution of the tournament

The NCAA tournament has changed its format many times over the years, many of which are listed below.

Expansion of field

The NCAA tournament field has expanded a number of times throughout its history.
After the conclusion of the 2010 tournament, there was speculation about increasing the tournament size to as many as 128 teams. On April 1, the NCAA announced that it was looking at expanding to 96 teams for 2011. On April 22, the NCAA announced a new television contract with CBS/Turner that expanded the field to 68 teams.
From 2011 to 2015, the round of 64 was deemed to be the second round; beginning in 2016, the round of 64 was again deemed to be the first round.

Seeding history and statistics

The process of seeding was first used in 1978 for automatically qualified and at-large teams respectively, and then for all teams within their respective region in 1979. Starting in 2004, the NCAA began releasing full seeding numbers making known the overall #1 seed.

No. 1 seeds by year and region

When seeding, the NCAA has used the following names for the four regions with the exception of 2004 to 2006 when they were named after host cities:
* Vacated.
Bold denotes team also won tournament.
† Overall #1 Seed starting in 2004.
To date, only Kentucky and Virginia have had a #1 seed in each of the four regions

Number of #1 seeds by school

Last updated through 2018 tournament.
For a list of all the cities and arenas that have hosted the Final Four, go to [|Host cities], below.
Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri, hosted the Final Four nine times, followed by the third Madison Square Garden in New York City, which hosted seven times, and Louisville's Freedom Hall, which hosted six times. Additionally, Indianapolis has hosted the Final Four seven times, across three venues.

Stadium size and domes

From 1997 to 2013, the NCAA required that all Final Four sessions take place in domed stadiums with a minimum capacity of 40,000, usually having only half of the dome in use. The Metrodome in Minneapolis, which usually hosted baseball and football, had one of the long ends of the court along the first baseline with temporary stands surrounding the court so that much of the outfield is isolated from the action. The same was true of football stadiums like the Alamodome in San Antonio and the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. The last NBA arena to host the Final Four was the Meadowlands Arena, then known as Continental Airlines Arena, in 1996. As of 2009, the minimum was increased to 70,000, by adding additional seating on the floor of the dome, and raising the court on a platform three feet above the dome's floor, which is usually crowned for football, like the setup at Ford Field in Detroit which hosted 2009 Final Four.
In September 2012, the NCAA began preliminary discussions on the possibility of returning occasional Final Fours to basketball-specific arenas in major metropolitan areas. According to ESPN.com writer Andy Katz, when Mark Lewis was hired as NCAA executive vice president for championships during 2012, "he took out a United States map and saw that both coasts are largely left off from hosting the Final Four." Lewis added in an interview with Katz,

I don't know where this will lead, if anywhere, but the right thing is to sit down and have these conversations and see if we want our championship in more than eight cities or do we like playing exclusively in domes. None of the cities where we play our championship is named New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago or Miami. We don't play on a campus. We play in professional football arenas.

Under then-current criteria, only eleven stadiums, all but two of which are current NFL venues, could be considered as Final Four locations:
Two domed stadiums that have hosted past Final Fours—the Alamodome and Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida —were considered too small to be eligible to host, despite the Alamodome being a college football stadium and having a permanent seating capacity of 65,000. The basketball setup at the Alamodome prior to 2018 used only half of the stadium and had a capacity of 39,500. This was changed for the 2018 Final Four to place a raised court at the center of the stadium as has been done with other football facilities.
The first instance of a domed stadium being used for an NCAA Tournament Final Four was the Houston Astrodome in 1971, but the Final Four would not return to a dome until 1982 when the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans hosted the event for the first time.
On June 12, 2013, Katz reported that the NCAA had changed its policy. In July 2013, the NCAA had a portal available on its website for venues to make Final Four proposals in the 2017–2020 period, and there were no restrictions on proposals based on venue size. Also, the NCAA decided that future regionals will no longer be held in domes. In Katz' report, Lewis indicated that the use of domes for regionals was intended as a dry run for future Final Four venues, but this particular policy was no longer necessary because all of the Final Four sites from 2014 to 2016 had already hosted regionals. At least one other report indicated that the new policy would still allow a completely new domed stadium, or an existing dome that has never hosted a Final Four, to receive a regional if it is awarded a future Final Four. In November 2014, reflecting the new policy's effect, the NCAA announced that what is now State Farm Stadium would host the Final Four in 2017.

