NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament: Difference between revisions
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| founded = 1939 |
| founded = 1939 |
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| teams = 68 ([[#Format history|since 2011]]) |
| teams = 68 ([[#Format history|since 2011]]) |
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| country = |
| country = United States |
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| champion = [[ |
| champion = [[2010–11 Connecticut Huskies men's basketball team|Connecticut Huskies]] |
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| most_champs = [[UCLA Bruins men's basketball|UCLA Bruins]] (11) |
| most_champs = [[UCLA Bruins men's basketball|UCLA Bruins]] (11) |
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| TV = [[College Basketball on CBS|CBS]], [[TBS (TV network)|TBS]], [[TNT (TV channel)|TNT]], [[truTV]] |
| TV = [[College Basketball on CBS|CBS]], [[TBS (TV network)|TBS]], [[TNT (TV channel)|TNT]], [[truTV]] |
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| website = [http://www.ncaa.com/basketball-mens/ NCAA.com] |
| website = [http://www.ncaa.com/basketball-mens/ NCAA.com] |
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}} |
}} |
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The '''[[National Collegiate Athletic Association|NCAA]] Men's [[Division I (NCAA)|Division I]] Basketball Championship''' is a [[Single-elimination tournament|single |
The '''[[National Collegiate Athletic Association|NCAA]] Men's [[Division I (NCAA)|Division I]] Basketball Championship''' is a [[Single-elimination tournament|single-elimination]] [[tournament]] held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 [[college basketball]] teams, to determine the national championship in the top tier of college basketball. The tournament, organized by the [[National Collegiate Athletic Association]] (NCAA), was [[1939 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|created in 1939]] by the [[National Association of Basketball Coaches]], and was the brainchild of [[Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball|Kansas]] coach [[Phog Allen]].<ref>http://mobile.kusports.com/news/2005/mar/20/mayer_ncaa_no/</ref><ref>[http://nabc.cstv.com/about/about-history-keydates.html Key Dates in NABC History]</ref> Held mostly in March, it is known informally as '''March Madness''' or the '''Big Dance''', and has become one of the most prominent annual sporting events in the United States. |
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The tournament |
The tournament teams include champions from 31 [[NCAA Division I|Division I]] conferences (which receive [[automatic bid]]s), and 37 teams which are awarded [[At-large bid|at-large berth]]s. These "at-large" teams are chosen by an [[NCAA]] selection committee, as detailed [[#Current tournament format|below]]. The 68 teams are divided into four regions and organized into a single elimination "bracket", which predetermines, when a team wins a game, which team it will face next. Each team is "seeded", or ranked, within its region. After an initial four games between eight lower-seeded teams, the tournament takes place over the course of three weekends, at pre-selected neutral sites around the United States. Lower-seeded teams are placed in the bracket against higher seeded teams. Each weekend cuts three-fourths of the teams, from a Round of 64, to a "Sweet Sixteen", to a "Final Four"; the Final Four usually play on the first weekend in April. These four teams, one from each region, battle it out in one destination for the national championship. |
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The tournament has been at least partially televised since 1969, and today, with games covered by [[College Basketball on CBS|CBS]], [[TBS (TV network)|TBS]], [[TNT (TV channel)|TNT]], and [[truTV]], ''all'' games are available for viewing nationwide. As television coverage has grown, so too has the tournament's popularity and place in American culture. Today, millions of Americans "fill out a bracket",<ref>http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/obamas-n-c-a-a-bracket-is-one-of-the-best/</ref> predicting winners of all 67 games. |
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A [[NCAA Basketball Tournament Most Outstanding Player|Most Outstanding Player]] award is given by the [[Associated Press]] at the end of each tournament. |
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With 11 national titles, [[UCLA Bruins men's basketball|UCLA]] holds the record for the most NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships; [[John Wooden]] coached UCLA to 10 of its 11 titles. The [[Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball|University of Kentucky]] is second, with 7 national titles, while [[Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball|Indiana University]] and [[North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball|University of North Carolina]] are tied for third with 5 national titles. |
With 11 national titles, [[UCLA Bruins men's basketball|UCLA]] holds the record for the most NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships; [[John Wooden]] coached UCLA to 10 of its 11 titles. The [[Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball|University of Kentucky]] is second, with 7 national titles, while [[Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball|Indiana University]] and the [[North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball|University of North Carolina]] are tied for third with 5 national titles. 2010 champion [[Duke Blue Devils men's basketball|Duke University]] ranks fifth with 4 national titles. |
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{{TOC limit|limit=4}} |
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==Current tournament format== |
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The tournament is televised on [[College Basketball on CBS|CBS]], [[TBS (TV network)|TBS]], [[TNT (TV channel)|TNT]], [[truTV]] |
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''The NCAA has changed the tournament format several times since its inception, most often reflecting an expansion of the field. This section describes the tournament as it has operated since 2011. For changes over the course of its history, and to see how the tournament operated in past years, go to [[#Format history|Format history]], below.'' |
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in the United States as of 2011 and onward, with CBS televising the Elite Eight and Final Four until 2016 exclusively. Previously the whole tournament, except the play in game on [[ESPN]], was televised on CBS. |
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===Qualifying=== |
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On April 22, 2010, it was announced that the NCAA had reached a new 14-year, $11 billion deal with [[CBS Sports]] and [[Time Warner]]-owned [[Turner Sports]] for the rights to broadcast the NCAA Tournament from 2011–2024. Additionally, it was decided to expanded the tournament to 68 teams, starting in 2011.<ref name="Associated Press1">{{cite web|author=[[Associated Press]]|publisher=CNNSI.com|url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/basketball/ncaa/04/22/tournament.expansion.ap/index.html?eref=BrkNews|title= NCAA to expand March Madness from 65 to 68 teams|accessdate=2010-04-22}} {{Dead link|date=September 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref> |
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A total of 68 teams qualify for the tournament played in March and April. Thirty-one (31) teams earn automatic bids by winning their respective [[List of college athletic conferences|conference]] tournaments. Thirty (30) of the 31 conferences hold tournaments to determine their respective automatic qualifiers. Only the [[Ivy League]] does not conduct a post-season tournament; its automatic bid goes to the regular-season conference champion. |
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The remaining thirty-seven (37) tournament slots are granted to [[at-large bid|at-large]] bids, which are determined by the [[NCAA basketball tournament selection process|Selection Committee]], a special committee appointed by the NCAA. The committee also determines where all sixty-eight teams are seeded and placed in the bracket. |
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==Tournament== |
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===Overview=== |
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A total of 68 teams qualify for the tournament played in March and April. Thirty-one (31) teams earn automatic bids by winning their respective [[List of college athletic conferences|conferences]]. Thirty (30) of the 31 conferences hold tournaments to determine their respective automatic qualifiers. The [[Ivy League]] does not conduct a post-season tournament, thus its automatic bid goes to the regular-season conference champion. |
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===Regions=== |
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The remaining thirty-seven (37) tournament slots are granted to [[at-large bid|at-large]] bids, which are determined by the [[NCAA basketball tournament selection process|Selection Committee]], a special committee appointed by the NCAA. Teams whose tournament inclusion status via at-large bids is unclear are called being "on the bubble".<ref name="bubbledef">{{cite web| url= http://www.bettorsworld.com/bubble.htm| title= NCAA BUBBLE TEAMS}}</ref> The committee also determines where all sixty-eight teams are seeded and placed in the bracket. |
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The tournament is split into four regions and each region has at least sixteen teams, but four additional teams are added per the decision of the Selection Committee. (See [[#The First Four|First Four]]). The committee is charged with making each of the four regions as close as possible in overall quality of teams. |
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The names of the regions vary from year to year, and are broadly geographic (such as "Southeast", "East" or "Midwest"). The selected names roughly correspond to the location of the four cities hosting the regional finals. For example, in 2011, the regions were named East (Newark, New Jersey), West (Anaheim, California), Southwest (San Antonio, Texas), and Southeast (New Orleans). However, oftentimes the chosen names for the regions appear counterintuitive to some observers, such as in 1990, when Atlanta hosted the East regional and Richmond hosted the Southeast regional.<ref>[http://www.ncaasports.com/basketball/mens/schedules Championship Information – NCAA.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> |
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The tournament is split into four regions and each region has teams seeded 1–16, with the committee making every region as comparable to the others as possible. The selection committee seeds teams in an S-pattern, with the highest #1 seed in the same region as the lowest #2 seed, and so on. {{Citation needed|date=March 2011}} Through the 2010 tournament, the winner of the single opening-round game was the #16 seed in a region and played one of the #1 seeds. The NCAA spent the early summer of 2010 weighing options for the opening round games before announcing the new format that July; the two most widely speculated on in media reports were: |
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* Using the same structure as in 2010, with the two lowest-seeded teams in each region, ranked at #16 and #17, playing in the opening round, with the winner of each game advancing to face the #1 seed. |
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* Exempting teams with automatic bids from the opening-round games, instead matching up the eight lowest-ranked at-large teams in the tournament. Each winner would then advance to face a higher-seeded team, but not necessarily the top seed. |
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Ultimately, neither option was chosen; instead, the NCAA created a new first round (the "First Four"), and to place these teams at the seed the NCAA believed they earned. In describing the process, 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."<ref name="sports.espn.go.com">http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5374116</ref> |
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====Seeding and the Bracket==== |
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In all regions, the #1 seed plays the #16 seed; the #2 team plays the #15, and so on. The effect of this seeding structure ensures that the better a team is seeded, the worse-seeded their opponents will be. |
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The selection committee seeds the whole field of 68 teams from 1-68, but does not make this information public. Instead, the committee divides the teams amongst the regions. The top four teams will be distributed among the four regions, and each will receive a #1 seed ''within that region''. The next four ranked teams will also be distributed among the four regions, each receiving a #2 seed with their region, and the process continues down the line. Carried to its logical conclusion, this would give each region seventeen teams seeded 1-17, but as seen below, this is complicated somewhat (see [[#The First Four|The First Four]]). |
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The bracket is thus set in stone, and in the semifinals, the champion of top #1 seed's region will play against the champion of the fourth No. 1 seed's region, and the champion of the second-ranked #1 seed's region will play against the champion of third-ranked #1 seed's region.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.ncaa.com/sites/default/files/files/BracketPrin-Proc10-5-10.pdf | title=NCAA DIVISION I MEN’S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP - PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES FOR ESTABLISHING THE BRACKET | publisher=NCAA | accessdate=2011-03-28 | quote=The committee will then place the four "number 1 seed" teams seeded 1 through 4 in each of the four regions, then determine the Final Four semifinals pairings, making best effort to pair the top No. 1 seed's region against the fourth No. 1 seed's region and the second No. 1 seed's region against the third No. 1 seed's region.}}</ref> |
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The brackets are not reseeded after each round. The tournament is [[single-elimination]] and there are no consolation games—although there was a third-place game as late as 1981, and each regional had a third-place game through the 1975 tournament. The single-elimination format produces opportunities for [[Cinderella (sports)|Cinderella]] teams to advance despite playing higher seeded teams. Nonetheless, despite the numerous instances of early-round Tournament upsets, including four instances of a #15 seed defeating a #2 seed, no #1 seed has ever lost in the first round to a #16 seed. |
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The selection committee is also instructed to place teams so that whenever possible, conference teams cannot meet until the regional finals. In addition, they are also instructed to avoid any possible rematches of regular season or previous year's tournament games during the Rounds of 32 and 64.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.ncaa.com/sites/default/files/files/BracketPrin-Proc10-5-10.pdf | title=NCAA DIVISION I MEN’S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP - PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES FOR ESTABLISHING THE BRACKET | publisher=NCAA | accessdate=2011-03-28}}</ref> |
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===The "Play-in" Game and First Four=== |
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====Openning Round Game (2001-2010)==== |
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When the [[Mountain West Conference]] was created in 1999, the winner of the [[Mountain West Conference Men's Basketball Tournament]] for the 1999–2000 season did not receive an automatic bid. As an alternative to eliminating an at-large bid, the NCAA expanded the tournament to [[2001 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|65 teams beginning in 2001]]. The #64 and #65 seeds played the [[NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Opening Round Game]] (informally known as the "play-in game" though the NCAA frowned on use of that term) on the Tuesday preceding the first weekend of the tournament. This game has been played at the [[University of Dayton Arena]] in Dayton, Ohio, since its inception. The teams were seeded in a regional bracket as the 16a/16b seed. |
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====Venues==== |
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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 (though in some cases, a team may be fortunate enough to play in or near its home state or city). Under current NCAA rules, any court on which a team hosts more than three ''regular-season'' games (in other words, not including conference tournament games) is considered a "home court".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ncaa.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/042908aae.html|title=Tournament History|publisher=NCAA|accessdate=2009-08-10}}</ref> |
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In 2011, the tournament expanded to 68 teams. Four "play-in" games were played, known as the "First Four".<ref name="sports.espn.go.com"/> The last four at-large teams selected (#'s 34 through 37) and the four lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers (overall seeds 65 through 68) will play in these four games, with winners advancing into the traditional 64-team bracket. |
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However, while a team can be moved to a different region if its home court is being used in 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, in theory a team ''could'' play in a Final Four on its home court; in reality, this would be unlikely, since the Final Four is usually staged at a venue larger than most college basketball arenas. |
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[[Virginia Commonwealth University]] (VCU) became the first team to advance beyond the first/second round of the tournament while having played in a Opening round game or First Four game when they defeated [[Georgetown University|Georgetown]]. They were the first in part to their seeding in the Southwest regional bracket. Unlike the previous Opening Round game, VCU played as an 11 seed in their First Four game against [[University of Southern California|USC]]. The three other First Four games featured two 12 seeds and four 16 seeds. The 12 seeded [[Clemson University|Clemson]] was defeated by [[West Virginia University|West Virginia]] and the 16 seeds lost to [[Ohio State University|Ohio State]] and [[University of Pittsburgh|Pittsburgh]]. |
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===Rounds=== |
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Ratings for the first "First Four" games increased from the prior year's game between Winthrop and Arkansas- Pine Bluff, which had 1.05 Million Viewers. The first two "First Four" games drew 1.35 million viewers and 1.2 million viewers.<ref>"First Four ratings up from last year." 16 Mar. 2011 retrieved on 17 Mar 2011. <http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/tournament/2011/news/story?id=6224952>.</ref> |
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The tournament has several rounds. They are currently called |
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*The First Four |
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*The Second Round (also known as "the Round of 64") |
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*The Third Round (also known as "the Round of 32") |
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*The Regional Semi-finals (participating teams are popularly known as the "Sweet Sixteen") |
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*The Regional Finals (participating teams are commonly known as the "Elite Eight") |
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*The National Semi-finals (participating teams are officially referred to as the "Final Four") |
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*The National Final |
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The tournament is [[single-elimination]]; this format produces opportunities for [[Cinderella (sports)|Cinderella]] teams to advance despite playing higher seeded teams. |
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====The First Four==== |
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=== Second and third rounds (formerly first and second rounds, 1985–2010) === |
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The appellation "First Four" refers to the number of ''games'' played, not the number of teams. First held in 2011, the First Four is played between the lowest four at-large qualifying teams and the lowest four automatic bid (conference champion) teams. This does ''not'', however, mean that these are necessarily the lowest eight teams in the field. The four games are held to determine which four teams will assume a place amongst the teams participating in the Round of 64. ''Unlike '''all''' the other early games in the tournament, the teams are not matched with an eye toward disparity, but rather, of equality.'' This is because in one game two teams may be vying for a #16 seed in the Round of 64, but in another game the two teams may be vying for perhaps a #12 seed, or even higher. |
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While most NCAA tournament games are played over the weekend, the First Four games are played during the week, between Selection Sunday and the weekend immediately following. Once the First Four games are played, the four winning teams assume their places in the bracket of 64 teams, and must play again that weekend, with little rest. |
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====The Round of 64 and the Round of 32==== |
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In the 1985 to 2002 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 regional bracket is divided into four-team pods. The possible pods by seeding are: |
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In the Second Round (the Round of 64), the #1 seed plays the #16 seed in all regions; the #2 team plays the #15, and so on. The effect of this seeding structure ensures that the better a team is seeded, the worse-seeded (and presumably weaker) their opponents will be. Sixteen second-round games are played on the Thursday following the "First Four" round. The remaining sixteen second-round games are played Friday. At this point the field is whittled down to 32 teams. |
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The Third Round (the Round of 32) is played on Saturday and Sunday immediately following the second round. The third round consists of Thursday's winners playing in eight games on Saturday, followed by Friday's winners playing in the remaining eight third-round games on Sunday. Thus, after the first weekend, 16 teams remain, commonly called the "Sweet Sixteen." |
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*Pod #1: 1v16, 8v9 |
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*Pod #2: 2v15, 7v10 |
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*Pod #3: 3v14, 6v11 |
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*Pod #4: 4v13, 5v12 |
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====Regional semifinals and finals==== |
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Each of the eight second- and third-round (formerly 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. |
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The teams that are still alive after the first weekend advance to the regional semifinals (the '''Sweet Sixteen''') and finals (the '''[[Elite Eight]]'''), which are played on the second weekend of the tournament (again, the games are split into Thursday/Saturday and Friday/Sunday). Four regional semi-final games are played Thursday and four are played Friday. After Friday's games, 8 teams (the Elite Eight) 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 emerge as the "Final Four." |
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====Final Four==== |
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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". Starting in 2011, the "First Four" is the first round. The round after the "First Four" will be called the "second round", which consists of 32 games and is played on Thursday and Friday. The next round, the "third round", consists of 16 games that are played on Saturday and Sunday.<ref name="sports.espn.go.com"/> |
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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 noted [[#Seeding and the Bracket|above]], which regional champion play which, and in which semifinal they play, is determined by the overall rankings of the four #1 seeds in the original bracket, not on the seeds of the eventual Final Four teams themselves. |
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==Popular culture== |
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===Regional semifinals and finals=== |
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===Tournament associated terms=== |
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The teams that are still alive after the first weekend advance to the regional semifinals (the '''Sweet Sixteen''') and finals (the '''[[Elite Eight]]''') played on the second weekend of the tournament (again, the games are split into Thursday/Saturday and Friday/Sunday). Four regional semi-final games are played Thursday and four are played Friday. After Friday's games, 8 teams (the Elite Eight) 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 emerge as the "Final Four." |
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As indicated below, none of these phrases are ''exclusively'' used in regards to the NCAA tournament. Nonetheless, they are widely associated with the tournament, sometimes for legal reasons, sometimes just because it's become part of the American sports vernacular. |
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====March Madness==== |
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March Madness is a popular term for season-ending basketball tournaments played in March. March Madness is also a registered trademark, held jointly by the NCAA and the [[Illinois High School Association]]. |
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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. Before the 2004 tournament, the pairings for the semifinals were based on an annual rotation. For example, in 2000, the winner of the West Regional played the winner of the Midwest regional, and the South winner played the East winner; in 2001, the West winner played the East winner and the South played the Midwest; in 2002, the West played the South and the East played the Midwest. Since 2004 and in response to complaints that too often the two best teams remaining squared off in a semifinal game and not in the final game (such as when the last two remaining 1 seeds, Kansas and Maryland, played in one semifinal while a 2 seed and a 5 seed played in the other semifinal), the pairings are determined by the ranking of the four top seeds against each other. The four number one seeds are ranked before the tournament begins. |
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[[H. V. Porter]], an official with the Illinois High School Association (and later a member of the [[Basketball Hall of Fame]]) was the first person to use March Madness to describe a basketball tournament. Porter published an essay named ''March Madness'' in 1939, and in 1942 used the phrase in a poem, ''Basketball Ides of March''. Through the years the use of March Madness picked up steam, 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. In 1977 Jim Enright published a book about the Illinois tournament entitled ''March Madness''.<ref>http://nbra.net/Default.aspx?tabid=252</ref> |
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==Format history== <!-- do not rename section without also changing forward ref in infobox --> |
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The NCAA tournament has expanded a number of times throughout its history. This is a breakdown of the history of the tournament format: |
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*1939–1950: eight teams |
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*1951–1952: 16 teams |
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*1953–1974: varied between 22 and 25 teams |
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*1975–1978: 32 teams |
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*1979: 40 teams |
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*1980–1982: 48 teams |
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*1983: 52 teams (four play-in games before the tournament) |
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*1984: 53 teams (five play-in games before the tournament) |
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*1985–2000: 64 teams |
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*2001–2010: 65 teams (with an opening round game to determine whether the 64th or 65th team plays in the first round) |
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*2011–future: 68 teams (four play-in games before the tournament, the nominal first round) |
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Fans began connecting the term to the NCAA tournament in 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. |
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After the conclusion of the [[2010 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2010 tournament]], there was much speculation about increasing the tournament size to as many as 128 teams. On April 1, 2010, the NCAA announced that it was looking at expanding to 96 teams for 2011. On April 22, 2010, the NCAA announced a new television contract with CBS/Turner and that the field would expand to 68 teams, as opposed to the often speculated 96. |
