NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

Current season, competition or edition: 2026 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
Sport	College basketball
Founded	1939; 86 years ago (1939)
First season	1939
Organising body	NCAA
No. of teams	68
Country	United States
Most recent champion	Florida Gators (3rd title) (2025)
Most titles	UCLA (11)
Broadcasters	NCAA March Madness (CBS/TBS/TNT/TruTV) CBS Sports Network (re-airs) Galavisión (Spanish-language coverage)
Streaming partners	Paramount+ HBO Max[1]
Official website	ncaa.com/basketball

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Championships
1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026

TheNCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded asMarch Madness, orThe Big Dance, is asingle-elimination tournament played in the United States to determine the men'scollege basketball national champion of theDivision I level in theNational Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played mostly during March, the tournament was first conducted in1939 and currently consists of 68 teams. Known for itsupsets of favored teams, it has become one of the greatest annual sporting events in the US.

The 68-team format was adopted in2011; it had remained largely unchanged since1985 when it expanded to 64 teams. Before then, the tournament size varied from as little as 8 to as many as 53. The field was restricted to conference champions until at-large bids were extended in1975 and teams were not fully seeded until1979. In2020, the tournament was cancelled for the first time due to theCOVID-19 pandemic; in the subsequent season, thetournament was contested completely in the state ofIndiana as a precaution.

Thirty-seven different schools have won the tournament to date.UCLA has the most with 11 championships; their coachJohn Wooden has the most titles of any coach with 10. TheUniversity of Kentucky (UK) has eight championships, theUniversity of Connecticut (UConn) and theUniversity of North Carolina have six championships,Duke University andIndiana University have five championships, theUniversity of Kansas (KU) has four championships, and theUniversity of Florida andVillanova University have three championships. Six programs are tied with two national championships, and 22 teams have won the national championship once.

All tournament games are broadcast byCBS,TBS,TNT, andtruTV under the program nameNCAA March Madness. With a contract through 2032,Paramount Global andWarner Bros. Discovery pay $891 million annually for the broadcast rights. The NCAA distributes revenue to participating teams based on how far they advance, which provides significant funding for college athletics. The tournament has become part of American popular culture through bracket contests that award money and other prizes for correctly predicting the outcomes of the most games. In 2023,Sports Illustrated reported that an estimated 60 to 100 million brackets are filled out each year.

The first tournament was held in1939 and was won byOregon. It was the idea ofOhio State coachHarold Olsen. TheNational Association of Basketball Coaches operated the first tournament for the NCAA.

From 1939 to 1950, the NCAA tournament consisted of eight teams, with each selected from a geographical district. Multiple conferences were considered part of each district, such as theMissouri Valley and theBig Seven conferences in one district and theSouthern andSoutheastern conferences in another, which often led to top-ranked teams being left out of the tournament. The issue came to a head in1950, when the NCAA suggested that third-rankedKentucky and fifth-rankedNorth Carolina State compete in a playoff game for a bid, but Kentucky refused, believing they should be given the bid as the higher-ranked team. In response, the NCAA doubled the field to 16 in1951, adding two additional districts and six spots for at-large teams. Conferences could still only have one team in the tournament, but multiple conferences from the same geographic district could now be included through at-large bids. This development helped the NCAA compete with theNational Invitation Tournament for prestige.^[2]

In the eight team format, the tournament was split into the East and West Regions, with champions meeting in the national championship game. The first two rounds for each region were conducted at the same site and the national championship and, from1946, consolation game occurred a week later. Some years, the site of the national championship was the same site as a regional championship and in other years a new site. With the expansion to 16 teams, the tournament retained the original format of the national semifinals being the regional finals in1951. For the1952 tournament, there were four regions named East-1, East-2, West-1, West-2, all played at separate sites. The regional champions met for the national semifinals and championship at a separate location a week later, establishing the format with two final rounds of the tournament (although the name "Final Four" would not be used in branding until the 1980s).

The1953 tournament expanded to include 22 teams and added a fifth round, with ten teams receiving a bye to the regional semifinals. The number of teams would fluctuate from 22 to 25 teams over the next two decades, but the number of rounds remained the same. The double region naming was kept until1956, when the regions were named the East, Midwest, West, and Far West. In1957, the regions were named East, Mideast, Midwest, and West, which remained until 1985. Regions were paired in the national semifinals based on their geographic locations, with the two eastern regions meeting in one semifinal and two western regions meeting in the other semifinal.