Other changes

Bids per conferences

Prior to 1975, only one team per conference could be in the NCAA tournament. However, after several highly ranked teams in the country were denied entrance into the tournament, the NCAA began to place at-large teams in the tournament, instead of just conference champions. At times during the pre-at-large era, the NIT tournament competed for prestige with the NCAA tournament. However, in the 1950s the NCAA ruled that no team could compete in both tournaments. But when 8th ranked Marquette declined its invitation in 1970 after coach Al McGuire complained about the Warriors' regional placement and instead went to the NIT, the NCAA changed the rule to forbid a team that declines an NCAA Tournament bid from participating in any post-season tournament. Since then, the NCAA tournament has clearly been the major one, with conference champions and the majority of the top-ranked teams participating in it.

Consolation games

A third-place game was held from 1946 to 1981. Additionally, when the tournament was first held in 1939 with only two regionals, the West held a third-place game, but the East did not. The East began holding its own third-place game in 1941, and from then on every regional held a third-place game through the 1975 tournament.

Play-In games

Beginning in 2001, the field was expanded from 64 to 65 teams, adding to the tournament what was informally known as the "play-in game." This was in response to the creation of the Mountain West Conference during 1999. Originally, the winner of the Mountain West's tournament did not receive an automatic bid, and doing so would mean the elimination of one of the at-large bids. As an alternative to eliminating an at-large bid, the NCAA expanded the tournament to 65 teams. The #64 and #65 seeds were seeded in a regional bracket as the 16a/16b seeds, and then played the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Opening Round Game on the Tuesday preceding the first weekend of the tournament. This game was always played at the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio.
During 2011, the tournament expanded to 68 teams. Four "play-in" games are now played, officially known as the "First Four". However, the teams playing in the First Four are not automatically seeded #16; their seeding is determined by the committee on Selection Sunday. Explaining the reasoning for this format, selection committee chairman Dan Guerrero said, "We felt if we were going to expand the field it would create better drama for the tournament if the First Four was much more exciting. They could all be on the 10 line or the 12 line or the 11 line."

Play-In round naming

From 1985 to 2010, the round consisting of 64 teams and 32 games was called the "first round", while the round consisting of 32 teams and 16 games was called the "second round". From 2011 to 2015, the "First Four" became the first round. The round after the "First Four", the round of 64 played on Thursday and Friday, was called the "second round"; the round of 32 was then called the "third round", consisting of games played on Saturday and Sunday. In 2016, the naming reverted to the round of 64 being the "first round" once again, and the round of 32 being the "second round".

Pod system

For the 1985 to 2001 tournaments, all teams playing at a first- or second-round site fed into the same regional site. Since 2002, the tournament has used the "pod system" designed to limit the early-round travel of as many teams as possible. In the pod system, each of the eight first- and second-round sites is assigned two pods, where each group of four teams play each other. A host site's pods may be from different regions, and thus the winners of each pod would advance into separate regional tournaments.
The possible pods by seeding are:
Since 2004, the semi-final matches during the first day of the Final Four weekend have been determined by a [|procedure] based upon the original seeding of the full field. From 1973 through 2003, the pitting of regional champions in the semi-finals was on a rotational basis. Prior to 1973, one semifinal matched the champions of the eastern regions, and the other matched the champions of the western regions.