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Only in the 1990s did either the IHSA or NCAA think about [[trademark]]ing the term, and by that time a small television production company named Intersport had beaten them both to the punch. 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. In 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. |
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Prior to 1975, only one team per conference could be in the NCAA tournament. However, a few factors led the NCAA to expand the field. In 1970, South Carolina did not see any postseason play despite going 14–0 in the ACC and 25–3 overall when N.C. State won the ACC tournament and took the conference's only tournament bid. (The Carolina Coliseum was hosting the East Regional of the NCAA tournament, meaning South Carolina could not go to the NIT either.) In the 1971 season, USC was ranked #2 in the country with its only 2 losses coming against conference rival and #1 ranked UCLA, so USC could not go to the tournament. In 1974, North Carolina State and Maryland, both in the ACC, were ranked #2 and #3 respectively. They met in an ACC title game that N.C. State won in overtime, gaining the ACC's only tournament bid. N.C. State went on to win the NCAA tournament. |
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Following 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. In 2003, in ''March Madness Athletic Association v. Netfire, Inc.'', the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit]] held that March Madness was not a generic term, and ordered Netfire to relinquish the domain name to the NCAA.<ref>http://www.bakerbotts.com/infocenter/publications/detail.aspx?id=716d75c6-09b6-4888-ba6b-977cd09e0710</ref> |
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==March Madness and history of the term== |
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{{Unreferenced section|date=March 2009}} |
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March Madness is a popular term for season-ending basketball tournaments played in March, especially those conducted by the [[National Collegiate Athletic Association]] (NCAA) and various state high school associations. Fans began connecting the term to the NCAA tournament in 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 phrase had not already become associated with the college tournament when an Illinois official wrote in 1939 that "A little March Madness [may] contribute to sanity." March Madness is also a registered trademark, held jointly by the NCAA and the [[Illinois High School Association]]. It was also the title of a book about the Illinois high school tournament written in 1977 by Jim Enright. |
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====Final Four==== |
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[[H. V. Porter]], an official with the Illinois High School Association (and later a member of the [[Basketball Hall of Fame]]) was the first person to use March Madness to describe a basketball tournament. Porter published an essay named ''March Madness'' in 1939 and in 1942 used the phrase in a poem, "Basketball Ides of March." Through the years the use of March Madness picked up steam, 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. In 1977 the IHSA published a book about its tournament titled ''March Madness''. |
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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. (While the term "Final Four" was not used in the early decades of the tournament, the term has been applied retroactively to include the last four teams in tournaments from earlier years, even when only two brackets existed.) |
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Some claim that the phrase Final Four was first used to describe the final games of [[Indiana|Indiana's]] annual high school basketball tournament. But the NCAA, which has a trademark on the term, says Final Four was originated by a ''[[The Plain Dealer|Plain Dealer]]'' sportswriter, Ed Chay, in a 1975 article that appeared in the Official Collegiate Basketball Guide. The article stated that [[Marquette Golden Eagles|Marquette University]] “was one of the final four” in the 1974 tournament. The NCAA started capitalizing the term in 1978 and turning it into a trademark several years later. |
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Only in the 1990s did either the IHSA or NCAA think about [[trademark]]ing the term, and by that time a small television production company named Intersport, Inc., had beaten them both to the punch. IHSA eventually bought the trademark rights from Intersport and then went after big game, suing GTE Vantage, Inc., an NCAA licensee that used the name March Madness for a computer game based on the college tournament. In a historic ruling, "Illinois High School Association v. GTE Vantage, Inc." (1996), 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. |
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In recent years, the term '''Final Four''' has spread into 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 [[NCAA Division I|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 called the Final Four. |
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Following 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]] [http://www.marchmadness.com marchmadness.com] and was using it to post information about the NCAA tournament. After protracted litigation, the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit]] held in ''March Madness Athletic Association v. Netfire, Inc.'' (2003) that March Madness was not a generic term and ordered Netfire to relinquish the domain name. (This domain name is currently being used to redirect into the main [http://www.ncaa.com/ NCAA.com] web site.) |
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====Cinderella team==== |
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In recent years, the term "March Madness" has been expanded to include all conference tournaments in college basketball, with the term "The Big Dance" being used more frequently when specifically referring to the NCAA Tournament. March Madness has also has been used generally to describe all basketball tournaments across the country that occur in the month of March – high school and college, male and female. |
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Although there is no official definition of what constitutes a ''[[Cinderella (sports)|Cinderella]] team'', there does seem to be a consensus that such teams represent small schools, are seeded rather low in the tournament, and achieve at least one unexpected win in the tournament. The term became popularized as a result of [[City College of New York|CCNY]]'s run through the tournament in 1950.<ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=g42TyP-V5C8C&pg=PR41&lpg=PR41&dq=Pat+Forde+College+Basketball+Encyclopedia+Cinderella&source=bl&ots=cYNEeKNejy&sig=d42TdANaMvqbHSmDyPJj3dbr_qU&hl=en&ei=wfKXTd2mDoi3tgfstb3qCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDAQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false</ref> Since 1950, the term has seen use in other sports as well, though nowhere is it as prominent as in the NCAA tournament. |
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===Bracketology=== |
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==Championship trophies and other honors== |
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For decades, fans have been entering into office pools or private gambling-related contests as to who can predict the tournament most correctly; [[Barack Obama]] has referred to the filling out of a tournament bracket as a "national pastime".<ref>http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/16/president-obamas-2011-ncaa-brackets</ref> 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]] radio show, a wide variety of celebrities from various fields (such as [[Darius Rucker]], [[Charlie Sheen]], and [[Brooklyn Decker]]) have posted full brackets with predictions. President Obama's bracket is posted on the [http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/16/president-obamas-2011-ncaa-brackets White House website]. |
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There are many different 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. |
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There are 2^63 or 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (9.2 quintillion) possibilities for the possible winners in a 64 team NCAA bracket, making the odds of randomly picking a perfect bracket (i.e. without weighting for seed number) 9.2 quintillion to 1.<ref>[http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/56223.html Ask Dr. Math], [http://mathforum.org/ The Math Forum @ Drexel]; March 14, 2001; accessed March 7, 2010</ref> With the expansion of the tournament field to 68 teams in 2011, the odds are now increased to 2^67 or 147,573,952,589,676,412,928 (147.57 quintillion) possibilities. |
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==Evolution of the Tournament== |
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===Format history=== <!-- do not rename section without also changing forward ref in infobox --> |
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The NCAA tournament has changed its format many times over the years. Below are listed many of these changes. |
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====Expansion of field==== |
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*The NCAA tournament has expanded a number of times throughout its history. This is a breakdown of the history of the tournament format: |
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:*1939–1950: eight teams |
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:*1951–1952: 16 teams |
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:*1953–1974: varied between 22 and 25 teams |
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:*1975–1978: 32 teams |
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:*1979: 40 teams |
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:*1980–1982: 48 teams |
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:*1983: 52 teams (four play-in games before the tournament) |
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:*1984: 53 teams (five play-in games before the tournament) |
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:*1985–2000: 64 teams |
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:*2001–2010: 65 teams (with an opening round game to determine whether the 64th or 65th team plays in the first round) |
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:*2011–present: 68 teams (four play-in games in the first round before all remaining teams compete in the second round) |
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:After the conclusion of the [[2010 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2010 tournament]], there was much speculation about increasing the tournament size to as many as 128 teams. On April 1, 2010, the NCAA announced that it was looking at expanding to 96 teams for 2011. On April 22, 2010, the NCAA announced a new television contract with CBS/Turner and that the field would expand the field, but only to 68 teams. |
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====Other changes==== |
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*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 (e.g., South Carolina, which was 14-0 in conference play in 1970, Southern Cal which was ranked #2 in the nation in 1971, and Maryland which was ranked #3 in the nation in 1974), the NCAA began to place at-large teams in the tournament, instead of just conference champions. |
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*Currently, there are no consolation games, but there was a third-place game until 1981. Additionally, each regional had a third-place game through the 1975 tournament. |
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*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]] in 1999. Originally, the winner of the [[Mountain West Conference Men's Basketball Tournament|MWC 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 [[2001 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|65 teams]]. The #64 and #65 seeds were seeded in a regional bracket as the 16a/16b seeds, and then played the [[NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Opening Round Game]] (the "play-in 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. |
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*In 2011, the tournament expanded to 68 teams. Four "play-in" games are now played, officially known as the "First Four".<ref name="sports.espn.go.com">http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5374116</ref> 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."<ref name="sports.espn.go.com"/> |
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*In the 1985 to 2002 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 regional bracket is divided into four-team pods. The possible pods by seeding are: |
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:*Pod #1: 1v16, 8v9 |
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:*Pod #2: 2v15, 7v10 |
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:*Pod #3: 3v14, 6v11 |
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:*Pod #4: 4v13, 5v12 |
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:Each of the eight second- and third-round (formerly 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. |
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*Since 2004, the semi-final matches during the first day of the Final Four weekend have been determined by a [[#Seeding and the Bracket|procedure]] based upon the original seeding of the full field. Prior to 2004, the pitting of regional champions in the semi-finals was simply random. |
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*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". Starting in 2011, the "First Four" became the first round. The round after the "First Four" is now called the "second round", and consists of 64 teams playing 32 games; it is played on Thursday and Friday. The next round, the "third round", consists of 32 teams playing 16 games that are played on Saturday and Sunday.<ref name="sports.espn.go.com"/> |
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===Venues=== |
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''For a list of all the cities and stadiums that have hosted the Final Four, go to [[#Host cities|Host cities]], below.'' |
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====Stadium size and domes==== |
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Since [[1997 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1997]], the NCAA has required that all Final Four sessions take place in domed stadiums with a minimum capacity of 40,000, usually having only a half of the dome in use. The last small arena to host the Final Four was [[Izod Center|The Meadowlands]] in [[1996 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1996]]. As of [[2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2009]], the minimum was raised 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 [[American football|football]], like the setup at [[University of Minnesota|Minnesota]]'s [[Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome|Metrodome]]. |
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The first instance of a [[dome|domed stadium]] being used for a NCAA Tournament Final Four was the [[Reliant Astrodome|Houston Astrodome]] in [[1971 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1971]], but the Final Four would not return to a dome until [[1982 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1982]], when the [[Louisiana Superdome]] in [[New Orleans]] hosted the event for the first time. |
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===="Home court" advantage==== |
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Since the inception of the modern Final Four in [[1952 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1952]], only once has a team played a Final Four on its actual home court. But through the 2011 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 2010 tournament. Kentucky ([[1958 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1958]]), UCLA ([[1968 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1968]], [[1972 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1972]], [[1975 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1975]]) and North Carolina State ([[1974 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1974]]) won the national title; Louisville ([[1959 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1959]]) and Purdue ([[1980 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1980]]) lost in the Final Four; and California ([[1960 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1960]]), Duke ([[1994 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1994]]), Michigan State ([[2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2009]]) and Butler ([[2010 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2010]]) lost in the final. |
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The biggest advantage was in 1959 when Louisville played at its regular home of [[Freedom Hall]]; however, they lost to [[1958–59 West Virginia Mountaineers men's basketball team|West Virginia]] in the semifinals. The following year, Cal had nearly as large an edge, as they only had to cross [[San Francisco Bay]] to play in the Final Four at the [[Cow Palace]] in [[Daly City, California|Daly City]]; the Golden Bears lost in the championship game to [[1959–60 Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team|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]] (and also UCLA's home arena before the latter venue opened in 1965); unlike Louisville and Cal, the Bruins won the national title on both occasions. Butler lost the 2010 title {{convert|6|mi|km}} from its Indianapolis campus. |
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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 teams, all from [[Manhattan]], played in the East Regional at [[Madison Square Garden (1925)|Madison Square Garden]]—frequently used as a "big-game" venue by each team—and advanced at least to the national semifinals. [[NYU Violets|NYU]] won the East Regional in [[1945 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1945]] but lost in the title game, also held at the Garden, to [[1944–45 Oklahoma A&M Aggies men's basketball team|Oklahoma A&M]]. [[City College of New York|CCNY]] played in the East Regional in both [[1947 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1947]] and [[1950 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1950]]; the Beavers lost in the 1947 East final to eventual champion [[Holy Cross Crusaders men's basketball|Holy Cross]] but won the 1950 East Regional and national titles at the Garden. |
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In 1974, North Carolina State won the NCAA tournament without leaving their home state, North Carolina. The team was put in the East Region, and played its regional games at home arena [[Reynolds Coliseum]]. NC State played the final four and national championship games at nearby [[Greensboro Coliseum]]. |
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While not their home state, Kansas has played in the championship game in [[Kansas City, Missouri]], only 45 minutes from their campus in [[Lawrence, Kansas]], not just once, but ''four times''. In 1940, 1953, and 1957 they lost the championship game each time at [[Municipal Auditorium (Kansas City)|Municipal Auditorium]]. In 1988, playing at Kansas City's [[Kemper Arena]], Kansas won the championship, over Big Eight rival Oklahoma. |
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====Flag controversy==== |
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The NCAA has banned the [[Bi-Lo Center]] and [[Colonial Life Arena]] in [[South Carolina]] from hosting tournament games, despite their sizes (16,000 and 18,000 seats, respectively) because of an [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People|NAACP]] protest at the Bi-Lo Center during the 2002 first and second round tournament games over that state's refusal to take down the [[Confederate Battle Flag]] from their state capitol. Following requests by the NAACP and [[Black Coaches & Administrators|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.<ref>http://www.kctv5.com/sports/26998911/detail.html</ref> |
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==Trophies and rituals== |
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As a tournament ritual, the winning team cuts down the net at the end of the regional championship game as well as the national championship game. Each player (traditionally with the seniors going first, then juniors, and so on) cuts a single strand off of the net for themselves, commemorating their victory, with the head coach cutting the last strand and claiming the net itself. Furthermore, the regional champs (starting in 2006) receive a bronze plated NCAA Regional Championship trophy (previously given to only the Final Four teams that did not make the championship game), and the National Champions also receive 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. The champions also receive a commemorative gold championship ring. The other three Final Four teams receive silver runner-up or Final Four rings. |
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===Cutting down the nets=== |
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After the championship trophy is awarded, one player is selected and then awarded the [[NCAA Basketball Tournament Most Outstanding Player|Most Outstanding Player]] award (which almost always come from the championship team). It is not intended to be the same as a Most ''Valuable'' Player award although it is sometimes informally referred to as such. |
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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.<ref>http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/tourney05/2005-03-23-trimming-nets_x.htm</ref> This NCAA tournament tradition is credited to [[Everett Case]], the coach of [[North Carolina State Wolfpack men's basketball|North Carolina State]], who stood on his players' shoulders to accomplish the feat after the Wolfpack won the tournament in 1947.<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/04/04/ncaa.cut.down.nets/index.html?hpt=Sbin</ref> |
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===Team Awards=== |
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The [[National Association of Basketball Coaches]] also presents a more elaborate marble/crystal trophy, similar to the crystal football presented to the winner of the [[Bowl Championship Series]] by the [[American Football Coaches Association]], to the top-ranked team in its end-of-season coaches' poll, which is invariably the same as the NCAA championship game winner. During the mid-2000s, this award was named the [[Siemens AG|Siemens]] Trophy after its title sponsor at the time. Sometimes confused with the NCAA's own trophy,<ref>[http://www.utmedicalcenter.org/news/NCAA+Men%92s+Basketball+Trophy+Visits+UT+Medical+Center/1574.html NCAA Men’s Basketball Trophy Visits UT Medical Center], [[University of Tennessee]] press release, January 15, 2007</ref> the NABC trophy is in fact presented separately at a press conference the day after the game, although it used to be presented right after the standard NCAA championship trophy.<ref>[http://nabc.cstv.com/about/about-basicinfo.html NABC Basic Info]</ref> |
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The NCAA awards the National Champions a gold plated Wooden NCAA National Championship trophy.{{Citation needed|date=April 2011}} The loser of the championship game receives a silver plated National Runner-Up trophy for second place. All four Final Four teams receive a bronze plated NCAA Regional Championship trophy. |
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The champions also receive a commemorative gold championship ring, and the other three Final Four teams receive Final Four rings.{{Citation needed|date=April 2011}} |
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==Television== |
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===1970s=== |
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From 1969 to 1981, partial coverage of the NCAA tournament aired on [[College Basketball on NBC|NBC]]. |
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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.<ref>[http://www.utmedicalcenter.org/news/NCAA+Men%92s+Basketball+Trophy+Visits+UT+Medical+Center/1574.html NCAA Men’s Basketball Trophy Visits UT Medical Center], [[University of Tennessee]] press release, January 15, 2007</ref> Since 2006, the Siemens/NABC Trophy has been presented separately at a press conference the day after the game.<ref>[http://nabc.cstv.com/about/about-basicinfo.html NABC Basic Info]</ref> |
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===1980s=== |
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In 1982, [[College Basketball on CBS|CBS]] obtained broadcast television rights to the NCAA tournament. That same year, [[College Basketball on ESPN|ESPN]] began showing the opening rounds of the tournament, which established ESPN's following among college basketball fans and was the network's first contract signed with the NCAA for a major sport. According to many fans of the tournament, ESPN was easily the best broadcaster of the first round, as six first-round games could be seen on both Thursday and Friday on ESPN, and CBS then picked up a seventh game at 11:30 pm ET. This meant 14 of 32 first-round games were televised. ESPN also re-ran games overnight. ESPN does not have regional affiliates, so the entire country had to watch the same game (ESPN would not gain the ability to split its signal regionally, as it presently does for the [[NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship|NCAA women's tournament]], until many years later). Further, ESPN at the time did not have any of the cable affiliate channels it has now ([[ESPNU]], [[ESPN2]], [[ESPNEWS]]), which also limited its resources. (Areas with local interest in a game could see the game on a local channel, regardless of which game ESPN televised.) The benefit of this was that ESPN always showed the most competitive games, since that was the best way to gain national appeal. |
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=== |
===Most Outstanding Player=== |
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After the championship trophy is awarded, one player is selected and then awarded the [[NCAA Basketball Tournament Most Outstanding Player|Most Outstanding Player]] award (which almost always come from the championship team). It is not intended to be the same as a Most ''Valuable'' Player award although it is sometimes informally referred to as such. |
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In 1991, CBS assumed responsibility for covering all games of the NCAA tournament, except the 64 vs. 65 game, which is televised by ESPN, except for the first one, which was aired on [[Spike TV|TNN]], and used CBS graphics and announcers. CBS and TNN were both owned by [[Viacom (1971-2005)|Viacom]] at the time. |
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Through 2010, CBS broadcasted the remaining 63 games of the NCAA tournament proper. Most areas saw only eight of 32 first round games, seven second round games, and four regional semifinal games (out of the possible 56 games during these rounds; there would be some exceptions to this rule in the 2000s). 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 is able to reach. |
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CBS provides three sets of feeds from each venue, known as "constant" "swing" and "flex." Constant feeds remain primarily on a given game, and are used primarily by stations with local interest in a game. Despite its name, a constant feed may occasionally veer away to other games for brief updates, but coverage generally remains with the initial game. Swing feeds tend to stay on games of natural interest, such as teams from local conferences, but will go to other games that are close. On a flex feed, coverage bounces around from one venue to another, depending on action at the various games in progress. If one game is a blowout, coverage can switch to a more competitive game. Flex games have no natural interest for the stations carrying them, allowing the flex game to be the best game in progress. Station feeds are planned in advance and stations have the option of requesting either constant or flex feed for various games. |
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In 1999, [[DirecTV]] began broadcasting all games otherwise not shown on local television with its ''Mega March Madness'' premium package, at $49. 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. |
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===2000s=== |
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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.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://news.com.com/Yahoo+unveils+Platinum+paid+service/2100-1032_3-992691.html|title= Yahoo unveils Platinum paid service|accessdate=2007-03-17 |publisher=[[CNET#News.com|CNET News.com]]}}</ref> In 2004, CBS sold access to ''March Madness On Demand'' for $9.95, which provided games not otherwise shown on broadcast television. The service was free for [[AOL]] subscribers.<ref>http://www.paidcontent.org/pc/arch/2004_03_16.shtml#005874</ref> In 2005, the service charged $19.95 but offered enhanced coverage of pregame and postgame interviews and press conferences.<ref>[http://www.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/stories/031405acz.html NCAA MARCH MADNESS ON DEMAND SPEARHEADS CSTV.COM'S ONLINE COVERAGE :: CSTV.com Features Exclusive Blogs From Coaches Norm Roberts, Steve Fisher And Pat Kennedy, Streaming Video of Classic NCAA Tournament Moments, Exclusive Columns From Matt Doherty, Brian Curtis, Debbie Antonelli, Jerry Palm<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> In 2006, ''March Madness On Demand'' was made free, but dropped the coverage of interviews and press conferences. The service was profitable and set a record for simultaneous online streams at 268,000.<ref>[http://www.streamingmedia.com/press/view.asp?id=4405 Streamingmedia.com: CBS’s NCAA March Madness On Demand Sets Internet Record For Simultaneous Live Viewing Of An Entertainment Or Sports Event<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Since then, ''March Madness On Demand'' has been free to online users. The CBS broadcast provides the NCAA with over 500 million dollars annually, and makes up over 90% of the NCAA's annual revenue.<ref>{{cite web | url= http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/64263 | title= NCAA, TV talk about bigger men’s tourney}}</ref> |