Beginning in1946, a national third-place game was held before the championship game. Regional third-place games were played in the West from1939 and the East from1941. Despite expansion in1951, there were still only two regions, each with a third-place game. The1952 tournament had four regions each with a third-place game.

This era of the tournament was characterized by competition with theNational Invitation Tournament. Founded by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association one year before the NCAA tournament, the NIT was held entirely in New York City at Madison Square Garden. Because New York was the center of the press in the United States, the NIT often received more coverage than the NCAA tournament in early years. Additionally, good teams were often excluded from the NCAA tournament because each conference could only have one bid and conference champions were even excluded because of the 8-district system before 1950. Teams often competed in both tournaments during the first decade, withCity College of New York winning both theNIT andNCAA tournament in 1950. Soon after, the NCAA banned teams from participating in both tournaments.

Two major changes over the course of the early 1970s led to the NCAA becoming the preeminent post-season tournament for college basketball. First, the NCAA added a rule in1971 that banned teams who declined an invitation to the NCAA tournament from participating in other post-season tournaments. This was in response to eighth-rankedMarquette declining its invitation in1970 and instead participating in and winning theNIT after coachAl McGuire complained about their regional placement. Since then, the NCAA tournament has clearly been the major one, with conference champions and the majority of the top-ranked teams participating.^[3] Second, the NCAA allowed multiple teams per conference starting in1975. This was in response to several highly ranked teams being denied bids during the early 1970s. These includedSouth Carolina in 1970, which was undefeated in conference play but lost in the ACC tournament; second-rankedUSC in1971, which was left out because their conference was represented by top-rankedUCLA; andMaryland in1974, which was ranked #3 but lost theACC tournament championship game to eventual national championNorth Carolina State.^{[citation needed]}

To accommodate at-large bids, the tournament expanded in1975 to include 32 teams, allowing a second team to represent a conference in addition to the conference champion,^[4] and eliminated byes. In1979, the tournament expanded to 40 teams and added a sixth round; 24 teams received byes to the second round. Eight more teams were added in1980 with only 16 teams receiving byes, and the restriction on the number of at-large bids from a conference was removed.^[4] In1983, a seventh round with four play-in games was added; an additional play-in game was added in1984. Beginning in1973, the regional pairings for the national semifinals were rotated on a yearly basis instead of the two eastern and two western regions always playing.

Seeding also began during this era, adding drama and ensuring better teams had better paths to the Final Four. In1978, teams were seeded in two separate pools based on their qualification method. Each region had four teams which automatically qualified ranked Q1–Q4 and four teams which received an at-large bid ranked L1–L4. In1979, all teams in each region were seeded 1 through 10, without regards for their qualification method.

The national semifinals were moved to Saturday and the championship was moved to Monday evening in1973, where they have remained since. Before the championship had been played on Saturday and the semifinals two days before.

The third-place games were eliminated during this era, with the last regional third-place games played in1975 and the last national third-place game played in1981.

In1985, the tournament expanded to 64 teams, eliminating all byes and play-ins. For the first time, all teams had to win six games to win the tournament. This expansion led to increased media coverage and popularity in American culture. Until2001, the First and Second Rounds occurred at two sites in each region.^{[citation needed]}

In 1985, the Mideast Region was renamed the Southeast Region. In1997, the Southeast Region became the South Region. From2004 to2006, the regions were named after their host cities, e.g. the Phoenix regional in 2004, the Chicago regional in 2005, and the Minneapolis regional in 2006, but reverted to the traditional geographic designations beginning in2007. For the 2011 tournament, the South Region was the Southeast Region and the Midwest Region the Southwest Region; both returned to their previous names in 2012.^{[citation needed]}

The1996 Final Four was the last to take place in a venue built specifically for basketball. Since then, the Final Four has exclusively been played in large indoor football stadiums.