Other notes

Home court advantage

On several occasions NCAA tournament teams played their games in their home arena. In 1959, Louisville played at its regular home of Freedom Hall; however, the Cardinals lost to West Virginia in the semifinals. In 1984, Kentucky defeated Illinois, 54–51 in the Elite Eight on its home court of Rupp Arena. In 1985, Dayton played its first-round game against Villanova on its home floor. In 1986 and '87, Syracuse played the first 2 rounds of the NCAA tournament in the Carrier Dome. Also in 1986, LSU played in Baton Rouge on its home floor for the first 2 rounds despite being an 11th seed. In 1987, Arizona lost to UTEP on its home floor in the first round. In 2015, Dayton played at its regular home of UD Arena, and the Flyers beat Boise State in the First Four.
Since the inception of the modern Final Four in 1952, only once has a team played a Final Four on its actual home court—Louisville in 1959. But through the 2015 tournament, three other teams have played the Final Four in their home cities, one other team has played in its metropolitan area, and six additional teams have played the Final Four in their home states through the 2015 tournament. Kentucky, UCLA, and North Carolina State won the national title; Louisville ; Purdue lost in the Final Four; and California, Duke, Michigan State, and Butler lost in the final.
In 1960, Cal had nearly as large an edge as Louisville had the previous year, only having to cross the San Francisco Bay to play in the Final Four at the Cow Palace in Daly City; the Golden Bears lost in the championship game to Ohio State. UCLA had a similar advantage in 1968 and 1972 when it advanced to the Final Four at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, not many miles from the Bruins' homecourt of Pauley Pavilion ; unlike Louisville and Cal, the Bruins won the national title on both occasions. Butler lost the 2010 title from its Indianapolis campus and was regarded as the host school, as it is most times whenever the NCAA holds a tournament in Indianapolis.
Before the Final Four was established, the East and West regionals were held at separate sites, with the winners advancing to the title game. During that era, three New York City teams, all from Manhattan, played in the East Regional at Madison Square Garden—frequently used as a "big-game" venue by each team—and advanced at least to the national semifinals. NYU won the East Regional in 1945 but lost in the title game, also held at the Garden, to Oklahoma A&M. CCNY played in the East Regional in both 1947 and 1950; the Beavers lost in the 1947 East final to eventual champion Holy Cross but won the 1950 East Regional and national titles at the Garden.
In 1974, North Carolina State won the NCAA tournament without leaving its home state of North Carolina. The team was put in the East Region, and played its regional games at its home arena Reynolds Coliseum. NC State played the final four and national championship games at nearby Greensboro Coliseum.
While not its home state, Kansas has played in the championship game in Kansas City, Missouri, only 45 minutes from the campus in Lawrence, Kansas, not just once, but four times. In 1940, 1953, and 1957 the Jayhawks lost the championship game each time at Municipal Auditorium. In 1988, playing at Kansas City's Kemper Arena, Kansas won the championship, over Big Eight–rival Oklahoma. Similarly, in 2005, Illinois played in St. Louis, Missouri, where it enjoyed a noticeable homecourt advantage, yet still lost in the championship game to North Carolina.

Flag controversy

The NCAA had banned the Bon Secours Wellness Arena, originally known as Bi-Lo Center, and Colonial Life Arena, originally Colonial Center, in South Carolina from hosting tournament games, despite their sizes because of an NAACP protest at the Bi-Lo Center during the 2002 first and second round tournament games over that state's refusal to completely remove the Confederate Battle Flag from the state capitol grounds, although it had already been relocated from atop the capitol dome to a less prominent place in 2000. Following requests by the NAACP and Black Coaches Association, the Bi-Lo Center, and the newly built Colonial Center, which was built for purposes of hosting the tournament, were banned from hosting any future tournament events. As a result of the removal of the battle flag from the South Carolina State Capitol, the NCAA lifted its ban on South Carolina hosting games in 2015, and it was able to host in 2017 due to House Bill 2.

House Bill 2

On September 12, 2016, the NCAA stripped the State of North Carolina of hosting rights for seven upcoming college sports tournaments and championships held by the association, including early round games of the 2017 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament scheduled for the Greensboro Coliseum. The NCAA argued that House Bill 2 made it "challenging to guarantee that host communities can help deliver ". Bon Secours Wellness Arena was able to secure the bid to be the replacement site.

Rituals and influence

Cutting down the nets

As a tournament ritual, the winning team cuts down the nets at the end of regional championship games as well as the national championship game. Starting with the seniors, and moving down by classes, players each cut a single strand off of each net; the head coach cuts the last strand connecting the net to the hoop, claiming the net itself. An exception to the head coach cutting the last strand came in 2013, when Louisville head coach Rick Pitino gave that honor to Kevin Ware, who had suffered a catastrophic leg injury during the tournament. This tradition is credited to Everett Case, the coach of North Carolina State, who stood on his players' shoulders to accomplish the feat after the Wolfpack won the Southern Conference tournament in 1947. CBS, since 1987 and yearly to 2015, in the odd-numbered years since 2017, and TBS, since 2016, the even-numbered years, close out the tournament with "One Shining Moment", performed by Luther Vandross.