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NCAA partner [[AT&T Mobility]] also broadcasts all games via the [[MobiTV]] infrastructure, which is available on phones compatible with AT&T's Mobile TV service. For the [[iPhone]], a premium-charge application is available via the [[App Store]] to watch the games. |
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In addition, [[CBS College Sports Network]] (formerly CSTV) 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 on Demand'' and on CBS affiliates in the market areas of the team playing. In other markets, newscasts, local programming or preempted CBS morning programming (such as ''[[The Price Is Right (U.S. game show)|The Price Is Right]]'') are aired. CBS-CS is scheduled to continue broadcasting the official pregame and postgame shows and press conferences from the teams involved.<ref>[http://www.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/stories/030607acz.html CSTV.com: #1 in College Sports – Men's Basketball<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> |
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===2010 and beyond: Joint CBS/Turner contract=== |
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On April 22, 2010, the NCAA took advantage of an opt-out clause in its 1999 deal with CBS to announce its intention to sign a new contract with CBS and [[Turner Sports]], a division of [[Time Warner]] (which co-owns [[the CW Television Network]] with CBS). The new contract came amid serious consideration by the NCAA of expanding the tournament to 68 teams. It runs through 2024 and provides for the broadcast of all games of the tournament on national television for the first time in history. All First Four games will air on [[truTV]]. A featured second- or third-round game in each time "window" will be broadcast terrestrially on CBS, while all other games will be shown either on [[TBS (TV channel)|TBS]], [[TNT (TV channel)|TNT]] or truTV. Sweet 16 (regional semifinal) games would be broadcast on CBS and TBS, while all games from the Elite Eight (regional final) onwards would be shown on CBS exclusively. Beginning in 2016, CBS and TBS would split coverage of the Elite Eight, while the two networks would alternate coverage of the Final Four and national championship game, with TBS getting the final two rounds in even numbered years, with CBS getting the games in odd numbered years. ''March Madness On Demand'' would remain unchanged, although Turner is allowed to develop their own service. The contract is expected to be signed after a review by the NCAA Board of Directors.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5125307|title=CBS, Turner win TV rights to tourney|work=ESPN|accessdate=22 April 2010}}</ref> |
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===HDTV coverage=== |
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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 television|digital]] and [[analog television|analog]] had the option of airing separate games on their HD and [[standard definition|SD]] channels, to take advantage of the available high definition coverage. Beginning in 2007, all games in the tournament (including all first and second round games) 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.<ref>[http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/buzz/2007/03/15/ncaa-tournament-why-we-didnt-get-stanford-in-hdtv-but-the-rest-of-the-country-did Why we didn’t get Stanford in HDTV (but the rest of the country did) – Morning Buzz]</ref> Some digital television stations choose not to participate in HDTV broadcasts of the first and second rounds and the regional semifinals, and split their signal into [[digital subchannel]]s to show all games going on simultaneously. Most notably, [[WRAL-TV]] in [[Raleigh, North Carolina]] has split its digital signal four ways since 2000 to show all of the games.<ref>[http://www.cbc-raleigh.com/inside_cbc/2000news/031600hd.htm WRAL Digital Airs Entire NCAA Basketball Tournament<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Upgrades at the CBS broadcast center allowed all feeds, flex and constant, to be in HD for the 2008 tournament. |
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The entire country sees the regional finals, the national semifinals, and the national championship. At the end of CBS's coverage, a highlight reel featuring memorable moments from the tournament is shown, set to the song "[[One Shining Moment]]." |
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===Outside of the United States=== |
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{{See also|List of NCAA Final Four Broadcasters}} |
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In Europe, [[ESPN America]] simulcasts the NCAA tournament, including games shown on CBS College Sports, taking the suggested national feed. |
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In [[Canada]], [[The Sports Network|TSN]] owns the rights to the tournament as of the 2011 edition, as a result of a international deal between the NCAA and [[ESPN International]] (which is a minority investor in TSN). |
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==Television coverage and revenues== |
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In Australia, the ONE HD network simulcasts the CBS game coverage in HD. ESPN Australia and ESPNHD Australia also simulcast CBS game coverage. As with the Canadian telecast, ONE HD only airs selected games during the later stages of the tournament. |
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===Current television contracts=== |
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Since 2010, the NCAA has had a joint contract with CBS and [[Turner Sports]], a division of [[Time Warner]] (which co-owns [[the CW Television Network]] with CBS). 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 [[#The First Four|First Four]] games air on [[truTV]]. A featured second- or third-round game in each time "window" is broadcast on CBS, while all other games are shown either on [[TBS (TV channel)|TBS]], [[TNT (TV channel)|TNT]] or truTV. Sweet 16 (regional semifinal) games are broadcast on CBS and TBS. Through 2015, all games from the Elite Eight (regional final) onwards are shown on CBS exclusively. Beginning in 2016, CBS and TBS will split coverage of the Elite Eight. CBS and TBS will 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 is allowed to develop their own service.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5125307|title=CBS, Turner win TV rights to tourney|work=ESPN|accessdate=22 April 2010}}</ref> |
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The CBS broadcast provides the NCAA with over 500 million dollars annually, and makes up over 90% of the NCAA's annual revenue.<ref>{{cite web | url= http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/64263 | title= NCAA, TV talk about bigger men’s tourney}}</ref> |
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==Revenues== |
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The |
The revenues from the multi-billion-dollar television contract are divided among the Division I basketball playing schools and conferences as follows:<ref name="revenue_distribution">{{cite news |
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|url=http://www1.ncaa.org/finance/revenue_distribution_plan |
|url=http://www1.ncaa.org/finance/revenue_distribution_plan |
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|publisher=NCAA |
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The Division I Men's Basketball tournament is the only NCAA championship tournament where the NCAA does not keep the profits.{{Citation needed|date=April 2011}} |
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==Final Four== |
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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 the only teams remaining on the tournament's final weekend. (The term has been applied retroactively to include the last four teams in tournaments from earlier years, when only two brackets existed.) |
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===History of television coverage=== |
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Some claim that the phrase Final Four was first used to describe the final games of [[Indiana|Indiana's]] annual high school basketball tournament. But the NCAA, which has a trademark on the term, says Final Four was originated by a ''[[The Plain Dealer|Plain Dealer]]'' sportswriter, Ed Chay, in a 1975 article that appeared in the Official Collegiate Basketball Guide. The article stated that [[Marquette Golden Eagles|Marquette University]] “was one of the final four” in the 1974 tournament. The NCAA started capitalizing the term in 1978, and turning it into a trademark several years later. |
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CBS has been the major partner of the NCAA in televising the tournament for much of its history, but there have been many changes in coverage since the tournament was first broadcast in 1969. |
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====Early broadcast coverage==== |
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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 (though in some cases, a team may be fortunate enough to play in or near its home state or city). Under current NCAA rules, any court on which a team hosts more than three regular-season games is considered a "home court" (conference tournament games are not counted for this purpose).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ncaa.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/042908aae.html|title=Tournament History|publisher=NCAA|accessdate=2009-08-10}}</ref> In the 2006 and 2009 tournaments, [[Villanova Wildcats men's basketball|Villanova]] was able to play its first two games at the [[Wells Fargo Center (Philadelphia)|Wachovia Center]] (now Wells Fargo Center) in nearby [[Philadelphia]], a venue where it had played three regular-season home games in each season. A fourth home game at that facility would have disqualified them from playing there. However, some semi-"home" courts (such as [[2005-06 George Mason Patriots men's basketball team|George Mason]] playing its regional at the [[Verizon Center]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], not far from its campus in [[Fairfax, Virginia]], in 2006 or [[2008–09 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team|Michigan State]] playing at [[Ford Field]] in [[Detroit]] in the 2009 Final Four) are mere quirks of scheduling and have been part of the tournament for years. [[2009-10 Butler Bulldogs men's basketball team|Butler]] shared [[2010 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament#Final Four|2010 Final Four]] hosting duties at [[Lucas Oil Stadium]] in its home city of [[Indianapolis]] with the [[Horizon League]]. |
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From 1969 to 1981, the NCAA tournament aired on [[College Basketball on NBC|NBC]], but not all games were televised. The early rounds, in particular, were not always seen on TV. |
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In 1982, [[College Basketball on CBS|CBS]] obtained broadcast television rights to the NCAA tournament. |
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On the third weekend, traditionally a Saturday and Monday for the men's tournament and a Sunday and Tuesday for the women's tournament, the final four teams meet in semifinals on the first day and the championship on the second. For several years in the men's tournament, the teams eliminated in the semifinals met in a [[consolation game]] prior to the championship; this was discontinued after 1981. |
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====ESPN & CBS share coverage==== |
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==Final Four records== |
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The same year as CBS obtained rights to the Big Dance, [[College Basketball on ESPN|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 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, no doubt due to the extensive coverage provided by ESPN. |
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For information on the NCAA Tournament Final Four: |
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{{See also|NCAA Men's Division I Final Four appearances by school|NCAA Men's Division I Final Four appearances by coaches|List of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Final Four participants}} |
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=== |
====CBS takes over==== |
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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 (between the 64 seed and the 65 seed) in the 2000s, did ESPN get back in the game (and actually, the first time this "play-in" game was played in 2001, the game was aired on [[Spike TV|TNN]], using CBS graphics and announcers. CBS and TNN were both owned by [[Viacom (1971-2005)|Viacom]] at the time.) |
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In recent years, the term '''Final Four''' has come into use for the last four teams in other elimination tournaments. 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. |
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Through 2010, CBS broadcasted the remaining 63 games of the NCAA tournament proper. Most areas saw only eight of 32 first round games, seven second round games, and four regional semifinal games (out of the possible 56 games during these rounds; there would be some exceptions to this rule in the 2000s). 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. |
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The derivative term "[[Frozen Four]]" is used by the NCAA to refer to the final rounds of the [[NCAA Division I|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 called the Final Four. |
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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 remain primarily on a given game, and are used primarily by stations with a clear local interest in a particular game. Despite its name, a constant feed will occasionally veer away to other games for brief updates (as is typical in most American sports coverage), but coverage generally remains with the initial game. A swing feed tends 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 bounces around from one venue to another, depending on action at the various games in progress. If one game is a blowout, coverage can switch to a more competitive game. A flex feed is provided when there are not games that have a significant natural local interest for the stations carrying them, allowing the flex game to be the best game in progress. Station feeds are planned in advance and stations have the option of requesting either constant or flex feed for various games. |
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==Outcome prediction== |
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There are 2^63 or 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (9.2 quintillion) possibilities for the possible winners in a 64 team NCAA bracket, making the odds of randomly picking a perfect bracket (i.e. without weighting for seed number) 9.2 quintillion to 1.<ref>[http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/56223.html Ask Dr. Math], [http://mathforum.org/ The Math Forum @ Drexel]; March 14, 2001; accessed March 7, 2010</ref> The tournament field has been expanded to 68 teams for the 2011 tournament increasing that number to 2^67 or 147,573,952,589,676,412,928 (147.57 quintillion) possibilities. Many fans enter into office pools or private gambling-related contests as to who can predict the tournament most correctly. There are many different 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. |
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====Viewing options emerge==== |
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==Tournament trends== |
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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. |
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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.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://news.com.com/Yahoo+unveils+Platinum+paid+service/2100-1032_3-992691.html|title= Yahoo unveils Platinum paid service|accessdate=2007-03-17 |publisher=[[CNET#News.com|CNET News.com]]}}</ref> 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.<ref>http://www.paidcontent.org/pc/arch/2004_03_16.shtml#005874</ref> In 2006, ''March Madness On Demand'' was made free, and continues to be so today to online users. |
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In addition, [[CBS College Sports Network]] (formerly CSTV) 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 on Demand'' 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. CBS-CS is scheduled to continue broadcasting the official pregame and postgame shows and press conferences from the teams involved.<ref>[http://www.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/stories/030607acz.html CSTV.com: #1 in College Sports – Men's Basketball<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> |
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NCAA partner [[AT&T Mobility]] also broadcasts all games via the [[MobiTV]] infrastructure, which is available on phones compatible with AT&T's Mobile TV service. For the [[iPhone]], a premium-charge application is available via the [[App Store]] to watch the games. |
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====HDTV coverage==== |
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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 television|digital]] and [[analog television|analog]] had the option of airing separate games on their HD and [[standard definition|SD]] channels, to take advantage of the available high definition coverage. Beginning in 2007, all games in the tournament (including all first and second round games) 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.<ref>[http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/buzz/2007/03/15/ncaa-tournament-why-we-didnt-get-stanford-in-hdtv-but-the-rest-of-the-country-did Why we didn’t get Stanford in HDTV (but the rest of the country did) – Morning Buzz]</ref> 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 bandwith to split their signal into [[digital subchannel]]s to show ''all'' games going on simultaneously.<ref>[http://www.cbc-raleigh.com/inside_cbc/2000news/031600hd.htm WRAL Digital Airs Entire NCAA Basketball Tournament<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> By 2008, upgrades at the CBS broadcast center allowed all feeds, flex and constant, to be in HD for the tournament. |
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===Outside of the United States=== |
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{{See also|List of NCAA Final Four Broadcasters}} |
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Though it is an American sporting event, the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament is watched in some other countries. |
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*In [[Canada]], [[The Sports Network|TSN]] has owned the rights to the tournament since 2011, as a result of an international deal between the NCAA and [[ESPN International]] (which is a minority investor in TSN). |
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*In Australia, the ONE HD network simulcasts the CBS game coverage in HD. ESPN Australia and ESPNHD Australia also simulcast CBS game coverage. As with the Canadian telecast, ONE HD only airs selected games during the later stages of the tournament. |
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*In Europe, [[ESPN America]] simulcasts the NCAA tournament, including games shown on CBS College Sports, taking the suggested national feed. |
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==Tournament trivia== |
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{{See also|NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship records}} |
{{See also|NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship records}} |
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==="Cinderella" teams=== |
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[[image:NCAA Wins-rank.png|thumb|300px|NCAA Tournament % Wins per rank]] |
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[[NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship#Cinderella team|Cinderella teams]] are responsible for much of the excitement in the tournament,<ref>http://bleacherreport.com/articles/648001-the-slipper-fits-why-cindarella-stories-make-the-ncaa-tournament-so-great</ref> and sometimes the performance of Cinderellas prove to be more memorable than the actual tournament victories. |
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====Most successful low seeds==== |
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These are the lowest seeds to reach each round since expansion to 64 teams in 1985: |
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*A #15 seed has reached the '''Round of 32''' four times: |
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:[[Richmond Spiders men's basketball|Richmond]] in [[1991 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1991]] |
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:[[Santa Clara Broncos|Santa Clara]] in [[1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1993]] |
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:[[Coppin State University|Coppin State]] in [[1997 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1997]] |
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:[[Hampton University|Hampton]] in [[2001 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2001]] |
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*A #14 seed has reached the '''Sweet Sixteen''' (Regional Semi-finals) twice: |
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:[[Cleveland State Vikings men's basketball|Cleveland State]] in [[1986 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1986]] |
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:[[University of Tennessee at Chattanooga|Chattanooga]] in [[1997 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1997]] |
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*A #12 seed has reached the '''Elite Eight''' (Regional Finals) once: |
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:[[Missouri Tigers men's basketball|Missouri]] in [[2002 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2002]] |
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*An #11 seed has reached the '''Final Four''' and played in the national semi-final game three times: |
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:[[LSU Tigers basketball|LSU]] in [[1986 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1986]] |
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:[[2005–06 George Mason Patriots men's basketball team|George Mason]] in [[2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2006]] |
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:[[2010–11 VCU Rams men's basketball team|Virginia Commonwealth]] in [[2011 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2011]] |
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*A #8 seed has reached the '''National Finals''' (Championship Game) three times, but officially, only twice: |
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:[[UCLA Bruins men's basketball|UCLA]] reached the final in [[1980 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1980]], but the Bruins' appearance was vacated due to recruiting violations involving two players on that team. |
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:[[1984–85 Villanova Wildcats men's basketball team|Villanova]] in [[1985 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1985]] |
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:[[2010–11 Butler Bulldogs men's basketball team|Butler]] in [[2011 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2011]] |
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*A #8 seed has won the '''National Championship''' once: |
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:[[1984–85 Villanova Wildcats men's basketball team|Villanova Wildcats]] in the [[1985 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1985 tournament]]. |
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====Best performances by #16 seeds==== |
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No team as a #16 seed has ever defeated a #1 seed since the field was expanded to 64 teams, though on four occasions, a #16 seed has come within a single basket of winning: |
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*[[Princeton Tigers men's basketball|Princeton]] lost to [[Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball|Georgetown]] in [[1989 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1989]] (1 point, 50–49) |
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*[[East Tennessee State University|East Tennessee State]] lost to [[Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball|Oklahoma]] in [[1989 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1989]] (1 point, 72–71) |
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*[[Western Carolina University|Western Carolina]] lost to [[Purdue Boilermakers men's basketball|Purdue]] in [[1996 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1996]] (2 points, 73–71) |
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*Additionally, while ultimately [[Murray State Racers men's basketball|Murray State]] lost to [[Michigan State Spartans men's basketball|Michigan State]] by 4 points in [[1990 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1990]], they were the ''only'' #16 team to ever take a game into '''[[Overtime (sports)|overtime]]'''. |
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====Additional low-seed trivia==== |
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*The University of Pennsylvania's 1979 Final Four appearance is also notable as they made it as a #9 seed—out of 10 teams in their region—making them the lowest seed to make the Final Four in the Pre-64-team era.<ref>{{cite web|title=NCAA Final Four Tournament Seeds|url=http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/ncaa-tournament/history/finalfourseeds|accessdate=30 March 2011}}</ref> |
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*The pairing of #8 seed [[2010-11 Butler Bulldogs men's basketball team|Butler]] and #11 seed [[2010–11 VCU Rams men's basketball team|Virginia Commonwealth]] in the 2011 National Semifinals game had the lowest seeded combination (#8 v. #11) ever to play in a National Semifinals game. |
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*[[Richmond Spiders|Richmond]] is the only team to win first round games ranked as a #15, #14, #13, and #12 seed. |
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====Notable point spread upsets==== |
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As noted above, despite numerous instances of early-round tournament upsets, no #1 seed has ever lost in the first round to a #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". |
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:Biggest point-spread upsets since expansion to 64 teams in 1985:<ref name="pointspread">{{cite web| url= http://www.goldsheet.com/gs_new/histcbb.php| title= Gold Sheet College Basketball Log}}</ref> |
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:*[[Santa Clara Broncos|Santa Clara]] +19.5 over [[Arizona Wildcats men's basketball|Arizona]] 64–61 in [[1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1993]] |
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:*[[Coppin State University|Coppin State]] +18.5 over [[South Carolina Gamecocks men's basketball|South Carolina]] 78–65 in [[1997 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1997]] |
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:*[[Hampton University|Hampton]] +17.5 over [[Iowa State Cyclones men's basketball|Iowa State]] 58–57 in [[2001 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2001]] |
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:Biggest point-spread upsets in NCAA Championship Game history: |
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:*[[1998–99 Connecticut Huskies men's basketball team|Connecticut]] +9.5 over [[1998–99 Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team|Duke]], 77–74, in 1999 |
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:*[[1984–85 Villanova Wildcats men's basketball team|Villanova]] +9 over [[1984–85 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team|Georgetown]], 66–64, in 1985 |
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:*[[1987–88 Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team|Kansas]] +8 over [[1987–88 Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball team|Oklahoma]], 83–79, in 1988 |
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:*[[1982–83 NC State Wolfpack men's basketball team|North Carolina State]] +7.5 over [[1982–83 Houston Cougars men's basketball team|Houston]], 54–52 in 1983 |
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:*[[1965–66 Texas Western Miners men's basketball team|Texas Western]] +6.5 over [[1965–66 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team|Kentucky]], 72–65 in 1966 |
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===Highly seeded teams=== |
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While people are often fascinated by the improbable Cinderella stories, sometimes unusual things have happened with the top-seeded teams, as well. |
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====#1 seeds and the Final Four==== |
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[[image:NCAA Wins Rank 1.png|thumb|300px|Rank #1 vs. other ranks]] |