Beginning in2001, 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 theMountain West Conference during 1999. Originally, the winner of theMountain West's tournament did not receive an automatic bid, due to standard NCAA rules regarding new conferences and automatic bids. As an alternative to eliminating an at-large bid, the NCAA expanded the tournament to65 teams. The #64 and #65 seeds were seeded in a regional bracket as 16 seeds, and then played the opening round game on the Tuesday preceding the first weekend of the tournament. This game was always played at theUniversity of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio.

Starting in2004, the selection committee revealed the overall rankings among the #1 seeds. Based on these rankings, the regions were paired so that the #1 overall seed would play the #4 overall seed in a national semifinal if both teams made the Final Four. This was to prevent the top two teams from meeting before the finals, as was largely considered the case in1996 when Kentucky played Massachusetts in the Final Four. Previously, regional pairings rotated yearly.

In2010, there was 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 for2011. However, three weeks later the NCAA announced a new television contract with CBS/Turner that expanded the field to 68 teams, instead of 96, starting in 2011. The First Four was created by the addition of three play-in games.^[5] Two of the First Four games pit 16 seeds against each other. The two other games, however, pit the last at-large bids against each other. The seeding for the at-large teams will be determined by the selection committee and fluctuates based on the true seed ranking of the teams. Explaining the reasoning for this format, selection committee chairmanDan 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."^[5] As part of this expansion, the round of 64 was renamed the second round and the round of 32 was renamed the Third Round, with the First Four being officially the First Round.^[5] In2016, the rounds of 64 and 32 returned to their previous names of the first round and the second round and the First Four became the official name of the opening round.^[6]

In2016, the NCAA introduced a new "NCAA March Madness" logo for tournament-wide branding, which included bespoke tourney-exclusive courts at each of the tournament venues from the same manufacturer with the same floor composition across each round. Previously, the NCAA would use the venue's existing default floor (be it solely for college basketball or a dual-useNBA/college floor) with tournament and NCAA decals applied.

Beginning in2017, the #1 overall seed picks the sites for their first- and second-round games and their potential regional games. Additionally, the selection committee began releasing the top 16 seeds three weeks before Selection Sunday as a bracket preview.

Due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA cancelled the2020 tournament. Initially, the NCAA discussed holding a shortened version with only 16 teams in the Final Four host city of Atlanta. Once the vast scale of the pandemic was understood, the NCAA cancelled the tournament, making it the first edition not to be held, and decided against releasing the brackets that the Selection Committee had been working on.

In2021, the tournament was held entirely in the state of Indiana to reduce travel. This was to date the only time the tournament was conducted in one state. As a COVID-19 precaution, all participating teams were required to stay in NCAA-provided accommodations until they lost. The schedule was adjusted to provided extended time for COVID-19 evaluation before the tournament began, with the First Four occurring entirely on Thursday, the First and Second Rounds pushed one day back to a Friday-Monday window, and the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight pushed to a Friday-Monday window as well. Teams ranked 69–72 by the Selection Committee were put on "standby" to replace any team that withdrew from the tournament due to COVID-19 protocols during the 48 hours after the brackets were announced. Only one game was declared a no contest due to COVID-19, with Oregon advancing to the second round because VCU could not participate due to COVID-19 protocols. VCU was not replaced by one of the first four teams out because the COVID-19 infections started more than two days after the brackets were announced. The tournament returned to its regular format in2022.

In response toprotests from players in the 2021 women's tournament about the differing facility quality and branding, both themen's andwomen's tournaments were branded as "NCAA March Madness" starting in 2022 with variations of the same tournament-wide logo used by the men's tournament. Additionally, the Final Four for the men's tournament was branded as the "Men's Final Four" beginning in 2022, reflecting the "Women's Final Four" branding in use for that tournament since1987.

Notes

The tournament consists of 68 teams competing in seven rounds of asingle-elimination bracket. Thirty-two teams automatically qualify for the tournament by winning their conference tournament, played during the two weeks before the tournament, and thirty-six teams qualify by receiving anat-large bid based on their performance during the season.^[8] TheSelection Committee determines the at-large bids, ranks all the teams 1 to 68, and places the teams in the bracket, all of which is revealed publicly on the Sunday before the tournament, dubbedSelection Sunday by the media and fans. There is no reseeding during the tournament and matchups in each subsequent round are predetermined by the bracket.