Team awards

Just as the Olympics awards gold, silver, and bronze medals for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, respectively, the NCAA awards the National Champions a gold-plated Wooden NCAA National Championship trophy. The loser of the championship game receives a silver-plated National Runner-Up trophy for second place. Since 2006, all four Final Four teams receive a bronze plated NCAA Regional Championship trophy; prior to 2006, only the teams who did not make the title game received bronze plated trophies for being a semifinalist.
The champions also receive a commemorative gold championship ring, and the other three Final Four teams receive Final Four rings.
The National Association of Basketball Coaches also presents a more elaborate marble/crystal trophy to the winning team. Ostensibly, this award is given for taking the top position in the NABC's end-of-season poll, but this is invariably the same as the NCAA championship game winner. In 2005, Siemens AG acquired naming rights to the NABC trophy, which is now called the Siemens Trophy. Formerly, the NABC trophy was presented right after the standard NCAA championship trophy, but this caused some confusion. Since 2006, the Siemens/NABC Trophy has been presented separately at a press conference the day after the game.

Most Outstanding Player

After the championship trophy is awarded, one player is selected and then awarded the Most Outstanding Player award. It is not intended to be the same as a Most Valuable Player award although it is sometimes informally referred to as such.

Influence on the NBA draft

Because the National Basketball Association Draft takes place just three months after the NCAA tournament, NBA executives have to decide how players' performances in a maximum of seven games, from the First Four to the championship game, should affect their draft decisions. A 2012 study for the National Bureau of Economic Research explores how the March tournament affects the way that professional teams behave in the June draft. The study is based on data from 1997 to 2010 that looks at how college tournament standouts performed at the NBA level.
The researchers determined that a player who outperforms his regular season averages or who is on a team that wins more games than its seed would indicate will be drafted higher than he otherwise would have been. At the same time, the study indicated that professional teams don't take college tournament performance into consideration as much as they should, as success in the tournament correlates with elite professional accomplishment, particularly top-level success, where a player makes the NBA All-Star Team three or more times. "If anything, NBA teams undervalue the signal provided by unexpected performance in the NCAA March Madness tournament as a predictor of future NBA success."

Television coverage and revenues

Current television contracts

Since 2010, the NCAA has had a joint contract with CBS and Turner Broadcasting. The coverage of the tournament is split between CBS, TNT, TBS, and truTV.
Broadcasters from CBS, TBS, and TNT's sports coverage are shared across all four networks, with CBS' college basketball teams supplemented with Turner's NBA teams, while studio segments take place at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City and Turner's studios in Atlanta. In the New York-based studio shows, CBS' Greg Gumbel and Clark Kellogg are joined by Ernie Johnson, Jr., Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley of TNT's Inside the NBA while Seth Davis of CBS assists with Casey Stern and various NBA TV personalities. While two of Turner's NBA voices, Kevin Harlan and Ian Eagle, are already employed by CBS in other capacities, they also lend analysts Reggie Miller, Chris Webber, Grant Hill, and Steve Smith and secondary play-by-play man Brian Anderson to CBS. In turn, CBS announcers Jim Nantz, Brad Nessler, Spero Dedes, Andrew Catalon, and Carter Blackburn appear on Turner network broadcasts along with analysts Jim Spanarkel, Bill Raftery, and Dan Bonner.
The current contract runs through 2024 and, for the first time in history, provides for the nationwide broadcast each year of all games of the tournament. All First Four games air on truTV. A featured first- or second-round game in each time "window" is broadcast on CBS, while all other games are shown either on TBS, TNT or truTV. The regional semifinals, better known as the Sweet Sixteen, are split between CBS and TBS. CBS had the exclusive rights to the regional finals, also known as the Elite Eight, through 2014. That exclusivity extended to the entire Final Four as well, but after the 2013 tournament Turner Sports elected to exercise a contractual option for 2014 and 2015 giving TBS broadcast rights to the national semifinal matchups. CBS kept its national championship game rights.
Since 2015, CBS and TBS split coverage of the Elite Eight. Since 2016 CBS and TBS alternate coverage of the Final Four and national championship game, with TBS getting the final two rounds in even-numbered years, and CBS getting the games in odd-numbered years. March Madness On Demand would remain unchanged, although Turner was allowed to develop their own service.
The CBS broadcast provides the NCAA with over $500 million annually, and makes up over 90% of the NCAA's annual revenue. The revenues from the multibillion-dollar television contract are divided among the Division I basketball playing schools and conferences as follows:
The Division I Men's Basketball tournament is the only NCAA championship tournament where the NCAA does not keep the profits.