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;All four #1 seeds making it to the Final Four |
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Has happened only once, in [[2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2008]], when Kansas, North Carolina, UCLA, and Memphis all won their regionals. (Memphis's season was later vacated by the NCAA due to use of an [[Derrick Rose#Grading_controversy|ineligible player]]). |
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;Two #1 seeds making it to the championship game |
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Has happened six times: |
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*[[1982 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1982]] North Carolina defeated Georgetown |
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*[[1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1993]] North Carolina defeated Michigan |
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*[[1999 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1999]] Connecticut defeated Duke |
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*[[2005 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2005]] North Carolina defeated Illinois |
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*[[2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2007]] Florida defeated Ohio State |
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*[[2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2008]] Kansas defeated Memphis |
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;Tournaments with NO #1 seeds in the Final Four |
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Has happened three times: |
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*[[1980 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1980]] – [[1979–80 Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team|Louisville]] – #2 (champion), [[Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball|Iowa]] – #5, [[Purdue Boilermakers men's basketball|Purdue]] – #6, [[UCLA Bruins men's basketball|UCLA]] – #8 |
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*[[2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2006]] – [[UCLA Bruins men's basketball|UCLA]] – #2, [[2005–06 Florida Gators men's basketball team|Florida]] – #3 (champion), [[LSU Tigers basketball|LSU]] – #4, [[2005-06 George Mason Patriots men's basketball team|George Mason]] – #11 |
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*[[2011 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2011]] – [[2010-11 Connecticut Huskies men's basketball team|Connecticut]] – #3 (champion), [[2010-11 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team|Kentucky]] – #4, [[2010-11 Butler Bulldogs men's basketball team|Butler]] – #8, [[2010–11 VCU Rams men's basketball team|Virginia Commonwealth]] – #11 |
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;Additional #1 seed trivia |
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*In 1997, Arizona achieved a record that can never be broken, when it became the only team to beat three #1 seeds in a single tournament. (Due to tournament structure, it is impossible to play a team from each one of the regions in a single tournament, thus the ''most'' #1 seeds any team can play in a single tournament ''is'' three.) |
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*In 2011, the highest seed to advance to the Final Four was #3 seed Connecticut, making the 2011 tournament the only time that neither a #1 seed nor a #2 seed advanced into the final weekend of play. In the same tournament, Butler made history as the first program to make consecutive Final Fours while not being seeded #1 or #2 in either season. |
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*There have been sixteen teams that have entered the tournament undefeated. Four of those teams were from UCLA, and those four UCLA teams won each of those tournaments. However, of the other twelve teams entering the tournament undefeated, only three went on to win the tournament. For details, see [[#Performance by teams entering the tournament undefeated|table below]] |
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====Teams #1 in national polls==== |
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===Top-ranked teams=== |
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The following teams ''entered'' the tournament ranked #1 in at least one of the AP, UPI, or USA Today polls and went on to win the tournament:<ref>http://web1.ncaa.org/web_files/stats/m_final4/2010/2010Final4.pdf Final Four Record Book</ref> |
The following teams ''entered'' the tournament ranked #1 in at least one of the AP, UPI, or USA Today polls and did what they were expected to do: they went on to win the tournament:<ref>http://web1.ncaa.org/web_files/stats/m_final4/2010/2010Final4.pdf Final Four Record Book</ref> |
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====Undefeated teams not in the Big Dance==== |
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===#1 seeds=== |
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The NCAA tournament has undergone dramatic expansion since the 1970s, and since the tournament was expanded to 48 teams in 1980, no undefeated teams have failed to qualify. But before that, there were six occasions on which a team achieved perfection in the regular season, yet did not appear in the NCAA tournament. |
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*In 1939, Long Island University finished the regular season undefeated but decided to accept instead an invitation to the NIT (which they won) instead of the NCAA tournament. |
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*In 1940, Seton Hall finished the regular season 19–0, but their record had been built largely against weak teams and thus did not earn them an invitation to the postseason tournament. |
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*In 1944, Army finished the regular season undefeated. But owing to [[World War II]], the Cadets did not accept an invitation to postseason play. |
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*In 1954, Kentucky finished 25–0 and ''were'' invited to the tournament, but [[1953–54 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team#Postseason|declined the invitation]]. |
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*In 1973 the North Carolina State Wolfpack finished the regular season 27–0 and ranked #2 (behind undefeated and eventual tournament champion UCLA) but were barred from participating in the NCAA tournament while on probation for recruiting violations. |
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*In 1979, the [[Alcorn State University]] Braves finished the regular season 27-0, but did not receive an invitation to the NCAA Tournament. The Braves accepted a bid to the NIT, where they lost in the second round to eventual NIT champion Indiana.<ref>http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/articles/2004/03/07/undefeated_and_unnoticed/</ref> |
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====Champions excluded the next year==== |
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[[image:NCAA Wins Rank 1.png|thumb|300px|Rank #1 vs. other ranks]] |
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There have been six times in which the tournament did not include the reigning champion (the previous year's winner): |
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*[[1978 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1978 champion]] [[Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball|Kentucky]] went 19–12 in 1979. The Wildcats accepted an invitation to the [[1979 National Invitation Tournament|National Invitation Tournament]], losing their first round game in overtime to [[Clemson Tigers men's basketball|Clemson]], 68–67. |
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*Both [[1979 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1979 champion]] [[Michigan State Spartans men's basketball|Michigan State]] and 1979 runner up [[Indiana State Sycamores men's basketball|Indiana State]] failed to qualify for the 1980 NCAA tournament. Furthermore, neither was invited to the [[1980 National Invitation Tournament|National Invitation Tournament]]. (It is noteworthy that Indiana State lost [[Larry Bird]], and Michigan State lost [[Magic Johnson]], to the 1979 [[National Basketball Association Draft|NBA draft]] following the 1979 NCAA tournament.) |
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*[[1986 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1986 champion]] [[Louisville Cardinals men's basketball|Louisville]] went 18–14 in 1987. The team declined an invitation to the [[1987 National Invitation Tournament|postseason National Invitation Tournament]]. |
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*[[1988 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1988 champion]] [[Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball|Kansas]] was ineligible for participation in the 1989 NCAA tournament due to NCAA sanctions for recruiting violations. However, their overall record (19-12), combined with their sixth place finish in the [[Big Eight]], would likely have kept them out of the tournament anyway. |
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*Both [[2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2007 champion]] [[2007–08 Florida Gators men's basketball team|Florida]] and 2007 runner up [[2007–08 Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team|Ohio State]] failed to qualify for the 2008 NCAA tournament. Both accepted invitations to that year's [[2008 National Invitation Tournament|postseason National Invitation Tournament]]. Each made it to that tournament's final four. Florida fell to [[UMass Minutemen basketball|the University of Massachusetts]] in the semifinals, but Ohio State defeated UMass in the NIT Championship Game to win the tournament. |
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*[[2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2009 champion]] [[2009–10 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team|North Carolina]] went 16–16 in 2010. The Tar Heels accepted an invitation to the [[2010 National Invitation Tournament|National Invitation Tournament]], in which they reached the finals and were defeated by [[2009–10 Dayton Flyers men's basketball team|Dayton]]. |
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===Trivia about coaches=== |
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Since the NCAA started seeding teams ([[1979 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1979]]), only once have all #1 seeds made it to the Final Four (National Semifinals): |
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{{Main|NCAA men's basketball coaches win list}} |
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*[[2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2008]] Kansas, North Carolina, UCLA, Memphis (Memphis's season was later vacated by the NCAA due to use of an [[Derrick Rose#Grading_controversy|ineligible player]]) |
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;Most tournament wins |
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*[[UCLA Bruins men's basketball|UCLA]] head coach [[John Wooden]] won 10 national championships (1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975) |
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*Two coaches have won 4 tournaments |
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:Kentucky head coach [[Adolph Rupp]] (1948, 1949, 1951, 1958) |
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:Duke head coach [[Mike Krzyzewski]] (1991, 1992, 2001, 2010) |
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*Two coaches have won 3 tournaments |
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:Indiana head coach [[Bob Knight]] (1976, 1981, 1987) |
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:Connecticut head coach [[Jim Calhoun]] (1999, 2004, 2011) |
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*Several coaches have won two championships |
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;Active coaches with multiple tournament wins |
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The championship game has matched two #1 seeds only six times: |
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* [[Mike Krzyzewski]] has four titles |
|||
*[[1982 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1982]] North Carolina defeated Georgetown |
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* [[Jim Calhoun]] has three titles |
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*[[1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1993]] North Carolina defeated Michigan |
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* [[Billy Donovan]] has two titles |
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*[[1999 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1999]] Connecticut defeated Duke |
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* [[Roy Williams (coach)|Roy Williams]] has two titles |
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*[[2005 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2005]] North Carolina defeated Illinois |
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*[[2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2007]] Florida defeated Ohio State |
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*[[2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2008]] Kansas defeated Memphis |
|||
;Schools with more than one head coach winning a championship |
|||
At least one #1 seed has made the Final Four in every year except: |
|||
*Four championship coaches |
|||
*[[1980 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1980]] – [[1979–80 Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team|Louisville]] – #2 (champion), [[Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball|Iowa]] – #5, [[Purdue Boilermakers men's basketball|Purdue]] – #6, [[UCLA Bruins men's basketball|UCLA]] – #8 |
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:[[Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball|Kentucky]]: [[Adolph Rupp]], [[Joe B. Hall]], [[Rick Pitino]], and [[Tubby Smith]] |
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*[[2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2006]] — [[UCLA Bruins men's basketball|UCLA]] – #2, [[2005–06 Florida Gators men's basketball team|Florida]] – #3 (champion), [[LSU Tigers basketball|LSU]] – #4, [[2005-06 George Mason Patriots men's basketball team|George Mason]] – #11 |
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*Three championship coaches |
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*[[2011 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2011]] — [[2010–11 Connecticut Huskies men's basketball team|Connecticut]] – #3 (champion), [[2010–11 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team|Kentucky]] – #4, [[2010–11 Butler Bulldogs men's basketball team|Butler]] – #8, [[2010–11 VCU Rams men's basketball team|Virginia Commonwealth]] – #11 |
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:[[Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball|Kansas]]: [[Phog Allen]], [[Larry Brown (basketball)|Larry Brown]], and [[Bill Self]] |
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:[[North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball|North Carolina]]: [[Frank McGuire]], [[Dean Smith]], and [[Roy Williams (coach)|Roy Williams]] |
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*Two championship coaches |
|||
:[[Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball|Indiana]]: [[Branch McCracken]] and [[Bob Knight]] |
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:[[Michigan State Spartans men's basketball|Michigan State]]: [[Jud Heathcote]] and [[Tom Izzo]] |
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:[[NC State Wolfpack men's basketball|North Carolina State]]: [[Norm Sloan]] and [[Jim Valvano]]. |
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:[[UCLA Bruins men's basketball|UCLA]]: John Wooden and [[Jim Harrick]] |
|||
;Most different teams taken to the Final Four |
|||
The only team to beat three #1 seeds in a single tournament was #4 seed Arizona in 1997. Due to tournament structure, it is impossible to play a team from each one of the regions in a single tournament, thus it's impossible to play all four #1 seeds in a single tournament. |
|||
* [[Rick Pitino]] has been to the Final Four with three different schools: [[Providence Friars men's basketball|Providence]] (1987); [[Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball|Kentucky]] ([[1992–93 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team|1993]], [[1995–96 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team|1996]], and [[1996–97 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team|1997]]), and [[Louisville Cardinals men's basketball|Louisville]] (2005). |
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* [[John Calipari]] also made the Final Four with three different schools: [[UMass Minutemen basketball|Massachusetts]] (1996), [[2007–08 Memphis Tigers men's basketball team|Memphis]] (2008), and [[2010–11 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team|Kentucky]] (2011). However—while Calipari was not found to have been personally responsible in either case—the UMass and Memphis teams both had their appearances vacated due to NCAA violations; therefore, Calipari's 2011 appearance in the Final Four is his only Final Four recognized by the NCAA. |
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=== |
===Mathematical trivia=== |
||
====Point differentials==== |
|||
*[[2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2009]] marked the first time in tournament history that all 12 of the 1, 2, and 3 seeds made it to the Sweet 16. |
|||
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===== |
|||
===Low seeds=== |
|||
;Largest margin of victory in a championship game |
|||
Lowest seeds to reach each round since expansion to 64 teams in 1985: |
|||
30 points, by UNLV in [[1990 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1990]] (103-73, over Duke) |
|||
*Round of 32: #15 seed (4 times) |
|||
**[[Richmond Spiders men's basketball|Richmond]] in [[1991 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1991]] |
|||
**[[Santa Clara Broncos|Santa Clara]] in [[1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1993]] |
|||
**[[Coppin State University|Coppin State]] in [[1997 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1997]] |
|||
**[[Hampton University|Hampton]] in [[2001 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2001]] |
|||
;Smallest margin of victory in a championship game |
|||
*Regional Semifinals (Sweet Sixteen): #14 seed (2 times): |
|||
1 point, on six occasions |
|||
**[[Cleveland State Vikings men's basketball|Cleveland State]] in [[1986 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1986]] |
|||
* |
*Indiana 69, Kansas 68 ([[1953 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1953]]) |
||
*[[1957 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship Game|North Carolina 54, Kansas 53/3OT]] ([[1957 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1957]]) |
|||
*California 71, West Virginia 70 ([[1959 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1959]]) |
|||
*North Carolina 63, Georgetown 62 ([[1982 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1982]]) |
|||
*Indiana 74, Syracuse 73 ([[1987 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1987]]) |
|||
*Michigan 80, Seton Hall 79/OT ([[1989 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1989]]) |
|||
;Overtime games in a championship game |
|||
*Regional Finals (Elite Eight): #12 seed: |
|||
Seven times the championship game has been tied at the end of regulation. On one of those occasions ([[1957 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship Game|1957]]) the game went into double and then ''triple'' overtime. |
|||
**[[Missouri Tigers men's basketball|Missouri]] in [[2002 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2002]] |
|||
*North Carolina 54, Kansas 53/3OT ([[1957 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1957]]) |
|||
*National Semifinals (Final Four): #11 seed (3 times): |
|||
* |
*Utah 42, Dartmouth 40/OT ([[1944 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1944]]) |
||
* |
*Cincinnati 65, Ohio St. 60/OT ([[1961 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1961]]) |
||
* |
*Loyola 60, Cincinnati 58/OT ([[1963 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1963]]) |
||
*Michigan 80, Seton Hall 79/OT ([[1989 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1989]]) |
|||
*National Finals (Championship Game): #8 seed (2 times): |
|||
* |
*Arizona 84, Kentucky 79/OT ([[1997 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1997]]) |
||
* |
*Kansas 75, Memphis 68/OT ([[2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2008]]) |
||
*National Champion (Won the Tournament): #8 seed: |
|||
**[[1984–85 Villanova Wildcats men's basketball team|Villanova]] in [[1985 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1985]] |
|||
=====Accumulated victory margins===== |
|||
While lower seeds have made the Final Four in the 64-team era (as shown above), the [[Penn Quakers men's basketball|University of Pennsylvania]]'s [[1979 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1979]] appearance is notable as they made it as a #9 seed—out of 10 teams in their region. In fact, they defeated the #10 seed, [[St. John's Red Storm men's basketball|St. John's University]] in the regional final, following three upsets by each team. |
|||
;Largest point differential accumulated over the entire tournament |
|||
*1996 Kentucky (+129) |
|||
*2009 North Carolina (+121) |
|||
*1990 UNLV (+112) |
|||
*2001 Duke (+101) |
|||
*2006 Florida (+96) |
|||
;Teams winning the championship and obtaining a margin of 10 points in every game of the tournament |
|||
===Round of 64 games=== |
|||
Achieved seven times by six different schools |
|||
No team as a #16 seed has ever defeated a #1 seed since the field was expanded to 64 teams, though some have come close. Thirteen #16 seeds have come within 10 points of a #1 seed, with five of them coming within 5 points. Two have come within one point, both in [[1989 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1989]]. Only one #16 vs. #1 game has gone into overtime (Murray State vs. Michigan State in 1990). The five #16 seeds that have come within 5 points of a #1 seed are: |
|||
*Oregon([[1939 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1939]]) |
|||
* |
*Indiana ([[1981 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1981]]) |
||
* |
*UCLA ([[1967 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1967]]) |
||
* |
*Michigan State ([[1979 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1979]] and [[2000 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2000]]) |
||
* |
*Duke ([[2001 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2001]]) |
||
* |
*North Carolina ([[2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2009]]) |
||
===Upsets=== |
|||
Biggest point-spread upsets since expansion to 64 teams in 1985:<ref name="pointspread">{{cite web| url= http://www.goldsheet.com/gs_new/histcbb.php| title= Gold Sheet College Basketball Log}}</ref> |
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*[[Santa Clara Broncos|Santa Clara]] +19.5 over [[Arizona Wildcats men's basketball|Arizona]] 64–61 in [[1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1993]] |
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*[[Coppin State University|Coppin State]] +18.5 over [[South Carolina Gamecocks men's basketball|South Carolina]] 78–65 in [[1997 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1997]] |
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*[[Hampton University|Hampton]] +17.5 over [[Iowa State Cyclones men's basketball|Iowa State]] 58–57 in [[2001 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2001]] |
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Biggest point-spread upsets in NCAA Championship Game history: |
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*[[1998–99 Connecticut Huskies men's basketball team|Connecticut]] +9.5 over [[1998–99 Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team|Duke]], 77–74, in 1999 |
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*[[1984–85 Villanova Wildcats men's basketball team|Villanova]] +9 over [[1984–85 Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team|Georgetown]], 66–64, in 1985 |
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*[[1987–88 Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team|Kansas]] +8 over [[1987–88 Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball team|Oklahoma]], 83–79, in 1988 |
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*[[1982–83 NC State Wolfpack men's basketball team|North Carolina State]] +7.5 over [[1982–83 Houston Cougars men's basketball team|Houston]], 54–52 in 1983 |
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*[[1965–66 Texas Western Miners men's basketball team|Texas Western]] +6.5 over [[1965–66 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team|Kentucky]], 72–65 in 1966 |
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[[Richmond Spiders|Richmond]] is the only team to win a first round game ranked as a #15, #14, #13, and #12 Seed. |
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====First round seed pairing results==== |
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[[image:NCAA Wins-rank.png|thumb|300px|NCAA Tournament % Wins per rank]] |
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Since the inception of the 64-team tournament in 1985, each seed-pairing has played a total of 108 first-round games, with the following results: |
Since the inception of the 64-team tournament in 1985, each seed-pairing has played a total of 108 first-round games, with the following results: |
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# The #1 seed is 108–0 against the #16 seed (100%). |
# The #1 seed is 108–0 against the #16 seed (100%). |
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Line 323: | Line 472: | ||
# The #8 seed is 51–57 against the #9 seed (47.22%). |
# The #8 seed is 51–57 against the #9 seed (47.22%). |
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==Addenda - Tables== |
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Additionally, only three times since 1985 has at least one #12 seed failed to win one game in a given tournament. Those instances occurred in [[1988 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1988]], [[2000 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2000]], and [[2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2007]]. |
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===Host cities=== |
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''This table lists all the cities that have hosted the Final Four, as well as what stadiums the Final Four was played in. 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.'' |
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Upsets happen every March Madness. In 2011 they had huge upsets. VCU (Seed 11) beat Kansas (seed 1) and Purdue (seed 3). Marquette beat syracuse. Morhead State beat Lousville. Butler beat Pittsburgh. Arizona beat Texas. And many many more things happen in what people to say was the best NCCA championship ever! |
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{| class="wikitable sortable" |
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===Round of 32 games=== |
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Since the inception of the 64-team tournament in 1985, the following results have occurred for each pairing: |
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* In the 1/16/8/9 bracket: |
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{| class="wikitable" |
|||
|- |
|- |
||
! Year !! City !! Venue !! Champion |
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! |
|||
! vs. #8 |
|||
! vs. #9 |
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|- |
|- |
||
|[[1939 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1939]] ||Evanston, Illinois||Patten Gymnasium||Oregon |
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! #1 |
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| 41–10 (.804) |
|||
| 53–4 (.930) |
|||
|- |
|- |
||
|[[1940 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1940]] ||Kansas City, Missouri||Municipal Auditorium||Indiana |
|||
! #16 |
|||
| – |
|||
| – |
|||
|} |
|||
* In the 2/15/7/10 bracket: |
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{| class="wikitable" |
|||
|- |
|- |
||
|[[1941 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1941]] ||Kansas City, Missouri||Municipal Auditorium||Wisconsin |
|||
! |
|||
! vs. #7 |
|||
! vs. #10 |
|||
|- |
|- |
||
|[[1942 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1942]] ||Kansas City, Missouri||Municipal Auditorium||Stanford |
|||
! #2 |
|||
| 47–17 (.734) |
|||
| 23–17 (.575) |
|||
|- |
|- |
||
|[[1943 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1943]] ||New York City||Madison Square Garden||Wyoming |
|||
! #15 |
|||
| 0–1 (.000) |
|||
| 0–3 (.000) |
|||
|} |
|||
* In the 3/14/6/11 bracket: |
|||
{| class="wikitable" |
|||
|- |
|- |
||
|[[1944 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1944]] ||New York City||Madison Square Garden||Utah |
|||
! |
|||
! vs. #6 |
|||
! vs. #11 |
|||
|- |
|- |
||
|[[1945 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1945]] ||New York City||Madison Square Garden||Oklahoma A&M |
|||
! #3 |
|||
| 33–26 (.559) |
|||
| 22–11 (.667) |
|||
|- |
|- |
||
|[[1946 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1946]] ||New York City||Madison Square Garden||Oklahoma A&M |
|||
! #14 |
|||
| 2–11 (.134) |
|||
| 0–3 (.000) |
|||
|} |
|||
* In the 4/13/5/12 bracket: |
|||
{| class="wikitable" |
|||
|- |
|- |
||
|[[1947 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1947]] ||New York City||Madison Square Garden||Holy Cross |
|||
! |
|||
! vs. #5 |
|||
! vs. #12 |
|||
|- |
|- |
||
|[[1948 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1948]] ||New York City||Madison Square Garden||Kentucky |
|||
! #4 |
|||
|- |
|||
| 30–28 (.517) |
|||
|[[1949 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1949]] ||Seattle, Washington||Hec Edmundson Pavilion||Kentucky |
|||
