NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship

NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
NCAA logo.svg
Sport College basketball
Founded 1939
No. of teams 68 (since 2011)
Country(ies)  United States
Most recent champion(s) Duke Blue Devils
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, both conference champions and at-large selections. 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 informally known as March Madness or the Big Dance; the tournament, and especially the national semi-finals and final (the Final Four), has become one of the nation's most prominent sporting events.

The tournament bracket has included conference tournament champions from each Division I conference, which receive automatic bids. The remaining slots are at-large berths, with teams chosen by an NCAA selection committee. The selection process and tournament seedings are based on several factors, including team rankings, win-loss records and RPI data. The lowest-seeded teams compete in the "opening round games" to determine which will join the other 66 teams in the first round of the tournament.

A Most Outstanding Player award is given by the Associated Press at the end of each tournament.

At 11 national titles, UCLA holds the record for the most NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships; John Wooden, also known as the Wizard of Westwood, coached UCLA to 10 of its 11 titles. The University of Kentucky is second, with 7 national titles, while Indiana University and University of North Carolina are tied for third with 5 national titles, and current champion Duke University ranks fifth, with 4 national titles.

The tournament is televised on CBS in the United States, except for the play-in game.

On April 22, 2010, it was announced that the NCAA had reached a new 14-year, $11 billion deal with CBS Sports and TimeWarner-owned Turner Sports for the rights to broadcast the NCAA Tournament from 2011-2024. Additionally, the tournament will be expanded to 68 teams starting in 2011.[3]

Contents

Tournament

Overview

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. Since the Ivy League does not conduct a post-season tournament, its automatic bid goes to the regular-season conference champion.

The remaining 37 tournament slots are granted to at-large bids, which are determined by the 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".[4] The committee also determines where all sixty-eight teams are seeded and placed in the bracket.

The tournament is split into four regions and each region has teams seeded 1–17, 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. 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. With the expansion of the tournament to 68 teams, each region will have an opening-round game. 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:

Ultimately, neither option was chosen; the NCAA's final choice is discussed below.

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.

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 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.

Opening round (2001-10), First Four (2011 onward)

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 65 teams beginning in 2001. The #64 and #65 seeds play the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Opening Round Game (informally known as the "play-in game" though the NCAA frowns 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.

Starting in 2011, with the tournament expanding to 68 teams, four play-in games will be played, known as the "First Four".[5] The final four at-large teams and final four automatic qualifiers will play in these four games in order to advance into the traditional 64-team bracket.

First and second rounds (Pre-2011), Second and third rounds (2011 onwards)

Sixteen first round games are played on the Thursday following the NCAA's selection of the teams. The remaining sixteen games are played Friday. Thursday's winners play in eight second round games on Saturday, followed by Friday's winners playing in the remaining eight second round games on Sunday. Thus, after the first weekend, 16 teams remain, commonly called the "Sweet Sixteen."

Before the 2002 tournament, all teams playing at a first- or second-round site fed into the same regional tournament. 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:

Each of the eight first and second round sites is assigned two pods, where each group of four teams play each other. A host site's pods may be from different regions, and thus the winners of each pod would advance into separate regional tournaments.

Starting in 2011, the round after the "First Four" will be called the "second round", which consists of 32 games and will be played on either Thursday or Friday. The next round, the "third round", consists of 16 games that will be played on Saturday and Sunday.[6]

Regional semifinals and finals

The teams which 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."

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. 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.

Format history

The NCAA tournament has expanded a number of times throughout its history. This is a breakdown of the history of the tournament format:

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 to 68 teams, as opposed to the often speculated 96.

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.

March Madness and history of the term

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.

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 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.

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, 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.

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. 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 NCAA.com web site.)

Championship trophies and other honors

The NABC Championship Trophy
NCAA-style trophies for various sports as seen at UCLA.

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.

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.