The tournament is divided into four regions, with each region having sixteen to eighteen teams. Regions are named after the U.S. geographic area of the city hosting each regional semifinal and regional final (the tournament's third and 4th round overall). Host cities for all regions vary from year to year.

The tournament is played over three weekends, with two rounds occurring each weekend. Before the first weekend, eight teams compete in the First Four to advance to the first round. Two games pair the lowest-ranked conference champions and two games pair the lowest-ranked at-large qualifiers. The first and second rounds are played during the first weekend, the regional semifinals and regional finals during the second weekend, and the national semifinals and championship game during the third weekend. Regional rounds are branded as the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight and the third weekend is branded as the Final Four, all named after the number of teams remaining at the beginning of the round. All games, including the First Four, are scheduled so that teams will have one rest day between each game. This format has been in use since 2011, with minor changes to the schedule in2021 due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.^{[citation needed]}

The Selection Committee, which includes conference commissioners and universityathletic directors appointed by the NCAA, determines the bracket during the week before the tournament. Since the results of several conference tournaments occurring during the same week can significantly impact the bracket, the Committee often makes several brackets for different results.

To make the bracket, the Committee ranks the whole field from 1 to 68; these are referred to as thetrue seed. The committee then divides the teams amongst the four regions, giving each a seed between No. 1 and No. 16. The same four seeds in all the regions are referred to as theseed line (i.e. the No. 6 seed line). Eight teams are doubled up and compete in theFirst Four. Two of the paired teams compete for No. 16 seeds, and the other two paired teams are the last at-large teams awarded bids to the tournament and compete for a seed line in the No. 10 to No. 14 range, which varies year to year based on the true seeds of the teams overall.^[9]

The top four overall seeds are placed as No. 1 seeds in each region. The regions are paired so that if all the No. 1 seeds reached the Final Four true seed No. 1 would play No. 4 and No. 2 would play No. 3. The No. 2 teams are preferably placed so that the No. 5 true seed will not be paired with the No. 1 true seed. The committee ensures competitive balance among the top four seeds in each region by adding the true seed values up and comparing the values among the regions. If there is significant deviation, some teams will be moved among the regions to balance the true seed distribution.^[9]

If a conference has two to four teams in the top four seeds, they will be placed in different regions. Otherwise, teams from the same conference are placed to avoid a rematch before the regional finals if they have played three or more times in the season, the regional semifinals if they have played twice, or the second round if they have played once. Additionally, the committee is advised to avoid rematches from the regular season and the previous years' tournament in the First Four. Finally, the committee will attempt to ensure that a team is not moved out of their preferred geographical region an inordinate number of times based on their placement in the previous two tournaments. To follow these rules and preferences, the committee may move a team off of their expected seed line. Thus, for example, the 40th overall ranked team, originally slated to be a No. 10 seed within a particular region, may instead be moved up to a No. 9 seed or moved down to a No. 11 seed.^[9]

Since 2012, the committee has released the No. 1 to 68 true seed list after announcing the bracket.^[9]Since 2017, the Selection Committee has released a list of the top 16 teams three weeks before Selection Sunday. This list does not guarantee any team a bid, as the Committee re-ranks all teams when starting the final selection process.^[10]

The seed line of the four at-large teams competing in the First Four has varied each year, depending on the overall ranking of the at-large teams in the field.^[9]

In the men's tournament, all sites are nominally neutral; teams are prohibited from playing tournament games on their home courts during the first, second, and regional rounds. Under NCAA rules, any court on which a team hosts more than three regular-season games (not including preseason or conference tournament games) is considered a "home court".^[9] For the First Four and the Final Four, the home court prohibition does not apply because only one venue hosts these rounds. The First Four is regularly hosted by theDayton Flyers; as such, the team competed on their home court in2015.^[11] Because the Final Four is hosted at indoor football stadiums, it is unlikely that a team will play on their home court in the future. The last time this was possible was the1996 when theContinental Airlines Arena, home court ofSeton Hall, hosted.

For the first and second rounds, eight venues host games, four on each day of the round. Each venue hosts two sets of four teams, referred to as "pods." To limit travel, teams are placed in pods closer to their home unless seeding rules would prevent it. Because each pod includes a top 4 seed, the highest ranked teams normally get the closest sites.