| 16–11 (.593) |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1950 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1950]] ||New York City||Madison Square Garden||CCNY |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1951 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1951]] ||Minneapolis, Minnesota||Williams Arena||Kentucky |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1952 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1952]] ||Seattle, Washington||Hec Edmundson Pavilion||Kansas |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1953 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1953]] ||Kansas City, Missouri||Municipal Auditorium||Indiana |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1954 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1954]] ||Kansas City, Missouri||Municipal Auditorium||LaSalle |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1955 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1955]] ||Kansas City, Missouri||Municipal Auditorium||San Francisco |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1956 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1956]] ||Evanston, Illinois||McGaw Hall||San Francisco |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1957 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1957]] ||Kansas City, Missouri||Municipal Auditorium||North Carolina |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1958 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1958]] ||Louisville, Kentucky||Freedom Hall||Kentucky |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1959 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1959]] ||Louisville, Kentucky||Freedom Hall||California |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1960 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1960]] ||San Francisco||Cow Palace||Ohio State |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1961 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1961]] ||Kansas City, Missouri||Municipal Auditorium||Cincinnati |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1962 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1962]] ||Louisville, Kentucky||Freedom Hall||Cincinnati |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1963 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1963]] ||Louisville, Kentucky||Freedom Hall||Loyola Chicago |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1964 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1964]] ||Kansas City, Missouri||Municipal Auditorium||UCLA |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1965 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1965]] ||Portland, Oregon||Memorial Collesium||UCLA |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1966 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1966]] ||College Park, Maryland||Cole Field House||UTEP |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1967 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1967]] ||Louisville, Kentucky||Freedom Hall||UCLA |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1968 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1968]] ||Los Angeles||Sports Arena||UCLA |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1969 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1969]] ||Louisville, Kentucky||Freedom Hall||UCLA |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1970 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1970]] ||College Park, Maryland||Cole Field House||UCLA |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1971 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1971]] ||Houston, Texas||Astrodome||UCLA |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1972 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1972]] ||Los Angeles||Memorial Sports Arena||UCLA |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1973 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1973]] ||St. Louis, Missouri|| St. Louis Arena||UCLA |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1974 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1974]] ||Greensboro, North Carolina||Greensboro Coliseum||NC State |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1975 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1975]] ||San Diego, California||San Diego Sports Arena||UCLA |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1976 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1976]] ||Philadelphia||The Spectrum||Indiana |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1977 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1977]] ||Atlanta, Georgia||The Omni||Marquette |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1978 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1978]] ||St. Louis, Missouri||The Checkerdome||Kentucky |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1979 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1979]] ||Salt Lake City||Special Events Center||Michigan State |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1980 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1980]] ||Indianapolis, Indiana|| Market Square Arena||Louisville |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1981 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1981]] ||Philadelphia||The Spectrum||Indiana Hoosiers |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1982 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1982]] ||New Orleans||Louisiana Superdome||North Carolina |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1983 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1983]] ||Albuquerque, New Mexico||The Pit||NC State |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1984 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1984]] ||Seattle, Washington||Kingdome||Georgetown |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1985 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1985]] ||Lexington, Kentucky||Rupp Arena||Villanova |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1986 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1986]] ||Dallas, Texas||Reunion Arena||Louisville |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1987 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1987]] ||New Orleans||Louisiana Superdome||Indiana |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1988 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1988]] ||Kansas City, Missouri||Kemper Arena||Kansas |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1989 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1989]] ||Seattle, Washington||Kingdome||Michigan |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1990 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1990]] ||Denver, Colorado||McNichols Sports Arena||UNLV |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1991 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1991]] ||Indianapolis, Indiana||Hoosier Dome||Duke |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1992 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1992]] ||Minneapolis, Minnesota||HHH Metrodome||Duke |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1993]] ||New Orleans||Louisiana Superdome||North Carolina |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1994 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1994]] ||Charlotte, North Carolina||Charlotte Coliseum||Arkansas |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1995 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1995]] ||Seattle, Washington||Kingdome||UCLA |
|||
|- |
|||
|[[1996 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1996]] ||East Rutherford, New Jersey||Continental Airlines Arena||Kentucky |
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|- |
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|[[1997 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1997]] ||Indianapolis, Indiana||RCA Dome||Arizona |
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|[[1998 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1998]] ||San Antonio, Texas||Alamodome||Kentucky |
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|- |
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|[[1999 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1999]] ||St. Petersburg, Florida||Tropicana Field||Connecticut |
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|- |
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|[[2000 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2000]] ||Indianapolis, Indiana||RCA Dome||Michigan State |
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|- |
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|[[2001 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2001]] ||Minneapolis, Minnesota||HHH Metrodome||Duke |
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|- |
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|[[2002 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2002]] ||Atlanta, Georgia||Georgia Dome||Maryland |
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|- |
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|[[2003 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2003]] ||New Orleans||Louisiana Superdome||Syracuse |
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|- |
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|[[2004 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2004]] ||San Antonio, Texas||Alamodome||Connecticut |
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|- |
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|[[2005 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2005]] ||St. Louis, Missouri||Edward Jones Dome||North Carolina |
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|- |
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|[[2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2006]] ||Indianapolis, Indiana||RCA Dome||Florida |
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|- |
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|[[2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2007]] ||Atlanta, Georgia||Georgia Dome||Florida |
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|- |
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|[[2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2008]] ||San Antonio, Texas||Alamodome||Kansas |
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|- |
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|[[2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2009]] ||Detroit, Michigan||Ford Field||North Carolina |
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|- |
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|[[2010 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2010]] ||Indianapolis, Indiana||Lucas Oil Stadium||Duke |
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|- |
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|[[2011 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2011]] ||Houston, Texas||Reliant Stadium||Connecticut |
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|- |
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|[[2012 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2012]] ||New Orleans||Louisiana Superdome|| |
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|- |
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|[[2013 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2013]] ||Atlanta, Georgia||Georgia Dome|| |
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|- |
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|[[2014 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2014]] ||Arlington, Texas||Cowboys Stadium|| |
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|- |
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|[[2015 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2015]] ||Indianapolis, Indiana||Lucas Oil Stadium|| |
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|- |
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|[[2016 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2016]] ||Houston, Texas||Reliant Stadium|| |
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|- |
|- |
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! #13 |
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| 3–11 (.214) |
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| 1–8 (.111) |
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|} |
|} |
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===Championships, by schools=== |
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===Teams entering the tournament undefeated=== |
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{{See also|Perfect season}} |
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*In [[1951 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1951]], [[Columbia Lions|Columbia]] entered the tournament at 21–0, but lost in the first round to [[Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball|Illinois]]. |
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*In [[1956 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1956]], [[1955–56 San Francisco Dons men's basketball team|San Francisco]] entered the tournament at 24–0. The Dons, behind future [[Basketball Hall of Fame|Hall of Famers]] [[Bill Russell]] and [[K.C. Jones]], won the national title, ending the season 29–0 and with a 55-game winning streak (which would reach a then-record 60). |
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*The [[1956–57 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team|North Carolina Tar Heels]] entered the [[1957 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1957 tournament]] at 27–0. They went on to win the national title, surviving triple-overtime marathons in both the national semifinals against [[Michigan State Spartans men's basketball|Michigan State]] and [[1957 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship Game|the final]] against [[Wilt Chamberlain]]-led [[Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball|Kansas]]. |
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*The [[1960–61 Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team|Ohio State Buckeyes]] entered the [[1961 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1961 tournament]] at 24–0, but lost in the national championship game to [[1960–61 Cincinnati Bearcats men's basketball team|Cincinnati]]. |
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*The [[UCLA Bruins men's basketball|UCLA Bruins]] have entered the tournament undefeated and gone on to win the title 4 times: 1964, 1967, 1972 and 1973. They were led during all these years by coach [[John Wooden]] and featured future [[NBA]] stars like Lew Alcindor ([[Kareem Abdul-Jabbar]]), [[Gail Goodrich]], and [[Bill Walton]]. The 1972 and 1973 seasons were part of their record 88-game winning streak. |
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* UCLA was not the only team to enter a tournament unbeaten during that era. In [[1968 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1968]], [[1967–68 Houston Cougars men's basketball team|Houston]], who had earlier in the season beaten UCLA in [[Game of the Century (college basketball)|the first nationally-televised NCAA regular-season game]], entered the tournament at 28–0. They made the Final Four, but lost twice—first to UCLA in a semifinal rematch, and then to [[Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball|Ohio State]] in the national third-place game—to finish 31–2. Also in 1968, [[St. Bonaventure University]] entered the tournament 22–0 and won their opening round game against [[Boston College]]. They lost a regional semi-final round game to [[University of North Carolina|North Carolina]] and a regional third-place game to [[Columbia University]] to finish 23–2. |
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*In 1971, the Marquette Warriors (now known as Golden Eagles), coached by [[Al McGuire]] and led by [[Dean Meminger]], entered the [[1971 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|tournament]] with a record of 26–0. They were beaten by [[Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball|Ohio State]], 60–59, in the regional semi-finals and finished with a record of 28–1. |
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*The [[1974–75 Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team|Indiana Hoosiers]] entered undefeated and lost to [[1974–75 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team|Kentucky]] in the regional final in the [[1975 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1975 tournament]]. |
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*The [[1975–76 Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team|1976 Indiana Hoosiers]] are the most recent team to go undefeated in both the regular season and the tournament, winning the [[1976 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1976 title]]. The 1976 Final Four was also the last to feature two unbeaten teams: eventual champion Indiana and [[Rutgers Scarlet Knights|Rutgers]]. Rutgers went 31–0 before losing in both the semifinals (to [[Michigan Wolverines men's basketball|Michigan]]) and the third-place game (to UCLA). |
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*In the [[1979 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1979 tournament]], [[1978–79 Indiana State Sycamores men's basketball team|Indiana State]] entered the national championship game undefeated (33–0) but lost to [[1978–79 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team|Michigan State]]. The game was the first meeting of [[Larry Bird]] for Indiana State and [[Magic Johnson]] for Michigan State. Michigan State also had future NBA starters Jay Vincent and [[Greg Kelser]] on its roster to help Magic defeat Indiana State. |
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*In [[1991 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1991]], [[1990–91 UNLV Runnin' Rebels basketball team|UNLV]] entered the tournament at 30–0 but lost in the Final Four to eventual champion [[1990–91 Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team|Duke]]. |
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===Teams finishing the regular season undefeated but not playing in the tournament=== |
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*In 1973 the North Carolina State Wolfpack finished the regular season 27–0 and ranked #2 (behind undefeated and eventual tournament champion UCLA) but were barred from participating in the NCAA tournament while on probation for recruiting violations. |
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*In [[1953–54 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team|1954, Kentucky finished 25–0]] but did not go to the tournament because they did not accept the invitation. |
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*In 1940, Seton Hall finished the regular season 19–0 – but their record against fairly weak teams did not earn them an invitation to the postseason tournament. |
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*In 1944, Army finished the regular season undefeated. But owing to [[World War II]], the Cadets did not accept an invitation to postseason play. |
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===Teams entering the tournament with one loss=== |
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*In [[1955 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1955]], [[1954–55 San Francisco Dons men's basketball team|San Francisco]] entered the tournament at 24–1 and on a 22-game winning streak. Bill Russell and K.C. Jones led the Dons to a 28–1 finish and the first of their consecutive national titles. |
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*In [[1958 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1958]], San Francisco entered the tournament at 24–1, but without Russell and Jones, who had graduated two years earlier. This time, they lost to [[1957–58 Seattle Chieftains men's basketball team|Seattle]], led by [[Elgin Baylor]] in the West Regional semifinal, finishing the season at 25–2 after defeating [[Idaho State University|Idaho State]] in the regional third-place game. |
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*In 1959 Kansas State entered the NCAA tournament 24–1 and ranked #1. They lost to Cincinnati, led by Oscar Robertson, 85–75 in the Midwest Regional finals (Cincinnati was defeated in the National Semifinals by eventual champion California, a 71–70 winner over Jerry West led West Virginia), beginning a five year stretch (1959–1963) in which the Bearcats played in every Final Four, winning the championship twice (1961–1962). |
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*In 1960 Cincinnati entered the tournament 25–1 and ranked #1 and defending champion California entered the tournament 24–1 and ranked #2. The two teams met in the National Semifinals with Cal winning 77–69. Cal was then defeated by Ohio State 77–55 in the National Finals while Cincinnati defeated NYU 95–71 in the third place game so both Cal and Cincinnati finished the year with identical 28–2 records. |
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*In [[1962 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1962]], the year after [[Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball|Ohio State]] suffered its only loss of the season in the [[1961 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|national championship game]] to [[1960–61 Cincinnati Bearcats men's basketball team|Cincinnati]], the Buckeyes entered the tournament at 23–1. They advanced to the national championship game for the third straight year, but lost again to Cincinnati. |
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*Both [[1965–66 Texas Western Miners men's basketball team|Texas Western]] (now known as UTEP) and [[1965–66 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team|Kentucky]] entered the [[1966 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1966 tournament]] with one loss—Texas Western at 23–1 and Kentucky at 24–1. The teams met in the national championship game, with Texas Western winning 72–65 and finishing 28–1. |
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*During UCLA's run of national championships under [[John Wooden]], the Bruins entered the tournament with one loss in [[1968 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1968]], [[1969 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1969]], and [[1971 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1971]], winning the national title with a 29–1 record each time. |
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*[[St. Bonaventure University|St. Bonaventure]], with NBA hall of famer [[Bob Lanier (basketball)|Bob Lanier]], entered with one loss in 1970. Lanier would lead Saint Bonaventure to a Final Four appearance, but would be unable to compete in the game, having suffered a leg injury in the Regional Championship victory over Villanova. St. Bonaventure lost to [[Artis Gilmore]] and [[Jacksonville University|Jacksonville]] in the semi-final and to [[New Mexico State University|New Mexico State]] in the third-place game. |
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*Kentucky entered the [[1970 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1970 tournament]] at 25–1, but lost in the Mideast Regional final to [[Jacksonville University|Jacksonville]]. |
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*[[NC State Wolfpack men's basketball|North Carolina State]] entered the 1974 tournament 26–1, losing only to UCLA during the regular season. NC State defeated UCLA in the national semifinals, en route to a NCAA Championship over [[Marquette Golden Eagles men's basketball|Marquette]], finishing 30–1. |
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*Marquette entered the 1976 tournament 25–1, and lost to top ranked Indiana 65–56 in the Mideast Regional final. The Warriors finished 27–2 and were ranked #2 in the final AP and UPI polls. |
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*San Francisco returned to national prominence in [[1977 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1977]], entering the tournament at 29–1; the lone loss during the regular season was at Notre Dame. However, they lost in the first round of the West Regional to [[UNLV Runnin' Rebels basketball|UNLV]], 121–95, who went on to make the Final Four for the first time. |
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*DePaul finished the regular season with a record of 26–1 in both 1980 and 1982. In 1980, the Blue Demons won their first 25 regular season games before falling in double overtime at rival Notre Dame. They entered the [[1980 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1980 tournament]] as a #1 seed and lost in their first game to eventual runner-up UCLA. In the [[1982 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1982 tournament]] they were again seeded #1 after having won their last 21 regular season games. They were defeated in their first game, this time by Boston College. This was the third consecutive year DePaul was a #1 seed and failed to win a game. |
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*UNLV entered the 1987 NCAA tournament ranked #1 with a 33–1 record; the lone loss during the regular season was at Oklahoma, 89–88. They lost to eventual tournament champion Indiana 97–93 in the National Semifinals finishing the year 37–2. The 37 wins was a record tied by Duke (1986, 1999), Illinois (2005), and Kansas (2008) and surpassed in 2008 by Memphis (38–2). However, Memphis's 2008 Season has since been vacated for NCAA Violations, and the record has reverted to the four schools. In those years Duke, Illinois and Memphis all lost in the National Championship game, while Kansas won. |
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*Temple entered the [[1988 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1988 tournament]] at 29–1. They lost 63–53 in the East Regional Final to [[Duke Blue Devils basketball|Duke]], who eventually lost to [[Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball|Kansas]] in the National Semifinals. |
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*[[La Salle Explorers men's basketball|La Salle]] entered the 1990 tournament sporting a 29–1 record. La Salle defeated [[Southern Miss Golden Eagles|Southern Mississippi]] in the first round before blowing a 19-point lead and falling to [[Clemson Tigers men's basketball|Clemson]] by a score of 79–75 in the second round. |
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*[[Duke Blue Devils men's basketball|Duke]] (in [[1999 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1999]]) and [[Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball|Illinois]] (in [[2005 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2005]]) entered their national championship games with 37–1 records, only to lose in the final game. |
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*UCLA entered the 1995 Tournament with a 25–2 record and won the tournament to finish the season at 31–2. However, an earlier regular-season loss to Cal was later forfeited, and UCLA's official record for the season is 32–1. |
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*[[UMass Minutemen|Massachusetts]] (35–1) in [[1996 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1996]] (later vacated) lost in the national semifinal to eventual champion Kentucky. |
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*Texas Tech entered the tournament with a 28–1 record in the [[1996 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1996]] (later vacated) lost in the Sweet Sixteen to Georgetown. |
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*[[Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball|Kansas]] entered the [[1997 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1997 NCAA Tournament]] with a record of 32–1, but was beaten in the Sweet Sixteen by the eventual champion, [[1996–97 Arizona Wildcats men's basketball team|Arizona]]. |
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*[[Princeton Tigers men's basketball|Princeton]] entered the 1998 tournament with a 26–1 record, but lost to Michigan State in the second round. |
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*In [[2004 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2004]], [[Saint Joseph's Hawks men's basketball|Saint Joseph's]] finished the regular season undefeated (27–0) but lost in their conference tournament. They entered the tournament with a 27–1 record, but lost in the [[Elite Eight|East Regional Final]] to [[Oklahoma State Cowboys basketball|Oklahoma State]]. [[Stanford Cardinal men's basketball|Stanford University]] in the same year entered the tournament with a loss in the last game of the regular season to [[Washington Huskies men's basketball|Washington]]. They eventually faced Washington again in the conference championship and won to finish at 29–1. Their tournament appearance in the West Regional ended early; [[Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball|Alabama]] defeated them in the second round. |
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*[[2004–05 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team|Illinois]] entered the [[2005 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2005 tournament]] at 32–1, having only lost to the [[Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball|Ohio State Buckeyes]] 65–64 on a last-second game-winning shot by Matt Sylvester. They made it to the National Championship game, but lost to North Carolina. |
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*[[Memphis Tigers basketball|Memphis]] entered the [[2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2008 tournament]] at 33–1, having lost only to their intrastate rival Tennessee. They made it to the National Championship game, but lost to [[2007–08 Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team|Kansas]] in overtime. The Tigers' season, including its appearances in the tournament, was later vacated by the NCAA due to use of an [[Derrick Rose#Grading_controversy|ineligible player]], Derrick Rose. Derrick Rose had been cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse twice. The University of Memphis appealed the NCAA decision on vacating the season; however, the appeal was denied. |
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===Courts and venues=== |
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* Contrary to popular belief the winning team is not given the Final Four Court after winning the championship. They are, however, given the option to purchase the court. If the winning school declines to purchase the court other schools are contacted about purchasing the used court which would be repainted and shipped to the purchasing school. |