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 Trophy after its title sponsor at the time. Sometimes confused with the NCAA's own trophy,[7] 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.[8]

Television

1970s

From 1969 to 1981, partial coverage of the NCAA tournament aired on NBC.

1980s

In 1982, CBS obtained broadcast television rights to the NCAA tournament. That same year, 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 did not (and still does not) have regional affiliates, so the entire country had to watch the same game. 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.

1990s

In 1991, CBS assumed responsibility for covering all games of the NCAA tournament, with the exception of the single Tuesday night "play-in" game. (The play-in game - between teams ranked 64 & 65 - is televised by ESPN, except for the first one, which was aired on TNN, and used CBS graphics and announcers. CBS and TNN were both owned by Viacom at the time.)

Currently, CBS broadcasts the remaining 63 games of the NCAA tournament proper. Most areas see 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). Coverage preempts regular programming on the network, except during a 2 hour window from about 5 ET until 7 ET when the local affiliates can show programming. The CBS format results in far fewer hours of first-round coverage than under the old ESPN format, but allows the games to reach a much larger audience than ESPN is able to reach.

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.

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.

2000s

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.[9] 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.[10] In 2005, the service charged $19.95 but offered enhanced coverage of pregame and postgame interviews and press conferences.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13]

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.

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) are aired. CBS-CS is scheduled to continue broadcasting the official pregame and postgame shows and press conferences from the teams involved.[14]

2010 and beyond: Joint CBS/Turner contract

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 TimeWarner. 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, 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 only. Beginning in 2016, TBS would show all games from the Elite Eight onwards in even-numbered years, with CBS retaining those 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.[15]

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.[16] 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 subchannels 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.[17] Upgrades at the CBS broadcast center allowed all feeds, flex and constant, to be in HD for the 2008 tournament.

The entire country sees the regional finals, the national semifinals, and the national championship. At the end of CBS' coverage, a highlight reel featuring memorable moments from the tournament is shown, set to the song "One Shining Moment."

Outside of the United States

In Europe, ESPN America simulcasts the NCAA tournament, including games shown on CBS College Sports, taking the suggested national feed.

In Canada, The Score simulcasts the CBS game coverage, but produces its own studio segments during the early rounds. The Score does not necessarily follow the CBS "national" selections, but rather airs what it deems to be the most interesting or relevant games to Canadian viewers.

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.

Revenues

The Division I Men's Basketball tournament is the only NCAA championship tournament (officially, the BCS Football Championship is not an NCAA event) where the NCAA does not keep the profits. Instead, the money from the multi-billion-dollar television contract is divided among the Division I basketball playing schools and conferences as follows:[18]

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 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.)

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 Cleveland 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 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).[20] In the 2006 and 2009 tournaments, Villanova was able to play its first two games at the Wachovia 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 George Mason playing its regional at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., not far from its campus in Fairfax, Virginia, in 2006 or 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. Butler shared 2010 Final Four hosting duties at Lucas Oil Stadium in its home city of Indianapolis with the Horizon League.

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.

Final Four records

For information on the NCAA Tournament Final Four:

Other Final Fours

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.

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.

Outcome prediction

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.[21] Many fans enter into office pools or private gambling-related contests as to who can get the most games correct.

Tournament trends

Top-ranked teams

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:
Source: Final Four Record Book

  • 1949: Kentucky (AP)
  • 1951: Kentucky (AP/UPI)
  • 1953: Indiana (AP/UPI)
  • 1955: San Francisco (AP/UPI)
  • 1956: San Francisco (AP/UPI)
  • 1957: North Carolina (AP/UPI)
  • 1964: UCLA (AP/UPI)
  • 1967: UCLA (AP/UPI)
  • 1969: UCLA (AP/UPI)
  • 1971: UCLA (AP/UPI)
  • 1972: UCLA (AP/UPI)
  • 1973: UCLA (AP/UPI)
  • 1974: NC State (AP/UPI)
  • 1975: UCLA (AP)
  • 1976: Indiana (AP/UPI)
  • 1978: Kentucky (AP/UPI)
  • 1982: North Carolina (AP/UPI)
  • 1992: Duke (AP/UPI)
  • 1994: Arkansas (USA Today)
  • 1995: UCLA (AP/USA Today)
  • 2001: Duke (AP/USA Today)