The possible pods by seeding are:

• Pod A: 1 v. 16 and 8 v. 9
• Pod B: 2 v. 15 and 7 v. 10
• Pod C: 3 v. 14 and 6 v. 11
• Pod D: 4 v. 13 and 5 v. 12

The following is a list of all schools that have won at least one NCAA men's basketball tournament, along with the year(s) in which they won their championship(s).

*Vacated title not included

Team # Years UCLA 11 1964,1965,1967,1968,1969,1970,1971,1972,1973,1975,1995 Kentucky 8 1948,1949,1951,1958,1978,1996,1998,2012 North Carolina 6 1957,1982,1993,2005,2009,2017 UConn 1999,2004,2011,2014,2023,2024 Duke 5 1991,1992,2001,2010,2015 Indiana 1940,1953,1976,1981,1987 Kansas 4 1952,1988,2008,2022 Villanova 3 1985,2016,2018 Florida 2006,2007,2025 Cincinnati 2 1961,1962 Louisville 1980,1986,2013* Michigan State 1979,2000 NC State 1974,1983 Oklahoma State 1945,1946 San Francisco 1955,1956

Team # Year Arizona 1 1997 Arkansas 1994 Baylor 2021 California 1959 CCNY 1950 Georgetown 1984 Holy Cross 1947 La Salle 1954 Loyola Chicago 1963 Marquette 1977 Maryland 2002 Michigan 1989 Ohio State 1960 Oregon 1939 Stanford 1942 Syracuse 2003 UNLV 1990 UTEP 1966 Utah 1944 Virginia 2019 Wisconsin 1941 Wyoming 1943

Arizona Arkansas Baylor California CCNY Georgetown Holy Cross La Salle Loyola Marquette Maryland Michigan Ohio State Oregon Stanford Syracuse UNLV Utah UTEP Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Cincinnati Florida Louisville Michigan State NC State Oklahoma State USF Villanova UConn Kansas Duke Indiana North Carolina Kentucky UCLA class=notpageimage| Schools that have won the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament 11, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

A total of 333 teams have appeared in the NCAA tournament since 1939. Because the NCAA did not split into divisions until1957, some schools that have appeared in the tournament are no longer inDivision I. Among Division I schools, 46 have never made the tournament, including 11 that are ineligible because they are transitioning to Division I.

Key

•  CH  National Champion
•  RU  National Runner-up
•  F4  Final Four
•  E8  Elite Eight
•  16  Sweet Sixteen (Began in 1951.)
•  32  Round of 32 (Began in 1975.)
  •  22  23  24  25  Round of 22-25 (Between 1953 and 1974, between 22 and 25 teams were invited to the tournament.)
•  ✖  Round of 64 (Began in 1979. Fewer than 64 teams invited before 1985.)
•  ƒ  Play-In Round (1983–1984 and 2001–2010), First Four (2011–present)
•  CH  RU  F4  E8  16  32  ✖  ƒ  The team achieved the placement shown, but the participation was later vacated. These vacated appearances are not included in the totals columns, with two exceptions.^[12]
  • After theUniversity of Michigan basketball scandal,Michigan's appearance in the1992 Final Four and Championship Game were vacated, but not their entire participation in the tournament. Therefore, Michigan is listed as RU  in 1992, but the Wolverines credited with an appearance, a Sweet Sixteen, and an Elite Eight in the totals columns.
  • After theSyracuse University athletics scandal,Syracuse forfeited games across multiple seasons, including 2004–05, 2006–07, 2010–11, and 2011–12, three of which included an NCAA Tournament appearance. However, the NCAA allowed Syracuse to keep their NCAA appearances in the record book, so those seasons are not marked with strikethrough, and are fully included in the totals columns.

Programs are listed below under their current athletic branding, which is not necessarily what was used at the time. For example,Oklahoma State was known as "Oklahoma A&M" when it won back-to-back championships in 1945 and 1946, andUTEP was known as "Texas Western" when it won the national championship in 1966.

For each season starting in 1978, the team's seed is shown in superscript to the left of the result.