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*The NCAA has banned the [[Bi-Lo Center]] and [[Colonial Life Arena]] in [[South Carolina]] from hosting tournament games, despite their sizes (16,000 and 18,000 seats, respectively) because of an [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People|NAACP]] protest at the Bi-Lo Center during the 2002 first and second round tournament games over that state's refusal to take down the [[Confederate Battle Flag]] from their state capitol. Following requests by the NAACP and [[Black Coaches & Administrators|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.{{Citation needed|date=March 2007}} |
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*The first instance of a [[dome|domed stadium]] being used for a NCAA Tournament Final Four was the [[Reliant Astrodome|Houston Astrodome]] in [[1971 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1971]], but the Final Four would not return to a dome until [[1982 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1982]], when the [[Louisiana Superdome]] in [[New Orleans]] hosted the event for the first time. Since [[1997 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1997]], the NCAA has held their Final Four sessions in domed stadiums with a minimum capacity of 40,000, usually having only a half of the dome in use. The last small arena to host the Final Four was [[Izod Center|The Meadowlands]] in [[1996 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1996]]. As of [[2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2009]], the minimum was raised 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 [[American football|football]], like the setup at [[University of Minnesota|Minnesota]]'s [[Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome|Metrodome]]. Additionally, since the NCAA's headquarters are in [[Indianapolis]], the Final Four is held in that city every five years, first at the [[RCA Dome]], and since 2010 at [[Lucas Oil Stadium]]. |
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*Starting in 2007, identical courts were used at the sites of the Regionals, eventually leading to all tournament games using identical courts starting in 2010. Since 1986, a specially designed court is also used at the Final Four. |
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===Home state=== |
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Since the inception of the modern Final Four in [[1952 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1952]], 11 teams have played the Final Four in their home states through the 2010 tournament. Kentucky ([[1958 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1958]]), UCLA ([[1968 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1968]], [[1972 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1972]], [[1975 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1975]]) and North Carolina State ([[1974 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1974]]) won the national title; Louisville ([[1959 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1959]]) and Purdue ([[1980 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1980]]) lost in the Final Four; and California ([[1960 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1960]]), Duke ([[1994 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1994]]), Michigan State ([[2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2009]]) and Butler ([[2010 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2010]]) lost in the final. |
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The biggest advantage was in 1959 when Louisville played at its regular home of [[Freedom Hall]]; however, they lost to [[1958–59 West Virginia Mountaineers men's basketball team|West Virginia]] in the semifinals. The following year, Cal had nearly as large an edge, as they only had to cross [[San Francisco Bay]] to play in the Final Four at the [[Cow Palace]] in [[Daly City, California|Daly City]]; the Golden Bears lost in the championship game to [[1959–60 Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team|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]] (and also UCLA's home arena before the latter venue opened in 1965); unlike Louisville and Cal, the Bruins won the national title on both occasions. Butler lost the 2010 title {{convert|6|mi|km}} from its Indianapolis campus. |
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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 teams, all from [[Manhattan]], played in the East Regional at [[Madison Square Garden (1925)|Madison Square Garden]]—frequently used as a "big-game" venue by each team—and advanced at least to the national semifinals. [[NYU Violets|NYU]] won the East Regional in [[1945 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1945]] but lost in the title game, also held at the Garden, to [[1944–45 Oklahoma A&M Aggies men's basketball team|Oklahoma A&M]]. [[City College of New York|CCNY]] played in the East Regional in both [[1947 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1947]] and [[1950 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1950]]; the Beavers lost in the 1947 East final to eventual champion [[Holy Cross Crusaders men's basketball|Holy Cross]] but won the 1950 East Regional and national titles at the Garden. |
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In 1974, North Carolina State won the NCAA tournament without leaving their home state, North Carolina. The team was put in the East Region, and played its regional games at home arena [[Reynolds Coliseum]]. NC State played the final four and national championship games at nearby [[Greensboro Coliseum]]. |
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While not their home state, Kansas has played in the championship game in [[Kansas City, Missouri]], only 45 minutes from their campus in [[Lawrence, Kansas]] a total of four times. In 1940, 1953, and 1957 they lost the championship game each time at [[Municipal Auditorium (Kansas City)|Municipal Auditorium]]. In 1988 they won the championship over Oklahoma at [[Kemper Arena]]. |
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===Region names=== |
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*Prior to [[2004 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2004]], each region of the tournament bracket was identified geographically, e.g. West, Midwest, South (or Southeast), East. For the 2004, 2005 and 2006 tournaments, the regionals were identified by the city in which the regional finals were held, e.g. [[Phoenix, AZ|Phoenix]], [[St. Louis, MO|St. Louis]], [[Atlanta]], [[East Rutherford]] in 2004; [[Albuquerque]], [[Chicago]], [[Austin, Texas|Austin]], [[Syracuse, New York|Syracuse]] in 2005, etc. The official reason for this was that the regional identifications had begun to confuse fans now that first and second round sites were no longer tied to a particular region; for example, even though in 2002 the [[Indiana Hoosiers]] played in the South regional finals held in [[Lexington, KY]], it began the tournament playing in [[Sacramento]], until then a city considered part of the West region. Another possible reason for the shift in identification is that not infrequently the regional final sites did not fit easily into geographical designations. For example, in the [[1979 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1979]] tournament, the Mideast regional site was [[Indianapolis]], while the Midwest site was [[Cincinnati]], which is 115 miles to the southeast of Indianapolis. In [[1987 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1987]], the Midwest regionals site was again Cincinnati, and the Southeast site was in Louisville, 90 miles to the southwest. In [[1994 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1994]], the Southeast regional finals site, [[Knoxville, TN]], was actually the northernmost of the four sites (West: [[Los Angeles]]; Midwest: [[Dallas]]; East: [[Miami]]). The geographic confusion was not limited to regional finals sites; in [[1990 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1990]], [[Atlanta, GA|Atlanta]] hosted first- and second-round games in the East regional, while [[Richmond, VA|Richmond]], 530 miles to the northeast of Atlanta, hosted first- and second-round games in the Southeast regional. However, regional sites reverted to being identified geographically in 2007.<ref>[http://www.ncaasports.com/basketball/mens/schedules Championship Information – NCAA.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> |
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===Championship margins=== |
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*'''Overtime games''' in a championship game: |
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**[[1957 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship Game|North Carolina 54, Kansas 53/3OT]] ([[1957 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1957]]) |
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**Utah 42, Dartmouth 40/OT ([[1944 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1944]]) |
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**Cincinnati 65, Ohio St. 60/OT ([[1961 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1961]]) |
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**Loyola 60, Cincinnati 58/OT ([[1963 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1963]]) |
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**Michigan 80, Seton Hall 79/OT ([[1989 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1989]]) |
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**Arizona 84, Kentucky 79/OT ([[1997 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1997]]) |
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**Kansas 75, Memphis 68/OT ([[2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2008]]) |
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*'''Smallest margin of victory''' in a championship game: 1 point |
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**Indiana 69, Kansas 68 ([[1953 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1953]]) |
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**North Carolina 54, Kansas 53/3OT ([[1957 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1957]]) |
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**California 71, West Virginia 70 ([[1959 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1959]]) |
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**North Carolina 63, Georgetown 62 ([[1982 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1982]]) |
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**Indiana 74, Syracuse 73 ([[1987 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1987]]) |
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**Michigan 80, Seton Hall 79/OT ([[1989 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1989]]) |
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*'''Largest margin of victory''' in a championship game: 30 points |
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**UNLV 103, Duke 73 ([[1990 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1990]]) |
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*'''Margin of 10 points:''' Oregon ([[1939 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1939]]), Indiana ([[1981 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1981]]), UCLA ([[1967 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1967]]), Michigan State ([[1979 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1979]], [[2000 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2000]]), Duke ([[2001 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2001]]), and North Carolina ([[2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2009]]) are teams to win every game in the tournament by 10 points or more on their way to a championship. |
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===Top 5 largest tournament point differential=== |
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*1996 Kentucky ''+129'' |
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*2009 North Carolina ''+121'' |
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*1990 UNLV ''+112'' |
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*2001 Duke ''+101'' |
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*2006 Florida ''+96'' |
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==Champions that missed the tournament the following year== |
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Six times in the history of the tournament, the reigning champion failed to make the tournament field the following year. |
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In [[1979 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1979]] the 1978 champion [[Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball|Kentucky Wildcats]] finished the season with a record of 19–12 and failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament. The team accepted an invitation to the [[1979 National Invitation Tournament|postseason National Invitation Tournament]], losing a first round game to the [[Clemson Tigers men's basketball|Clemson Tigers]], 68–67, in overtime. |
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In [[1980 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1980]] neither 1979 champion [[Michigan State Spartans men's basketball|Michigan State]] nor runner-up [[Indiana State Sycamores men's basketball|Indiana State]] qualified for the tournament. It is noteworthy that Indiana State lost [[Larry Bird]], and Michigan State lost [[Magic Johnson]] to the [[NBA]] over this year span. |
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In [[1987 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1987]] the defending national champion [[Louisville Cardinals men's basketball|Louisville Cardinals]] finished the season with a record of 18–14 and failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament. The team refused an invitation to the [[1987 National Invitation Tournament|postseason National Invitation Tournament]]. |
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In [[1989 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1989]], the [[Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball|Kansas Jayhawks]] were barred from defending their [[1988 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|1988]] title after having been placed on probation for recruiting violations. This is the only time a champion has been prevented from defending their crown due to NCAA sanctions. The 1989 Jayhawks, in [[Roy Williams (coach)|Roy Williams']] first year, finished the season with a 19–12 record and a sixth-place finish in the Big Eight, culminating with a first-round loss in the Big Eight tournament; it is unlikely that they would have received an at-large invitation given that profile even had they not been barred from the competition. |
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In [[2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2008]], both of the [[2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2007]] finalists, [[2007–08 Florida Gators men's basketball team|Florida]] and [[2007–08 Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team|Ohio State]], failed to make the NCAA tournament. Both were invited to that year's [[2008 National Invitation Tournament|postseason National Invitation Tournament]]. Each made it to that tournament's final four. Florida fell to [[UMass Minutemen basketball|the University of Massachusetts]] in the semifinals and went on to miss the tournament the next year as well, but Ohio State defeated UMass in the Championship Game to win the tournament. |
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In [[2010 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2010]] the defending national champion [[2009–10 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team|North Carolina Tar Heels]] finished the regular season with a record of 16–16 and failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2003 season, but was invited to the 2010 [[2010 National Invitation Tournament|postseason National Invitation Tournament]], in which it reached the finals and were defeated by [[2009–10 Dayton Flyers men's basketball team|Dayton]]. |
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==Winners== |
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{{main|List of NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Champions}} |
{{main|List of NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Champions}} |
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:''The following is a list of all schools that have won at least one NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, along with what years they have won their championship(s).'' |
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{{For|non-NCAA championships claimed by schools|Mythical national championship|Helms Athletic Foundation}} |
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{{For|non-NCAA championships claimed by schools|National Invitation Tournament|Helms Athletic Foundation|Mythical national championship}} |
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{| class="wikitable sortable" |
{| class="wikitable sortable" |
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Line 536: | Line 668: | ||
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|[[Connecticut Huskies men's basketball|Connecticut]] |
|[[Connecticut Huskies men's basketball|Connecticut]] |
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| |
|3 |
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|1999, 2004 |
|1999, 2004, 2011 |
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|- |
|- |
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|[[Duke Blue Devils men's basketball|Duke]] |
|[[Duke Blue Devils men's basketball|Duke]] |
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Line 607: | Line 739: | ||
|1960 |
|1960 |
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|- |
|- |
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|[[Oklahoma State Cowboys basketball|Oklahoma State (Oklahoma A&M)]] |
|[[Oklahoma State Cowboys basketball|Oklahoma State (Oklahoma A&M*)]] |
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|2 |
|2 |
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|1945, 1946 |
|1945, 1946 |
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Line 655: | Line 787: | ||
|1943 |
|1943 |
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|} |
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*- Prior to 1957 Oklahoma State was known as Oklahoma A&M |
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===Undefeated teams=== |
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==Coaches== |
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*''The team's record here refers to their record '''before''' the first game of the NCAA tournament.'' |
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{{Main|NCAA men's basketball coaches win list}} |
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{| class="wikitable sortable" |
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Four active coaches have won multiple titles: [[Mike Krzyzewski]] with four titles, [[Jim Calhoun]] with three, and [[Roy Williams (coach)|Roy Williams]] and [[Billy Donovan]] with two each. |
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|- |
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! Year !! Team !! Record* !! Result |
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Louisville's coach Rick Pitino has been to the Final Four with three different teams: [[Providence Friars men's basketball|Providence]] in 1987, [[Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball|Kentucky]] in [[1995–96 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team|1996]] and [[1996–97 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team|1997]], and [[Louisville Cardinals men's basketball|Louisville]] in 2005. While [[John Calipari]] has been to the Final Four with three teams—[[UMass Minutemen basketball|Massachusetts]] in 1996, [[Memphis Tigers men's basketball|Memphis]] in [[2007–08 Memphis Tigers men's basketball team|2008]], and Kentucky in [[2010–11 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team|2011]]—only his appearance with Kentucky is officially recognized by the NCAA, as the other two appearances were vacated due to NCAA violations. |
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|- |
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|1951||Columbia||21-0||Lost in the first round to Illinois |
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Former [[UCLA Bruins men's basketball|UCLA]] head coach [[John Wooden]] has the most with 10 national championships (1964, 1965, 1967–1973, 1975), followed by [[Mike Krzyzewski]] with 4 at Duke (1991, 1992, 2001, 2010), [[Adolph Rupp]] with 4 at Kentucky (1948, 1949, 1951, 1958), and [[Bob Knight]] with 3 at Indiana (1976, 1981, 1987) and [[Jim Calhoun]] with 3 at Connecticut (1999, 2004, 2011). |
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|- |
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|1956||San Francisco||24-0||'''Won''' the tournament |
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The following schools have had more than one head coach win an NCAA title: |
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|- |
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* [[Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball|Kentucky]], 4 — Adolph Rupp (1948, 1949, 1951, 1958), [[Joe B. Hall]] (1978), [[Rick Pitino]] (1996), [[Tubby Smith]] (1998) |
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|1957||North Carolina||27-0||'''Won''' the tournament |
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* [[Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball|Kansas]], 3 — [[Phog Allen]] (1952), [[Larry Brown (basketball)|Larry Brown]] (1988), [[Bill Self]] (2008). |
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|- |
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* [[North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball|North Carolina]], 3 — [[Frank McGuire]] (1957), [[Dean Smith]] (1982, 1993), [[Roy Williams (coach)|Roy Williams]] (2005, 2009) |
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|1961||Ohio State||24-0|| Lost in the championship game to Cincinnati |
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* [[Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball|Indiana]], 2 — [[Branch McCracken]] (1940, 1953), [[Bob Knight]] (1976, 1981, 1987) |
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|- |
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* [[Michigan State Spartans men's basketball|Michigan State]], 2 — [[Jud Heathcote]] (1979), [[Tom Izzo]] (2000) |
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|1964||UCLA||26-0||'''Won''' the tournament |
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* [[NC State Wolfpack men's basketball|North Carolina State]], 2 — [[Norm Sloan]] (1974), [[Jim Valvano]] (1983) |
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|- |
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* [[UCLA Bruins men's basketball|UCLA]], 2 — John Wooden (1964, 1965, 1967–1973, 1975), [[Jim Harrick]] (1995) |
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|1967||UCLA||26-0||'''Won''' the tournament |
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|- |
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==Future host cities== |
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|1968||Houston||28-0||Lost in the national semifinal game to UCLA. |
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On November 19, 2008, the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee announced the Final Four host cities for 2011 through 2016.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.scribd.com/doc/27241313/2010-NCAA-March-Madness-Bracket |title=NCAA sets Final Four destinations through 2017 |publisher=Scribd.com |date=2010-02-19 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.ncaa.com/champ/m-baskbl-d1-champ.html NCAA Championships], NCAA.com. Retrieved 2010-11-28.</ref> |
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|- |
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|1968||St. Bonaventure||22-0||Lost Sweet Sixteen game to North Carolina |
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*[[2011 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2011]]: [[Reliant Stadium]], [[Houston|Houston, Texas]] (April 2 and 4) |
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|- |
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*[[2012 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2012]]: [[Louisiana Superdome]], [[New Orleans|New Orleans, Louisiana]] (March 31 and April 2) |
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|1971||Marquette||26-0||Lost Sweet Sixteen game to Ohio State |
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*[[2013 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament|2013]]: [[Georgia Dome]], [[Atlanta|Atlanta, Georgia]] (April 6 and 8) |
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|- |
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*2014: [[Cowboys Stadium]], [[Arlington, Texas]] (April 5 and 7) |
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|1972||UCLA||26-0||'''Won''' the tournament |
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*2015: [[Lucas Oil Stadium]], [[Indianapolis|Indianapolis, Indiana]] (April 4 and 6) |
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|- |
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*2016: [[Reliant Stadium]], [[Houston|Houston, Texas]] (April 2 and 4) |
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|1973||UCLA||26-0||'''Won''' the tournament |
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|- |
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|1975||Indiana||29-0||Lost Elite Eight game to Kentucky |
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|- |
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|1976||Indiana||27-0||'''Won''' the tournament |
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|- |
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|1976||Rutgers||27-0||Lost in the national semifinal game to Michigan. |
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|- |
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|1979||Indiana State||28-0||Lost in the championship game to Michigan State |
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|- |
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|1991||UNLV||30-0||Lost in the national semifinal game to Duke. |
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|- |
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|} |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
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*[[List of NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Champions]] |
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*[[NCAA Men's Division I Final Four appearances by school]] |
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*[[NCAA Men's Division I Final Four appearances by coaches]] |
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*[[List of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Final Four participants]] |
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*[[NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship records]] |
*[[NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship records]] |
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*[[NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament all-time team records]] |
*[[NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament all-time team records]] |
Revision as of 01:34, 23 April 2011
Current season, competition or edition:![]() | |
![]() | |
Sport | College basketball |
---|---|
Founded | 1939 |
No. of teams | 68 (since 2011) |
Country | United States |
Most recent champion(s) | Connecticut Huskies |
Most titles | UCLA Bruins (11) |
TV partner(s) | CBS, TBS, TNT, truTV |
Official website | NCAA.com |
The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single-elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 college basketball teams, to determine the national championship in the top tier of college basketball. The tournament, organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), was created in 1939 by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and was the brainchild of Kansas coach Phog Allen.[1][2] Held mostly in March, it is known informally as March Madness or the Big Dance, and has become one of the most prominent annual sporting events in the United States.
The tournament teams include champions from 31 Division I conferences (which receive automatic bids), and 37 teams which are awarded at-large berths. These "at-large" teams are chosen by an NCAA selection committee, as detailed below. The 68 teams are divided into four regions and organized into a single elimination "bracket", which predetermines, when a team wins a game, which team it will face next. Each team is "seeded", or ranked, within its region. After an initial four games between eight lower-seeded teams, the tournament takes place over the course of three weekends, at pre-selected neutral sites around the United States. Lower-seeded teams are placed in the bracket against higher seeded teams. Each weekend cuts three-fourths of the teams, from a Round of 64, to a "Sweet Sixteen", to a "Final Four"; the Final Four usually play on the first weekend in April. These four teams, one from each region, battle it out in one destination for the national championship.
The tournament has been at least partially televised since 1969, and today, with games covered by CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV, all games are available for viewing nationwide. As television coverage has grown, so too has the tournament's popularity and place in American culture. Today, millions of Americans "fill out a bracket",[3] predicting winners of all 67 games.
With 11 national titles, UCLA holds 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 7 national titles, while Indiana University and the University of North Carolina are tied for third with 5 national titles. 2010 champion Duke University ranks fifth with 4 national titles.