#1 seeds

Since the NCAA started seeding teams (1979), only once have all #1 seeds made it to the Final Four (National Semifinals):

The championship game has matched two #1 seeds only six times:

At least one #1 seed has made the Final Four in every year except:

The only team to beat three #1 seeds in a single tournament was #4 seed Arizona in 1997. Due to tournament structure, it's impossible to play a team from each one of the regions in a single tournament, thus it is impossible to play all four #1 seeds in a single tournament.

High seeds

Low seeds

Lowest seeds to reach each round since expansion to 64 teams in 1985:

While lower seeds have made the Final Four in the 64-team era (as shown above), the University of Pennsylvania's 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 University in the regional final, following three upsets by each team.

First-round games

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. 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:

Only four #15 seeds have ever defeated #2 seeds:

Upsets

Biggest point-spread upsets since expansion to 64 teams in 1985:[22]

Biggest point-spread upsets in NCAA Championship Game history:

Since the inception of the 64-team tournament in 1985, each seed-pairing has played a total of 104 first-round games, with the following results:

  1. The #1 seed is 104-0 against the #16 seed (100%).
  2. The #2 seed is 100-4 against the #15 seed (96.15%).
  3. The #3 seed is 88-16 against the #14 seed (84.62%).
  4. The #4 seed is 82-22 against the #13 seed (78.85%).
  5. The #5 seed is 69-35 against the #12 seed (66.35%).
  6. The #6 seed is 71-33 against the #11 seed (68.27%).
  7. The #7 seed is 62-42 against the #10 seed (59.62%).
  8. The #8 seed is 48-56 against the #9 seed (46.15%).

Second-round games

Since the inception of the 64-team tournament in 1985, the following results have occurred for each pairing:

  1. In the 1/16/8/9 bracket:
    1. The #1 seed is 39-9 against the #8 seed (81.25%).
    2. The #1 seed is 52-4 against the #9 seed (92.86%).
    • Note: As the #1 seed has never lost in the first round, the #8 vs. #16 and #9 vs. #16 pairings have never happened.
  2. In the 2/15/7/10 bracket:
    1. The #2 seed is 44-17 against the #7 seed (72.13%).
    2. The #2 seed is 23-16 against the #10 seed (58.97%).
    3. The #7 seed is 1-0 against the #15 seed (100%).
    4. The #10 seed is 3-0 against the #15 seed (100%).
  3. In the 3/14/6/11 bracket:
    1. The #3 seed is 32-26 against the #6 seed (55.17%).
    2. The #3 seed is 21-9 against the #11 seed (70%).
    3. The #6 seed is 11-2 against the #14 seed (84.62%).
    4. The #11 seed is 3-0 against the #14 seed (100%).
  4. In the 4/13/5/12 bracket:
    1. The #4 seed is 28-27 against the #5 seed (50.91%).
    2. The #4 seed is 16-11 against the #12 seed (59.26%).
    3. The #5 seed is 11-3 against the #13 seed (78.57%).
    4. The #12 seed is 7-1 against the #13 seed (87.5%).

Teams entering the tournament undefeated

Teams finishing the regular season undefeated but not playing in the tournament

Teams entering the tournament with one loss

Courts and venues

Home state

Since the inception of the modern Final Four in 1952, 11 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 a total of four times. In 1940, 1953, and 1957 they lost the championship game each time at Municipal Auditorium. In 1988 they won the championship over Oklahoma at Kemper Arena.

Region names

Championship margins

Top 5 largest tournament point differential

Champions that missed the tournament the following year

Six times in the history of the tournament, one or both finalists in one year failed to make the tournament field the following year.