History of television coverage

CBS has been the major partner of the NCAA in televising the tournament since 1982, but there have been many changes in coverage since the tournament was first broadcast in 1969.

Early broadcast coverage

From 1969 to 1981, the NCAA tournament aired on NBC, but not all games were televised. The early rounds, in particular, were not always seen on TV.
In 1982, CBS obtained broadcast television rights to the NCAA tournament.

ESPN & CBS share coverage

In 1980, ESPN began showing the opening rounds of the tournament. This was the network's first contract signed with the NCAA for a major sport, and helped to establish ESPN's following among college basketball fans. ESPN showed six first-round games on Thursday and again on Friday, with CBS, from 1982 to 1990, then picking up a seventh game at 11:30 pm ET. Thus, 14 of 32 first-round games were televised. ESPN also re-ran games overnight. At the time, there was only one ESPN network, with no ability to split its signal regionally, so ESPN showed only the most competitive games. During the 1980s, the tournament's popularity on television soared.

CBS takes over

However, ESPN became a victim of its own success, as CBS was awarded the rights to cover all games of the NCAA tournament, starting in 1991. Only with the introduction of the so-called "play-in" game in the 2000s, did ESPN get back in the game. Coverage preempted regular programming on the network, except during a 2-hour window from about 5 ET until 7 ET when the local affiliates could show programming. The CBS format resulted in far fewer hours of first-round coverage than under the old ESPN format but allowed the games to reach a much larger audience than ESPN was able to reach.
During this period of near-exclusivity by CBS, the network provided to its local affiliates three types of feeds from each venue: constant feed, swing feed, and flex feed. Constant feeds remained primarily on a given game, and were used primarily by stations with a clear local interest in a particular game. Despite its name, a constant feed occasionally veered away to other games for brief updates, but coverage generally remained with the initial game. A swing feed tended to stay on games believed to be of natural interest to the locality, such as teams from local conferences, but may leave that game to go to other games that during their progress become close matches. On a flex feed, coverage bounced around from one venue to another, depending on action at the various games in progress. If one game was a blowout, coverage could switch to a more competitive game. A flex feed was provided when there were no games with a significant natural local interest for the stations carrying them, which allowed the flex game to be the best game in progress. Station feeds were planned in advance and stations had the option of requesting either constant or flex feed for various games.

Viewing options emerge

In 1999, DirecTV began broadcasting all games otherwise not shown on local television with its Mega March Madness premium package. The DirecTV system used the subscriber's ZIP code to black out games which could be seen on broadcast television. Prior to that, all games were available on C-Band satellite and were picked up by sports bars.
In 2003, CBS struck a deal with Yahoo! to offer live streaming of the first three rounds of games under its Yahoo! Platinum service, for $16.95 a month. In 2004, CBS began selling viewers access to March Madness On Demand, which provided games not otherwise shown on broadcast television; the service was free for AOL subscribers. In 2006, March Madness On Demand was made free, and continued to be so to online users through the 2011 tournament. For 2012, it once again became a pay service, with a single payment of $3.99 providing access to all 67 tournament games. In 2013, the service, now renamed March Madness Live, was again made free, but uses Turner's rights and infrastructure for TV Everywhere, which requires sign-in though the password of a customer's cable or satellite provider to watch games, both via PC/Mac and mobile devices. Those that do not have a cable or satellite service or one not participating in Turner's TV Everywhere are restricted to games carried on the CBS national feed and three hours of other games without sign-in, or coverage via Westwood One's radio coverage. Effective with the 2018 tournament, the national semifinals and final are under TV Everywhere restrictions if they are aired by Turner networks; before then, those particular games were not subject to said restrictions.
In addition, CBS Sports Network had broadcast two "late early" games that would not otherwise be broadcast nationally. These were the second games in the daytime session in the Pacific Time Zone, to avoid starting games before 10 AM. These games are also available via March Madness Live and on CBS affiliates in the market areas of the team playing. In other markets, newscasts, local programming or preempted CBS morning programming are aired. CBSSN is scheduled to continue broadcasting the official pregame and postgame shows and press conferences from the teams involved, along with overnight replays.