Current tournament format
The NCAA has changed the tournament format several times since its inception, most often reflecting an expansion of the field. This section describes the tournament as it has operated since 2011. For changes over the course of its history, and to see how the tournament operated in past years, go to Format history, below.
Qualifying
A total of 68 teams qualify for the tournament played in March and April. Thirty-one (31) teams earn automatic bids by winning their respective conference tournaments. Thirty (30) of the 31 conferences hold tournaments to determine their respective automatic qualifiers. Only the Ivy League does not conduct a post-season tournament; its automatic bid goes to the regular-season conference champion.
The remaining thirty-seven (37) tournament slots are granted to at-large bids, which are determined by the Selection Committee, a special committee appointed by the NCAA. The committee also determines where all sixty-eight teams are seeded and placed in the bracket.
Regions
The tournament is split into four regions and each region has at least sixteen teams, but four additional teams are added per the decision of the Selection Committee. (See First Four). The committee is charged with making each of the four regions as close as possible in overall quality of teams.
The names of the regions vary from year to year, and are broadly geographic (such as "Southeast", "East" or "Midwest"). The selected names roughly correspond to the location of the four cities hosting the regional finals. For example, in 2011, the regions were named East (Newark, New Jersey), West (Anaheim, California), Southwest (San Antonio, Texas), and Southeast (New Orleans). However, oftentimes the chosen names for the regions appear counterintuitive to some observers, such as in 1990, when Atlanta hosted the East regional and Richmond hosted the Southeast regional.[4]
Seeding and the Bracket
The selection committee seeds the whole field of 68 teams from 1-68, but does not make this information public. Instead, the committee divides the teams amongst the regions. The top four teams will be distributed among the four regions, and each will receive a #1 seed within that region. The next four ranked teams will also be distributed among the four regions, each receiving a #2 seed with their region, and the process continues down the line. Carried to its logical conclusion, this would give each region seventeen teams seeded 1-17, but as seen below, this is complicated somewhat (see The First Four).
The bracket is thus set in stone, and in the semifinals, the champion of top #1 seed's region will play against the champion of the fourth No. 1 seed's region, and the champion of the second-ranked #1 seed's region will play against the champion of third-ranked #1 seed's region.[5]
The selection committee is also instructed to place teams so that whenever possible, conference teams cannot meet until the regional finals. In addition, they are also instructed to avoid any possible rematches of regular season or previous year's tournament games during the Rounds of 32 and 64.[6]
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 (though in some cases, a team may be fortunate enough to play in or near its home state or city). Under current NCAA rules, any court on which a team hosts more than three regular-season games (in other words, not including conference tournament games) is considered a "home court".[7]
However, while a team can be moved to a different region if its home court is being used in 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, in theory a team could play in a Final Four on its home court; in reality, this would be unlikely, since the Final Four is usually staged at a venue larger than most college basketball arenas.
Rounds
The tournament has several rounds. They are currently called
- The First Four
- The Second Round (also known as "the Round of 64")
- The Third Round (also known as "the Round of 32")
- The Regional Semi-finals (participating teams are popularly known as the "Sweet Sixteen")
- The Regional Finals (participating teams are commonly known as the "Elite Eight")
- The National Semi-finals (participating teams are officially referred to as the "Final Four")
- The National Final
The tournament is single-elimination; this format produces opportunities for Cinderella teams to advance despite playing higher seeded teams.
The First Four
The appellation "First Four" refers to the number of games played, not the number of teams. First held in 2011, the First Four is played between the lowest four at-large qualifying teams and the lowest four automatic bid (conference champion) teams. This does not, however, mean that these are necessarily the lowest eight teams in the field. The four games are held to determine which four teams will assume a place amongst the teams participating in the Round of 64. Unlike all the other early games in the tournament, the teams are not matched with an eye toward disparity, but rather, of equality. This is because in one game two teams may be vying for a #16 seed in the Round of 64, but in another game the two teams may be vying for perhaps a #12 seed, or even higher.
While most NCAA tournament games are played over the weekend, the First Four games are played during the week, between Selection Sunday and the weekend immediately following. Once the First Four games are played, the four winning teams assume their places in the bracket of 64 teams, and must play again that weekend, with little rest.
The Round of 64 and the Round of 32
In the Second Round (the Round of 64), the #1 seed plays the #16 seed in all regions; the #2 team plays the #15, and so on. The effect of this seeding structure ensures that the better a team is seeded, the worse-seeded (and presumably weaker) their opponents will be. Sixteen second-round games are played on the Thursday following the "First Four" round. The remaining sixteen second-round games are played Friday. At this point the field is whittled down to 32 teams.
The Third Round (the Round of 32) is played on Saturday and Sunday immediately following the second round. The third round consists of Thursday's winners playing in eight games on Saturday, followed by Friday's winners playing in the remaining eight third-round games on Sunday. Thus, after the first weekend, 16 teams remain, commonly called the "Sweet Sixteen."
Regional semifinals and finals
The teams that are still alive after the first weekend advance to the regional semifinals (the Sweet Sixteen) and finals (the Elite Eight), which are played on the second weekend of the tournament (again, the games are split into Thursday/Saturday and Friday/Sunday). Four regional semi-final games are played Thursday and four are played Friday. After Friday's games, 8 teams (the Elite Eight) 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 emerge as 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 noted above, which regional champion play which, and in which semifinal they play, is determined by the overall rankings of the four #1 seeds in the original bracket, not on the seeds of the eventual Final Four teams themselves.
Popular culture
Tournament associated terms
As indicated below, none of these phrases are exclusively used in regards to the NCAA tournament. Nonetheless, they are widely associated 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 term for season-ending basketball tournaments played in March. March Madness is also a registered trademark, held jointly by the NCAA and the Illinois High School Association.
H. V. Porter, an official with the Illinois High School Association (and later a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame) was the first person to use March Madness to describe a basketball tournament. Porter published an essay named March Madness in 1939, and in 1942 used the phrase in a poem, Basketball Ides of March. Through the years the use of March Madness picked up steam, 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. In 1977 Jim Enright published a book about the Illinois tournament entitled March Madness.[8]
Fans began connecting the term to the NCAA tournament in 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.
Only in the 1990s did either the IHSA or NCAA think about trademarking the term, and by that time a small television production company named Intersport had beaten them both to the punch. 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. In 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.
Following 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. In 2003, in March Madness Athletic Association v. Netfire, Inc., the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that March Madness was not a generic term, and ordered Netfire to relinquish the domain name to the NCAA.[9]
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. (While the term "Final Four" was not used in the early decades of the tournament, the term has been applied retroactively to include the last four teams in tournaments from earlier years, even when only two brackets existed.)
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” in the 1974 tournament. The NCAA started capitalizing the term in 1978 and turning it into a trademark several years later.
In recent years, the term Final Four has spread into 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 called the Final Four.
Cinderella team
Although there is no official definition of what constitutes a Cinderella team, there does seem to be a consensus that such teams represent small schools, are seeded rather low in the tournament, and achieve at least one unexpected win in the tournament. The term became popularized as a result of CCNY's run through the tournament in 1950.[10] Since 1950, the term has seen use in other sports as well, though nowhere is it as prominent as in the NCAA tournament.
Bracketology
For decades, fans have been entering into office pools or private gambling-related contests as to who can predict the tournament most correctly; Barack Obama has referred to the filling out of a tournament bracket as a "national pastime".[11] 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 radio show, a wide variety of celebrities from various fields (such as Darius Rucker, Charlie Sheen, and Brooklyn Decker) have posted full brackets with predictions. President Obama's bracket is posted on the White House website.
There are many different 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.
There are 2^63 or 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (9.2 quintillion) possibilities for the possible winners in a 64 team NCAA bracket, making the odds of randomly picking a perfect bracket (i.e. without weighting for seed number) 9.2 quintillion to 1.[12] With the expansion of the tournament field to 68 teams in 2011, the odds are now increased to 2^67 or 147,573,952,589,676,412,928 (147.57 quintillion) possibilities.
Evolution of the Tournament
Format history
The NCAA tournament has changed its format many times over the years. Below are listed many of these changes.
Expansion of field
- The NCAA tournament has expanded a number of times throughout its history. This is a breakdown of the history of the tournament format:
- 1939–1950: eight teams
- 1951–1952: 16 teams
- 1953–1974: varied between 22 and 25 teams
- 1975–1978: 32 teams
- 1979: 40 teams
- 1980–1982: 48 teams
- 1983: 52 teams (four play-in games before the tournament)
- 1984: 53 teams (five play-in games before the tournament)
- 1985–2000: 64 teams
- 2001–2010: 65 teams (with an opening round game to determine whether the 64th or 65th team plays in the first round)
- 2011–present: 68 teams (four play-in games in the first round before all remaining teams compete in the second round)
- After the conclusion of the 2010 tournament, there was much speculation about increasing the tournament size to as many as 128 teams. On April 1, 2010, the NCAA announced that it was looking at expanding to 96 teams for 2011. On April 22, 2010, the NCAA announced a new television contract with CBS/Turner and that the field would expand the field, but only to 68 teams.
Other changes
- 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 (e.g., South Carolina, which was 14-0 in conference play in 1970, Southern Cal which was ranked #2 in the nation in 1971, and Maryland which was ranked #3 in the nation in 1974), the NCAA began to place at-large teams in the tournament, instead of just conference champions.
- Currently, there are no consolation games, but there was a third-place game until 1981. Additionally, each regional had a third-place game through the 1975 tournament.
- 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 in 1999. Originally, the winner of the MWC 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 Men's Division I Basketball Opening Round Game (the "play-in 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.
- In 2011, the tournament expanded to 68 teams. Four "play-in" games are now played, officially known as the "First Four".[13] 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."[13]
- In the 1985 to 2002 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 regional bracket is divided into four-team pods. The possible pods by seeding are:
- Pod #1: 1v16, 8v9
- Pod #2: 2v15, 7v10
- Pod #3: 3v14, 6v11
- Pod #4: 4v13, 5v12
- Each of the eight second- and third-round (formerly 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.
- 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. Prior to 2004, the pitting of regional champions in the semi-finals was simply random.
- 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". Starting in 2011, the "First Four" became the first round. The round after the "First Four" is now called the "second round", and consists of 64 teams playing 32 games; it is played on Thursday and Friday. The next round, the "third round", consists of 32 teams playing 16 games that are played on Saturday and Sunday.[13]
Venues
For a list of all the cities and stadiums that have hosted the Final Four, go to Host cities, below.
Stadium size and domes
Since 1997, the NCAA has required that all Final Four sessions take place in domed stadiums with a minimum capacity of 40,000, usually having only a half of the dome in use. The last small arena to host the Final Four was The Meadowlands in 1996. As of 2009, the minimum was raised 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 Minnesota's Metrodome.
The first instance of a domed stadium being used for a 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.
"Home court" advantage
Since the inception of the modern Final Four in 1952, only once has a team played a Final Four on its actual home court. But through the 2011 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 2010 tournament. Kentucky (1958), UCLA (1968, 1972, 1975) and North Carolina State (1974) won the national title; Louisville (1959) and Purdue (1980) lost in the Final Four; and California (1960), Duke (1994), Michigan State (2009) and Butler (2010) lost in the final.
The biggest advantage was in 1959 when Louisville played at its regular home of Freedom Hall; however, they lost to West Virginia in the semifinals. The following year, Cal had nearly as large an edge, as they only had to cross 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 (and also UCLA's home arena before the latter venue opened in 1965); unlike Louisville and Cal, the Bruins won the national title on both occasions. Butler lost the 2010 title 6 miles (9.7 km) from its Indianapolis campus.
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 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 their home state, North Carolina. The team was put in the East Region, and played its regional games at home arena Reynolds Coliseum. NC State played the final four and national championship games at nearby Greensboro Coliseum.
While not their home state, Kansas has played in the championship game in Kansas City, Missouri, only 45 minutes from their campus in Lawrence, Kansas, not just once, but four times. In 1940, 1953, and 1957 they 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.
Flag controversy
The NCAA has banned the Bi-Lo Center and Colonial Life Arena in South Carolina from hosting tournament games, despite their sizes (16,000 and 18,000 seats, respectively) 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 take down the Confederate Battle Flag from their state capitol. 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.[14]
Trophies and rituals
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.[15] This NCAA tournament 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 tournament in 1947.[16]
Team Awards
The NCAA awards the National Champions a gold plated Wooden NCAA National Championship trophy.[citation needed] The loser of the championship game receives a silver plated National Runner-Up trophy for second place. All four Final Four teams receive a bronze plated NCAA Regional Championship trophy.
The champions also receive a commemorative gold championship ring, and the other three Final Four teams receive Final Four rings.[citation needed]
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.[17] Since 2006, the Siemens/NABC Trophy has been presented separately at a press conference the day after the game.[18]
Most Outstanding Player
After the championship trophy is awarded, one player is selected and then awarded the Most Outstanding Player award (which almost always come from the championship team). It is not intended to be the same as a Most Valuable Player award although it is sometimes informally referred to as such.
Television coverage and revenues
Current television contracts
Since 2010, the NCAA has had a joint contract with CBS and Turner Sports, a division of Time Warner (which co-owns the CW Television Network with CBS). 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 second- or third-round game in each time "window" is broadcast on CBS, while all other games are shown either on TBS, TNT or truTV. Sweet 16 (regional semifinal) games are broadcast on CBS and TBS. Through 2015, all games from the Elite Eight (regional final) onwards are shown on CBS exclusively. Beginning in 2016, CBS and TBS will split coverage of the Elite Eight. CBS and TBS will 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 is allowed to develop their own service.[19]
The CBS broadcast provides the NCAA with over 500 million dollars annually, and makes up over 90% of the NCAA's annual revenue.[20] The revenues from the multi-billion-dollar television contract are divided among the Division I basketball playing schools and conferences as follows:[21]
- 1/6 of the money goes directly to the schools based on how many sports they play (one "share" for each sport starting with 14, which is the minimum needed for Division I membership).
- 1/3 of the money goes directly to the schools based on how many scholarships they give out (one share for each of the first 50, two for each of the next 50, ten for each of the next 50, and 20 for each scholarship above 150).
- 1/2 of the money goes to the conferences based on how well they did in the six previous men's basketball tournaments (counting each year separately, one share for each team getting in, and one share for each win except in the Final Four and, prior to the 2008 tournament, the Play-in game). In 2007, based on the 2001 through 2006 tournaments, the Big East received over $14.85 million, while the eight conferences that did not win a first-round game in those six years received slightly more than $1 million each.[22]
The Division I Men's Basketball tournament is the only NCAA championship tournament where the NCAA does not keep the profits.[citation needed]
History of television coverage
CBS has been the major partner of the NCAA in televising the tournament for much of its history, 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
The same year as CBS obtained rights to the Big Dance, 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 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, no doubt due to the extensive coverage provided by ESPN.
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 (between the 64 seed and the 65 seed) in the 2000s, did ESPN get back in the game (and actually, the first time this "play-in" game was played in 2001, the game was aired on TNN, using CBS graphics and announcers. CBS and TNN were both owned by Viacom at the time.)
Through 2010, CBS broadcasted the remaining 63 games of the NCAA tournament proper. Most areas saw only eight of 32 first round games, seven second round games, and four regional semifinal games (out of the possible 56 games during these rounds; there would be some exceptions to this rule in the 2000s). 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 remain primarily on a given game, and are used primarily by stations with a clear local interest in a particular game. Despite its name, a constant feed will occasionally veer away to other games for brief updates (as is typical in most American sports coverage), but coverage generally remains with the initial game. A swing feed tends 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 bounces around from one venue to another, depending on action at the various games in progress. If one game is a blowout, coverage can switch to a more competitive game. A flex feed is provided when there are not games that have a significant natural local interest for the stations carrying them, allowing the flex game to be the best game in progress. Station feeds are planned in advance and stations have 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.[23] 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.[24] In 2006, March Madness On Demand was made free, and continues to be so today to online users.
In addition, CBS College Sports Network (formerly CSTV) 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 on Demand 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. CBS-CS is scheduled to continue broadcasting the official pregame and postgame shows and press conferences from the teams involved.[25]
NCAA partner AT&T Mobility also broadcasts all games via the MobiTV infrastructure, which is available on phones compatible with AT&T's Mobile TV service. For the iPhone, a premium-charge application is available via the App Store to watch the games.
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 (including all first and second round games) 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.[26] 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 bandwith to split their signal into digital subchannels to show all games going on simultaneously.[27] By 2008, upgrades at the CBS broadcast center allowed all feeds, flex and constant, to be in HD for the tournament.
Outside of the United States
Though it is an American sporting event, the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament is watched in some other countries.
- In Canada, TSN has owned the rights to the tournament since 2011, as a result of an international deal between the NCAA and ESPN International (which is a minority investor in TSN).
- In Australia, the ONE HD network simulcasts the CBS game coverage in HD. ESPN Australia and ESPNHD Australia also simulcast CBS game coverage. As with the Canadian telecast, ONE HD only airs selected games during the later stages of the tournament.
- In Europe, ESPN America simulcasts the NCAA tournament, including games shown on CBS College Sports, taking the suggested national feed.
Tournament trivia
"Cinderella" teams
Cinderella teams are responsible for much of the excitement in the tournament,[28] and sometimes the performance of Cinderellas prove to be more memorable than the actual tournament victories.
Most successful low seeds
These are the lowest seeds to reach each round since expansion to 64 teams in 1985:
- A #15 seed has reached the Round of 32 four times:
- Richmond in 1991
- Santa Clara in 1993
- Coppin State in 1997
- Hampton in 2001
- A #14 seed has reached the Sweet Sixteen (Regional Semi-finals) twice:
- Cleveland State in 1986
- Chattanooga in 1997
- A #12 seed has reached the Elite Eight (Regional Finals) once:
- An #11 seed has reached the Final Four and played in the national semi-final game three times:
- LSU in 1986
- George Mason in 2006
- Virginia Commonwealth in 2011
- A #8 seed has reached the National Finals (Championship Game) three times, but officially, only twice:
- UCLA reached the final in 1980, but the Bruins' appearance was vacated due to recruiting violations involving two players on that team.
- Villanova in 1985
- Butler in 2011
- A #8 seed has won the National Championship once:
- Villanova Wildcats in the 1985 tournament.
Best performances by #16 seeds
No team as a #16 seed has ever defeated a #1 seed since the field was expanded to 64 teams, though on four occasions, a #16 seed has come within a single basket of winning:
- Princeton lost to Georgetown in 1989 (1 point, 50–49)
- East Tennessee State lost to Oklahoma in 1989 (1 point, 72–71)
- Western Carolina lost to Purdue in 1996 (2 points, 73–71)
- Additionally, while ultimately Murray State lost to Michigan State by 4 points in 1990, they were the only #16 team to ever take a game into overtime.
Additional low-seed trivia
- The University of Pennsylvania's 1979 Final Four appearance is also notable as they made it as a #9 seed—out of 10 teams in their region—making them the lowest seed to make the Final Four in the Pre-64-team era.[29]
- The pairing of #8 seed Butler and #11 seed Virginia Commonwealth in the 2011 National Semifinals game had the lowest seeded combination (#8 v. #11) ever to play in a National Semifinals game.
- Richmond is the only team to win first round games ranked as a #15, #14, #13, and #12 seed.
Notable point spread upsets
As noted above, despite numerous instances of early-round tournament upsets, no #1 seed has ever lost in the first round to a #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".
- Biggest point-spread upsets since expansion to 64 teams in 1985:[30]
- Santa Clara +19.5 over Arizona 64–61 in 1993
- Coppin State +18.5 over South Carolina 78–65 in 1997
- Hampton +17.5 over Iowa State 58–57 in 2001
- Biggest point-spread upsets in NCAA Championship Game history:
- Connecticut +9.5 over Duke, 77–74, in 1999
- Villanova +9 over Georgetown, 66–64, in 1985
- Kansas +8 over Oklahoma, 83–79, in 1988
- North Carolina State +7.5 over Houston, 54–52 in 1983
- Texas Western +6.5 over Kentucky, 72–65 in 1966
Highly seeded teams
While people are often fascinated by the improbable Cinderella stories, sometimes unusual things have happened with the top-seeded teams, as well.
#1 seeds and the Final Four
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/NCAA_Wins_Rank_1.png/300px-NCAA_Wins_Rank_1.png)
- All four #1 seeds making it to the Final Four
Has happened only once, in 2008, when Kansas, North Carolina, UCLA, and Memphis all won their regionals. (Memphis's season was later vacated by the NCAA due to use of an ineligible player).