In 1980 neither 1979 champion Michigan State nor runner-up Indiana State qualified for the tournament.

In 1987 the defending national champion 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 postseason National Invitation Tournament.

In 1989, the Kansas Jayhawks were barred from defending their 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' 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.

In 2008, both of the 2007 finalists, Florida and Ohio State, failed to make the NCAA tournament. Both were invited 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 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.

In 2010 the defending national champion 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 postseason National Invitation Tournament, in which it reached the finals, but lost to Dayton.

Winners

School Titles Years
Arizona 1 1997
Arkansas 1 1994
California 1 1959
Cincinnati 2 1961, 1962
CCNY 1 1950
Connecticut 2 1999, 2004
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

Coaches

Four active coaches have won multiple titles: Mike Krzyzewski with four titles, and Roy Williams, Jim Calhoun, and Billy Donovan each with two.

Louisville's coach Rick Pitino has been to the final four with three different teams: Providence in 1987, Kentucky in 1996 and 1997, and Louisville in 2005.

Former 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).

The following schools have had more than one head coach win an NCAA title:

Future host cities

On November 19, 2008, the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee announced the Final Four host cities for 2011 through 2016.[24]

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://mobile.kusports.com/news/2005/mar/20/mayer_ncaa_no/
  2. ↑ Key Dates in NABC History
  3. ↑ Associated Press. "NCAA to expand March Madness from 65 to 68 teams". CNNSI.com. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/basketball/ncaa/04/22/tournament.expansion.ap/index.html?eref=BrkNews. Retrieved 2010-04-22. 
  4. ↑ "NCAA BUBBLE TEAMS". http://www.bettorsworld.com/bubble.htm. 
  5. ↑ http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5374116
  6. ↑ http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5374116
  7. ↑ NCAA Men’s Basketball Trophy Visits UT Medical Center, University of Tennessee press release, January 15, 2007
  8. ↑ NABC Basic Info
  9. ↑ "Yahoo unveils Platinum paid service". CNET News.com. http://news.com.com/Yahoo+unveils+Platinum+paid+service/2100-1032_3-992691.html. Retrieved 2007-03-17. 
  10. ↑ http://www.paidcontent.org/pc/arch/2004_03_16.shtml#005874
  11. ↑ 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
  12. ↑ Streamingmedia.com: CBS’s NCAA March Madness On Demand Sets Internet Record For Simultaneous Live Viewing Of An Entertainment Or Sports Event
  13. ↑ "NCAA, TV talk about bigger men’s tourney". http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/64263. 
  14. ↑ CSTV.com: #1 in College Sports - Men's Basketball
  15. ↑ "CBS, Turner win TV rights to tourney". ESPN. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5125307. Retrieved 22 April 2010. 
  16. ↑ Why we didn’t get Stanford in HDTV (but the rest of the country did) - Morning Buzz
  17. ↑ WRAL Digital Airs Entire NCAA Basketball Tournament
  18. ↑ "NCAA 2006-07 Revenue Distribution Plan". NCAA. 2007. http://www1.ncaa.org/finance/revenue_distribution_plan. 
  19. ↑ "Distribution of Basketball-Related Funds According to Number of Units by Conference, 2001–2006". NCAA. 2007. http://www1.ncaa.org/finance/bkb_dist.html. 
  20. ↑ "Tournament History". NCAA. http://www.ncaa.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/042908aae.html. Retrieved 2009-08-10. 
  21. ↑ Ask Dr. Math, The Math Forum @ Drexel; March 14, 2001; accessed March 7, 2010
  22. ↑ "Gold Sheet College Basketball Log". http://www.goldsheet.com/gs_new/histcbb.php. 
  23. ↑ Championship Information - NCAA.com
  24. ↑ "NCAA sets Final Four destinations through 2016". Scribd.com. 2010-02-19. http://www.scribd.com/doc/27241313/2010-NCAA-March-Madness-Bracket. 

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