HDTV coverage

The Final Four has been broadcast in HDTV since 1999. From 2000 to 2004, only one first/second round site and one regional site were designated as HDTV sites. In 2005, all regional games were broadcast in HDTV, and four first and second round sites were designated for HDTV coverage. Local stations broadcasting in both digital and analog had the option of airing separate games on their HD and SD channels, to take advantage of the available high definition coverage. Beginning in 2007, all games in the tournament were available in high definition, and local stations were required to air the same game on both their analog and digital channels. However, due to satellite limitations, first round "constant" feeds were only available in standard definition. Moreover, some digital television stations, such as WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina, choose to not participate in HDTV broadcasts of the first and second rounds and the regional semifinals, and used their available bandwidth to split their signal into digital subchannels to show all games going on simultaneously. By 2008, upgrades at the CBS broadcast center allowed all feeds, flex and constant, to be in HD for the tournament.

International broadcasts

As of 2011, ESPN International holds international broadcast rights to the tournament, distributing coverage to its co-owned networks and other broadcasters. ESPN produces the world feed for broadcasts of the Final Four and championship game, produced using ESPN College Basketball staff and commentators.

Tournament statistics

Low seeded teams

Most successful low seeds

Best outcomes for low seeds since expansion to 64 teams in 1985:
Seed2nd RoundSweet SixteenElite EightFinal FourChampionship GameNational Champion
No. 16UMBC –––––
No. 15
Middle Tennessee
Lehigh
Norfolk State
Hampton
Coppin State
Santa Clara
Richmond

Florida Gulf Coast 		––––
No. 14numerous
––––
No. 13numerous
––––
No. 12numerous
numerous 		–––
No. 11numerous
numerous 		––
No. 10numerous
numerous 		––
No. 9numerous
––
No. 8




No. 7numerous


Best performances by No. 16 seeds

In 2018, UMBC became the first No. 16 seed to defeat a No. 1 seed in the men's tournament, shocking Virginia 74–54. Before this breakthrough, five other 16 seeds lost by 4 or fewer points:
As noted above, despite numerous instances of early-round tournament upsets, only one No. 1 seed has lost in the first round to a No. 16 seed. However, while seeding is one way of measuring the impact of an upset, prior to the implementation of seeding, point spread was the better determinant of an upset, and a loss by a highly favored team remains for many the definition of "upset". As the NCAA forbids any association with gambling, and point spreads vary depending on the bookie taking the bets, these are unofficial.

All No. 1 seeds in the Final Four

It has happened only once that all four No. 1 seeds made it to the Final Four:
Thrice the Final Four has been without a No. 1 seed:
Since 1985, there have been 4 instances of three No. 1 seeds reaching the Final Four; 13 instances of two No. 1 seeds making it; and 14 instances of just one No. 1 seed reaching the Final Four.

No. 1 seeds in the Championship Game

There have been eight occasions that the championship game has been played between two No. 1 seeds:
Since 1985 there have been 18 instances of one No. 1 seed reaching the Championship Game and 8 instances where no No. 1 seed made it to the title game.

Additional No. 1 seed stats

The following teams entered the tournament ranked No. 1 in at least one of the AP, UPI, or USA Today polls and won the tournament:

Performance of undefeated teams

The team's record here refers to their record before the first game of the NCAA tournament.
YearTeamRecordResult
195121–0Lost Sweet 16 game to Illinois
1956San Francisco24–0Won the tournament, beat Iowa
1957North Carolina27–0Won the tournament, beat Kansas
1961Ohio State24–0Lost in championship game to Cincinnati
1964UCLA26–0Won the tournament, beat Duke
1967UCLA26–0Won the tournament, beat Dayton
1968Houston28–0Lost in national semifinal game to UCLA
196822–0Lost Sweet 16 game to North Carolina
197126–0Lost Elite 8 game to
197126–0Lost Sweet 16 game to
1972UCLA26–0Won the tournament, beat Florida State
1973UCLA26–0Won the tournament, beat Memphis State
1975Indiana29–0Lost Elite 8 game to Kentucky
1976Indiana27–0Won the tournament, beat Michigan
197627–0Lost in national semifinal game to Michigan
1979Indiana State28–0Lost in championship game to Michigan State
1991UNLV30–0Lost in national semifinal game to Duke
2014Wichita State34–0Lost in Round of 32 to Kentucky
2015Kentucky34–0Lost in national semifinal game to Wisconsin

Undefeated teams not in the tournament

The NCAA tournament has undergone dramatic expansion since 1975, and since the tournament was expanded to 48 teams in 1980, no unbeaten teams have failed to qualify. Before that, there were occasions on which a team achieved perfection in the regular season, yet did not appear in the NCAA tournament.
There have been nine times in which the tournament did not include the reigning champion :

Most national championships

is the only coach to have officially taken three teams to the Final Four: Providence, Kentucky and Louisville.
There are 12 coaches who have officially coached two schools to the Final Four – Roy Williams, Eddie Sutton, Frank McGuire, Lon Kruger, Hugh Durham, Jack Gardner, Lute Olson, Gene Bartow, Forddy Anderson, Lee Rose, Bob Huggins, and Lou Henson.
Point differentials, or margin of victory, can be viewed either by the championship game, or by a team's performance over the whole tournament.