- Two #1 seeds making it to the championship game
Has happened six times:
- 1982 North Carolina defeated Georgetown
- 1993 North Carolina defeated Michigan
- 1999 Connecticut defeated Duke
- 2005 North Carolina defeated Illinois
- 2007 Florida defeated Ohio State
- 2008 Kansas defeated Memphis
- Tournaments with NO #1 seeds in the Final Four
Has happened three times:
- 1980 – Louisville – #2 (champion), Iowa – #5, Purdue – #6, UCLA – #8
- 2006 – UCLA – #2, Florida – #3 (champion), LSU – #4, George Mason – #11
- 2011 – Connecticut – #3 (champion), Kentucky – #4, Butler – #8, Virginia Commonwealth – #11
- Additional #1 seed trivia
- In 1997, Arizona achieved a record that can never be broken, when it became the only team to beat three #1 seeds in a single tournament. (Due to tournament structure, it is impossible to play a team from each one of the regions in a single tournament, thus the most #1 seeds any team can play in a single tournament is three.)
- In 2011, the highest seed to advance to the Final Four was #3 seed Connecticut, making the 2011 tournament the only time that neither a #1 seed nor a #2 seed advanced into the final weekend of play. In the same tournament, Butler made history as the first program to make consecutive Final Fours while not being seeded #1 or #2 in either season.
- There have been sixteen teams that have entered the tournament undefeated. Four of those teams were from UCLA, and those four UCLA teams won each of those tournaments. However, of the other twelve teams entering the tournament undefeated, only three went on to win the tournament. For details, see table below
Teams #1 in national polls
The following teams entered the tournament ranked #1 in at least one of the AP, UPI, or USA Today polls and did what they were expected to do: they went on to win the tournament:[31]
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Undefeated teams not in the Big Dance
The NCAA tournament has undergone dramatic expansion since the 1970s, and since the tournament was expanded to 48 teams in 1980, no undefeated teams have failed to qualify. But before that, there were six occasions on which a team achieved perfection in the regular season, yet did not appear in the NCAA tournament.
- In 1939, Long Island University finished the regular season undefeated but decided to accept instead an invitation to the NIT (which they won) instead of the NCAA tournament.
- In 1940, Seton Hall finished the regular season 19–0, but their record had been built largely against weak teams and thus did not earn them an invitation to the postseason tournament.
- In 1944, Army finished the regular season undefeated. But owing to World War II, the Cadets did not accept an invitation to postseason play.
- In 1954, Kentucky finished 25–0 and were invited to the tournament, but declined the invitation.
- In 1973 the North Carolina State Wolfpack finished the regular season 27–0 and ranked #2 (behind undefeated and eventual tournament champion UCLA) but were barred from participating in the NCAA tournament while on probation for recruiting violations.
- In 1979, the Alcorn State University Braves finished the regular season 27-0, but did not receive an invitation to the NCAA Tournament. The Braves accepted a bid to the NIT, where they lost in the second round to eventual NIT champion Indiana.[32]
Champions excluded the next year
There have been six times in which the tournament did not include the reigning champion (the previous year's winner):
- 1978 champion Kentucky went 19–12 in 1979. The Wildcats accepted an invitation to the National Invitation Tournament, losing their first round game in overtime to Clemson, 68–67.
- Both 1979 champion Michigan State and 1979 runner up Indiana State failed to qualify for the 1980 NCAA tournament. Furthermore, neither was invited to the National Invitation Tournament. (It is noteworthy that Indiana State lost Larry Bird, and Michigan State lost Magic Johnson, to the 1979 NBA draft following the 1979 NCAA tournament.)
- 1986 champion Louisville went 18–14 in 1987. The team declined an invitation to the postseason National Invitation Tournament.
- 1988 champion Kansas was ineligible for participation in the 1989 NCAA tournament due to NCAA sanctions for recruiting violations. However, their overall record (19-12), combined with their sixth place finish in the Big Eight, would likely have kept them out of the tournament anyway.
- Both 2007 champion Florida and 2007 runner up Ohio State failed to qualify for the 2008 NCAA tournament. Both accepted invitations to that year's postseason National Invitation Tournament. Each made it to that tournament's final four. Florida fell to the University of Massachusetts in the semifinals, but Ohio State defeated UMass in the NIT Championship Game to win the tournament.
- 2009 champion North Carolina went 16–16 in 2010. The Tar Heels accepted an invitation to the National Invitation Tournament, in which they reached the finals and were defeated by Dayton.
Trivia about coaches
- Most tournament wins
- UCLA head coach John Wooden won 10 national championships (1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975)
- Two coaches have won 4 tournaments
- Kentucky head coach Adolph Rupp (1948, 1949, 1951, 1958)
- Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski (1991, 1992, 2001, 2010)
- Two coaches have won 3 tournaments
- Indiana head coach Bob Knight (1976, 1981, 1987)
- Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun (1999, 2004, 2011)
- Several coaches have won two championships
- Active coaches with multiple tournament wins
- Mike Krzyzewski has four titles
- Jim Calhoun has three titles
- Billy Donovan has two titles
- Roy Williams has two titles
- Schools with more than one head coach winning a championship
- Four championship coaches
- Three championship coaches
- Kansas: Phog Allen, Larry Brown, and Bill Self
- North Carolina: Frank McGuire, Dean Smith, and Roy Williams
- Two championship coaches
- Indiana: Branch McCracken and Bob Knight
- Michigan State: Jud Heathcote and Tom Izzo
- North Carolina State: Norm Sloan and Jim Valvano.
- UCLA: John Wooden and Jim Harrick
- Most different teams taken to the Final Four
- Rick Pitino has been to the Final Four with three different schools: Providence (1987); Kentucky (1993, 1996, and 1997), and Louisville (2005).
- John Calipari also made the Final Four with three different schools: Massachusetts (1996), Memphis (2008), and Kentucky (2011). However—while Calipari was not found to have been personally responsible in either case—the UMass and Memphis teams both had their appearances vacated due to NCAA violations; therefore, Calipari's 2011 appearance in the Final Four is his only Final Four recognized by the NCAA.
Mathematical trivia
Point differentials
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 (103-73, over Duke)
- Smallest margin of victory in a championship game
1 point, on six occasions
- Indiana 69, Kansas 68 (1953)
- North Carolina 54, Kansas 53/3OT (1957)
- California 71, West Virginia 70 (1959)
- North Carolina 63, Georgetown 62 (1982)
- Indiana 74, Syracuse 73 (1987)
- Michigan 80, Seton Hall 79/OT (1989)
- Overtime games in a championship game
Seven times the championship game has been tied at the end of regulation. On one of those occasions (1957) the game went into double and then triple overtime.
- North Carolina 54, Kansas 53/3OT (1957)
- Utah 42, Dartmouth 40/OT (1944)
- Cincinnati 65, Ohio St. 60/OT (1961)
- Loyola 60, Cincinnati 58/OT (1963)
- Michigan 80, Seton Hall 79/OT (1989)
- Arizona 84, Kentucky 79/OT (1997)
- Kansas 75, Memphis 68/OT (2008)
Accumulated victory margins
- Largest point differential accumulated over the entire tournament
- 1996 Kentucky (+129)
- 2009 North Carolina (+121)
- 1990 UNLV (+112)
- 2001 Duke (+101)
- 2006 Florida (+96)
- Teams winning the championship and obtaining a margin of 10 points in every game of the tournament
Achieved seven times by six different schools
- Oregon(1939)
- Indiana (1981)
- UCLA (1967)
- Michigan State (1979 and 2000)
- Duke (2001)
- North Carolina (2009)
First round seed pairing results
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/NCAA_Wins-rank.png/300px-NCAA_Wins-rank.png)
Since the inception of the 64-team tournament in 1985, each seed-pairing has played a total of 108 first-round games, with the following results:
- The #1 seed is 108–0 against the #16 seed (100%).
- The #2 seed is 104–4 against the #15 seed (96.30%).
- The #3 seed is 92–16 against the #14 seed (85.19%).
- The #4 seed is 85–23 against the #13 seed (78.70%).
- The #5 seed is 72–36 against the #12 seed (66.67%).
- The #6 seed is 72–36 against the #11 seed (66.67%).
- The #7 seed is 65–43 against the #10 seed (60.19%).
- The #8 seed is 51–57 against the #9 seed (47.22%).
Addenda - Tables
Host cities
This table lists all the cities that have hosted the Final Four, as well as what stadiums the Final Four was played in. 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.
Year | City | Venue | Champion |
---|---|---|---|
1939 | Evanston, Illinois | Patten Gymnasium | Oregon |
1940 | Kansas City, Missouri | Municipal Auditorium | Indiana |
1941 | Kansas City, Missouri | Municipal Auditorium | Wisconsin |
1942 | Kansas City, Missouri | Municipal Auditorium | Stanford |
1943 | New York City | Madison Square Garden | Wyoming |
1944 | New York City | Madison Square Garden | Utah |
1945 | New York City | Madison Square Garden | Oklahoma A&M |
1946 | New York City | Madison Square Garden | Oklahoma A&M |
1947 | New York City | Madison Square Garden | Holy Cross |
1948 | New York City | Madison Square Garden | Kentucky |
1949 | Seattle, Washington | Hec Edmundson Pavilion | Kentucky |
1950 | New York City | Madison Square Garden | CCNY |
1951 | Minneapolis, Minnesota | Williams Arena | Kentucky |
1952 | Seattle, Washington | Hec Edmundson Pavilion | Kansas |
1953 | Kansas City, Missouri | Municipal Auditorium | Indiana |
1954 | Kansas City, Missouri | Municipal Auditorium | LaSalle |
1955 | Kansas City, Missouri | Municipal Auditorium | San Francisco |
1956 | Evanston, Illinois | McGaw Hall | San Francisco |
1957 | Kansas City, Missouri | Municipal Auditorium | North Carolina |
1958 | Louisville, Kentucky | Freedom Hall | Kentucky |
1959 | Louisville, Kentucky | Freedom Hall | California |
1960 | San Francisco | Cow Palace | Ohio State |
1961 | Kansas City, Missouri | Municipal Auditorium | Cincinnati |
1962 | Louisville, Kentucky | Freedom Hall | Cincinnati |
1963 | Louisville, Kentucky | Freedom Hall | Loyola Chicago |
1964 | Kansas City, Missouri | Municipal Auditorium | UCLA |
1965 | Portland, Oregon | Memorial Collesium | UCLA |
1966 | College Park, Maryland | Cole Field House | UTEP |
1967 | Louisville, Kentucky | Freedom Hall | UCLA |
1968 | Los Angeles | Sports Arena | UCLA |
1969 | Louisville, Kentucky | Freedom Hall | UCLA |
1970 | College Park, Maryland | Cole Field House | UCLA |
1971 | Houston, Texas | Astrodome | UCLA |
1972 | Los Angeles | Memorial Sports Arena | UCLA |
1973 | St. Louis, Missouri | St. Louis Arena | UCLA |
1974 | Greensboro, North Carolina | Greensboro Coliseum | NC State |
1975 | San Diego, California | San Diego Sports Arena | UCLA |
1976 | Philadelphia | The Spectrum | Indiana |
1977 | Atlanta, Georgia | The Omni | Marquette |
1978 | St. Louis, Missouri | The Checkerdome | Kentucky |
1979 | Salt Lake City | Special Events Center | Michigan State |
1980 | Indianapolis, Indiana | Market Square Arena | Louisville |
1981 | Philadelphia | The Spectrum | Indiana Hoosiers |
1982 | New Orleans | Louisiana Superdome | North Carolina |
1983 | Albuquerque, New Mexico | The Pit | NC State |
1984 | Seattle, Washington | Kingdome | Georgetown |
1985 | Lexington, Kentucky | Rupp Arena | Villanova |
1986 | Dallas, Texas | Reunion Arena | Louisville |
1987 | New Orleans | Louisiana Superdome | Indiana |
1988 | Kansas City, Missouri | Kemper Arena | Kansas |
1989 | Seattle, Washington | Kingdome | Michigan |
1990 | Denver, Colorado | McNichols Sports Arena | UNLV |
1991 | Indianapolis, Indiana | Hoosier Dome | Duke |
1992 | Minneapolis, Minnesota | HHH Metrodome | Duke |
1993 | New Orleans | Louisiana Superdome | North Carolina |
1994 | Charlotte, North Carolina | Charlotte Coliseum | Arkansas |
1995 | Seattle, Washington | Kingdome | UCLA |
1996 | East Rutherford, New Jersey | Continental Airlines Arena | Kentucky |
1997 | Indianapolis, Indiana | RCA Dome | Arizona |
1998 | San Antonio, Texas | Alamodome | Kentucky |
1999 | St. Petersburg, Florida | Tropicana Field | Connecticut |
2000 | Indianapolis, Indiana | RCA Dome | Michigan State |
2001 | Minneapolis, Minnesota | HHH Metrodome | Duke |
2002 | Atlanta, Georgia | Georgia Dome | Maryland |
2003 | New Orleans | Louisiana Superdome | Syracuse |
2004 | San Antonio, Texas | Alamodome | Connecticut |
2005 | St. Louis, Missouri | Edward Jones Dome | North Carolina |
2006 | Indianapolis, Indiana | RCA Dome | Florida |
2007 | Atlanta, Georgia | Georgia Dome | Florida |
2008 | San Antonio, Texas | Alamodome | Kansas |
2009 | Detroit, Michigan | Ford Field | North Carolina |
2010 | Indianapolis, Indiana | Lucas Oil Stadium | Duke |
2011 | Houston, Texas | Reliant Stadium | Connecticut |
2012 | New Orleans | Louisiana Superdome | |
2013 | Atlanta, Georgia | Georgia Dome | |
2014 | Arlington, Texas | Cowboys Stadium | |
2015 | Indianapolis, Indiana | Lucas Oil Stadium | |
2016 | Houston, Texas | Reliant Stadium |
Championships, by schools
- The following is a list of all schools that have won at least one NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, along with what years they have won their championship(s).
School | Titles | Years |
---|---|---|
Arizona | 1 | 1997 |
Arkansas | 1 | 1994 |
California | 1 | 1959 |
Cincinnati | 2 | 1961, 1962 |
CCNY | 1 | 1950 |
Connecticut | 3 | 1999, 2004, 2011 |
Duke | 4 | 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010 |
Florida | 2 | 2006, 2007 |
Georgetown | 1 | 1984 |
Holy Cross | 1 | 1947 |
Indiana | 5 | 1940, 1953, 1976, 1981, 1987 |
Kansas | 3 | 1952, 1988, 2008 |
Kentucky | 7 | 1948, 1949, 1951, 1958, 1978, 1996, 1998 |
La Salle | 1 | 1954 |
Louisville | 2 | 1980, 1986 |
Loyola (Chicago) | 1 | 1963 |
Marquette | 1 | 1977 |
Maryland | 1 | 2002 |
Michigan | 1 | 1989 |
Michigan State | 2 | 1979, 2000 |
North Carolina | 5 | 1957, 1982, 1993, 2005, 2009 |
North Carolina State | 2 | 1974, 1983 |
Ohio State | 1 | 1960 |
Oklahoma State (Oklahoma A&M*) | 2 | 1945, 1946 |
Oregon | 1 | 1939 |
San Francisco | 2 | 1955, 1956 |
Stanford | 1 | 1942 |
Syracuse | 1 | 2003 |
UCLA | 11 | 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1995 |
UNLV | 1 | 1990 |
UTEP (Texas Western) | 1 | 1966 |
Utah | 1 | 1944 |
Villanova | 1 | 1985 |
Wisconsin | 1 | 1941 |
Wyoming | 1 | 1943 |
- - Prior to 1957 Oklahoma State was known as Oklahoma A&M
Undefeated teams
- The team's record here refers to their record before the first game of the NCAA tournament.
Year | Team | Record* | Result |
---|---|---|---|
1951 | Columbia | 21-0 | Lost in the first round to Illinois |
1956 | San Francisco | 24-0 | Won the tournament |
1957 | North Carolina | 27-0 | Won the tournament |
1961 | Ohio State | 24-0 | Lost in the championship game to Cincinnati |
1964 | UCLA | 26-0 | Won the tournament |
1967 | UCLA | 26-0 | Won the tournament |
1968 | Houston | 28-0 | Lost in the national semifinal game to UCLA. |
1968 | St. Bonaventure | 22-0 | Lost Sweet Sixteen game to North Carolina |
1971 | Marquette | 26-0 | Lost Sweet Sixteen game to Ohio State |
1972 | UCLA | 26-0 | Won the tournament |
1973 | UCLA | 26-0 | Won the tournament |
1975 | Indiana | 29-0 | Lost Elite Eight game to Kentucky |
1976 | Indiana | 27-0 | Won the tournament |
1976 | Rutgers | 27-0 | Lost in the national semifinal game to Michigan. |
1979 | Indiana State | 28-0 | Lost in the championship game to Michigan State |
1991 | UNLV | 30-0 | Lost in the national semifinal game to Duke. |
See also
- List of NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Champions
- NCAA Men's Division I Final Four appearances by school
- NCAA Men's Division I Final Four appearances by coaches
- List of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Final Four participants
- NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship records
- NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament all-time team records
- NCAA Men's Division II Basketball Championship
- NCAA Men's Division III Basketball Championship
- NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
- AIAW Women's Division I Basketball Championship
- Selection Sunday
- Pre-NCAA Basketball Champions
- National Invitation Tournament
- 1922 National Intercollegiate Basketball Tournament
- NAIA national men's basketball championship
References
- ^ http://mobile.kusports.com/news/2005/mar/20/mayer_ncaa_no/
- ^ Key Dates in NABC History
- ^ http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/obamas-n-c-a-a-bracket-is-one-of-the-best/
- ^ Championship Information – NCAA.com
- ^ "NCAA DIVISION I MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP - PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES FOR ESTABLISHING THE BRACKET" (PDF). NCAA. Retrieved 2011-03-28.
The committee will then place the four "number 1 seed" teams seeded 1 through 4 in each of the four regions, then determine the Final Four semifinals pairings, making best effort to pair the top No. 1 seed's region against the fourth No. 1 seed's region and the second No. 1 seed's region against the third No. 1 seed's region.
- ^ "NCAA DIVISION I MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP - PRINCIPLES AND PROCEDURES FOR ESTABLISHING THE BRACKET" (PDF). NCAA. Retrieved 2011-03-28.
- ^ "Tournament History". NCAA. Retrieved 2009-08-10.
- ^ http://nbra.net/Default.aspx?tabid=252
- ^ http://www.bakerbotts.com/infocenter/publications/detail.aspx?id=716d75c6-09b6-4888-ba6b-977cd09e0710
- ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=g42TyP-V5C8C&pg=PR41&lpg=PR41&dq=Pat+Forde+College+Basketball+Encyclopedia+Cinderella&source=bl&ots=cYNEeKNejy&sig=d42TdANaMvqbHSmDyPJj3dbr_qU&hl=en&ei=wfKXTd2mDoi3tgfstb3qCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDAQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false
- ^ http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/16/president-obamas-2011-ncaa-brackets
- ^ Ask Dr. Math, The Math Forum @ Drexel; March 14, 2001; accessed March 7, 2010
- ^ a b c http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5374116
- ^ http://www.kctv5.com/sports/26998911/detail.html
- ^ http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/tourney05/2005-03-23-trimming-nets_x.htm
- ^ http://www.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/04/04/ncaa.cut.down.nets/index.html?hpt=Sbin
- ^ NCAA Men’s Basketball Trophy Visits UT Medical Center, University of Tennessee press release, January 15, 2007
- ^ NABC Basic Info
- ^ "CBS, Turner win TV rights to tourney". ESPN. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
- ^ "NCAA, TV talk about bigger men's tourney".
- ^ "NCAA 2006–07 Revenue Distribution Plan". NCAA. 2007.
- ^ "Distribution of Basketball-Related Funds According to Number of Units by Conference, 2001–2006". NCAA. 2007.
- ^ "Yahoo unveils Platinum paid service". CNET News.com. Retrieved 2007-03-17.
- ^ http://www.paidcontent.org/pc/arch/2004_03_16.shtml#005874
- ^ CSTV.com: #1 in College Sports – Men's Basketball
- ^ Why we didn’t get Stanford in HDTV (but the rest of the country did) – Morning Buzz
- ^ WRAL Digital Airs Entire NCAA Basketball Tournament
- ^ http://bleacherreport.com/articles/648001-the-slipper-fits-why-cindarella-stories-make-the-ncaa-tournament-so-great
- ^ "NCAA Final Four Tournament Seeds". Retrieved 30 March 2011.
- ^ "Gold Sheet College Basketball Log".
- ^ http://web1.ncaa.org/web_files/stats/m_final4/2010/2010Final4.pdf Final Four Record Book
- ^ http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/articles/2004/03/07/undefeated_and_unnoticed/