Championship victory margins

;Largest margin of victory in a championship game
30 points, by UNLV in 1990
;Overtime games in a championship game
Eight times the championship game has been tied at the end of regulation. On one of those occasions the game went into double and then triple overtime.
;Smallest margin of victory in a championship game
1 point, on six occasions
;Largest point differential accumulated over the entire tournament by championship teams
Teams that played 6 games
Teams that played 5 games
Teams that played 4 games
Teams that played 3 games
;Teams winning the championship and obtaining a margin of 10 points in every game of the tournament
Achieved 13 times by 10 schools
Since the inception of the 64-team tournament in 1985, each seed-pairing has played 140 games in the Round of 64, with the following results:

Round of 64 results

vs. No. 8vs. No. 9Total
No. 155–13 65–6 120–19
No. 16–0–1 0–1
Total13–55 7–65

vs. No. 7vs. No. 10Total
No. 257–25 32–18 89–43
No. 151–2 0–5 1–7
Total27–58 23–32

vs. No. 6vs. No. 11Total
No. 344–28 30–17 74–45
No. 142–14 0–5 2–19
Total42–46 22–30

vs. No. 5vs. No. 12Total
No. 440–33 26–12 66–45
No. 133–14 3–9 6–23
Total47–43 21–29

Round of 16 results

vs. No. 4vs. No. 5vs. No. 12vs. No. 13Total
No. 139–15 34–8 20–0 4–0 97–23
No. 85–4 2–0 0–1 1–0 8–5
No. 91–2 2–1 –1–0 4–3
No. 16–––––
Total21–45 9–38 1–20 0–6

vs. No. 3vs. No. 6vs. No. 11vs. No. 14Total
No. 228–17 23–6 13–2 –64–25
No. 76–9 3–4 0–4 1–0 10–17
No. 104–9 2–4 1–2 1–0 8–15
No. 150–1 –––0–1
Total36–38 14–28 8–14 0–2

Regional finals results

Host cities

This table lists all the cities that have hosted or will host the Final Four, as well as the venues in which the Final Four was or will be played. For additional information about a particular year's tournament, click on the year to go directly to that year's NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament or go to the main article.

Popular culture

Bracketology and pools

There are pools or private gambling-related contests as to who can predict the tournament most correctly. The filling out of a tournament bracket has been referred to as a "national pastime." Filling out a tournament bracket with predictions is called the practice of "bracketology" and sports programming during the tournament is rife with commentators comparing the accuracy of their predictions. On The Dan Patrick Show, a wide variety of celebrities from various fields have posted full brackets with predictions. Former President Barack Obama's bracket was posted on the .
There are many tournament prediction scoring systems. Most award points for correctly picking the winning team in a particular match up, with increasingly more points being given for correctly predicting later round winners. Some provide bonus points for correctly predicting upsets, the amount of the bonus varying based on the degree of upset. Some just provide points for wins by correctly picked teams in the brackets.
There are 2^63 or 9.2 quintillion possibilities for the possible winners in a 64-team NCAA bracket, making the odds of randomly picking a perfect bracket 9.2 quintillion to 1. With the expansion of the tournament field to 68 teams in 2011, there are now 2^67 or 147.57 quintillion possibilities if one includes the first four opening round games.
There are numerous awards and prizes given by companies for anyone who can make the perfect bracket. One of the largest was done by a partnership between Quicken Loans and Berkshire Hathaway, which was backed by Warren Buffett, with a $1 billion prize to any person who could correctly predict the outcome of the 2014 tournament. No one was able to complete the challenge and win the $1 billion prize.

Tournament associated terms

As indicated below, none of these phrases are exclusively used in regard to the NCAA tournament. Nonetheless, they are associated widely with the tournament, sometimes for legal reasons, sometimes just because it's become part of the American sports vernacular.

March Madness

March Madness is a popular
on-ending basketball tournaments played in March. March Madness is also a registered trademark currently owned exclusively by the NCAA.
H. V. Porter, an official with the Illinois High School Association, was the first person to use March Madness to describe a basketball tournament. Porter published an essay named March Madness during 1939, and during 1942, he used the phrase in a poem, Basketball Ides of March. Through the years the use of March Madness was increased, especially in Illinois, Indiana, and other parts of the Midwest. During this period the term was used almost exclusively in reference to state high school tournaments. During 1977, Jim Enright published a book about the Illinois tournament entitled March Madness.
Fans began associating the term with the NCAA tournament during the early 1980s. Evidence suggests that CBS sportscaster Brent Musburger, who had worked for many years in Chicago before joining CBS, popularized the term during the annual tournament broadcasts. The NCAA has credited Bob Walsh of the Seattle Organizing Committee for starting the March Madness celebration in 1984.
Only during the 1990s did either the IHSA or the NCAA think about trademarking the term, and by that time a small television production company named Intersport had already trademarked it. IHSA eventually bought the trademark rights from Intersport, and then went to court to establish its primacy. IHSA sued GTE Vantage, an NCAA licensee that used the name March Madness for a computer game based on the college tournament. During 1996, in a historic ruling, Illinois High School Association v. GTE Vantage, Inc., the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit created the concept of a "dual-use trademark", granting both the IHSA and NCAA the right to trademark the term for their own purposes.
After the ruling, the NCAA and IHSA joined forces and created the March Madness Athletic Association to coordinate the licensing of the trademark and investigate possible trademark infringement. One such case involved a company that had obtained the internet domain name marchmadness.com and was using it to post information about the NCAA tournament. During 2003, by March Madness Athletic Association v. Netfire, Inc., the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit decided that March Madness was not a generic term, and ordered Netfire to relinquish the domain name to the NCAA.
Later during the 2000s, the IHSA relinquished its ownership share in the trademark, although it retained the right to use the term in association with high school championships. During October 2010, the NCAA reached a settlement with Intersport, paying $17.2 million for the latter company's license to use the trademark.

Sweet Sixteen

This is a popular term for the regional semifinal round of the tournament, consisting of the final 16 teams. As in the case of "March Madness", this was first used by a high school federation—in this case, the Kentucky High School Athletic Association, which has used the term for decades to describe its own season-ending tournaments. It officially registered the trademark in 1988. Unlike the situation with "March Madness", the KHSAA has retained sole ownership of the "Sweet Sixteen" trademark; it licenses the term to the NCAA for use in collegiate tournaments.

Final Four

The term Final Four refers to the last four teams remaining in the playoff tournament. These are the champions of the tournament's four regional brackets, and are the only teams remaining on the tournament's final weekend.
Some claim that the phrase Final Four was first used to describe the final games of Indiana's annual high school basketball tournament. But the NCAA, which has a trademark on the term, says Final Four was originated by a Plain Dealer sportswriter, Ed Chay, in a 1975 article that appeared in the Official Collegiate Basketball Guide. The article stated that Marquette University "was one of the final four" of the 1974 tournament. The NCAA started capitalizing the term during 1978 and converting it to a trademark several years later.
During recent years, the term Final Four has been used for other sports besides basketball. Tournaments which use Final Four include the EuroLeague in basketball, national basketball competitions in several European countries, and the now-defunct European Hockey League. Together with the name Final Four, these tournaments have adopted an NCAA-style format in which the four surviving teams compete in a single-elimination tournament held in one place, typically, during one weekend. The derivative term "Frozen Four" is used by the NCAA to refer to the final rounds of the Division I men's and women's ice hockey tournaments. Until 1999, it was just a popular nickname for the last two rounds of the hockey tournament; officially, it was also known as the Final Four.

Cinderella team

Although there is not any official definition of what constitutes a Cinderella team, there does seem to be a consensus that such teams represent small schools, are usually low-seeded in the tournament, and achieves at least one unexpected win in the tournament. A recent example of this is Florida Gulf Coast University, a relatively new school that held its first classes in 1997 and became Division I postseason eligible in 2011. They made their first appearance in the 2013 tournament, winning two games to become the first #15 seed to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. The term was popularized as a result of City College of New York's successful run in the 1950 tournament.