Seeding and bracket

The Selection Committee, which includes conference commissioners and university athletic 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 the true 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 the seed line (i.e. the No. 6 seed line). Eight teams are doubled up and compete in the First 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. 11 to No. 14 range, which varies year to year based on the true seeds of the teams overall.^[2]

Teams are placed in the closest geographical region to reduce travel time. However, teams are moved to other regions to follow several rules for ensuring competitive balance and avoiding rematches from the regular season in early rounds.^[2]

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.^[2]

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.^[2]

Since 2012, the committee has released the No. 1 to 68 true seed list after announcing the bracket.^[2]

First Four at-large seeding by year

The University of Dayton Arena, which has hosted all First Four games since the round's inception in 2011 (except 2021), as well as its precursor, the single "play-in" game held from 2001 to 2010. As of 2019, the arena has hosted 123 tournament games, the most of any venue.

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.^[2]

Seed	Count	Years
11	18	2011, 2013, 2014, 2015-2019 (x2), 2021 (x2), 2022, 2023 (x2)
12	4	2011, 2012, 2014, 2022
13	1	2013
14	1	2012

Venues

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".^[2] 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 the Dayton Flyers; as such, the team competed on their home court in 2015.^[4] 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 the 1996 when the Continental Airlines Arena, home court of Seton 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

Early era (1939–1970)

The first tournament was held in 1939 and was won by Oregon. It was the idea of Ohio State coach Harold Olsen. The National 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 the Missouri Valley and the Big Seven conferences in one district and the Southern and Southeastern conferences in another, which often led to top-ranked teams being left out of the tournament. The issue came to a head in 1950, when the NCAA suggested that third-ranked Kentucky and fifth-ranked North 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 in 1951, 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 the National Invitation Tournament for prestige.^[5]

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, from 1946, 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 in 1951. For the 1952 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).

The 1953 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 until 1956, when the regions were named the East, Midwest, West, and Far West. In 1957, 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 in 1946, a national third-place game was held before the championship game. Regional third-place games were played in the West from 1939 and the East from 1941. Despite expansion in 1951, there were still only two regions, each with a third-place game. The 1952 tournament had four regions each with a third-place game.

This era of the tournament was characterized by competition with the National 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, with City College of New York winning both the NIT and NCAA tournament in 1950. Soon after, the NCAA banned teams from participating in both tournaments.

Pre-modern era (1971–1984)

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 in 1971 that banned teams who declined an invitation to the NCAA tournament from participating in other post-season tournaments. This was in response to eighth-ranked Marquette declining its invitation in 1970 and instead participating in and winning the NIT after coach Al 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.^[6] Second, the NCAA allowed multiple teams per conference starting in 1975. This was in response to several highly ranked teams being denied bids during the early 1970s. These included South Carolina in 1970, which was undefeated in conference play but lost in the ACC tournament; second-ranked USC in 1971, which was left out because their conference was represented by top-ranked UCLA; and Maryland in 1974, which was ranked #3 but lost the ACC tournament championship game to eventual national champion North Carolina State.

To accommodate at-large bids, the tournament expanded in 1975 to include 32 teams and eliminated byes. In 1979, the tournament expanded to 40 teams and added a sixth round; 24 teams received byes to the second round. Eight more teams were added in 1980 with only 16 teams receiving byes. In 1983, a seventh round with four play-in games was added; an additional play-in game was added in 1984. Beginning in 1973, 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. In 1978, 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. In 1979, 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 in 1973, 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 in 1975 and the last national third-place game played in 1981.

Modern era (1985–present)

In 1985, 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. Until 2001, the First and Second Rounds occurred at two sites in each region.

In 1985, the Mideast Region was renamed the Southeast Region. In 1997, the Southeast Region became the South Region. From 2004 to 2006, the regions were named after their host cities, e.g. the Phoenix regional in 2004, the Chicago regional in 2005, and the Minneapolis regional in 2006, but reverted to the traditional geographic designations beginning in 2007. For 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.

The 1996 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 in 2001, the field was expanded from 64 to 65 teams, adding to the tournament what was informally known as the "play-in game". This was in response to the creation of the Mountain West Conference during 1999. Originally, the winner of the Mountain West's tournament did not receive an automatic bid, as doing so would have eliminated 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 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 the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio.

Starting in 2004, 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 in 1996 when Kentucky played Massachusetts in the Final Four. Previously, regional pairings rotated yearly.

In 2010, 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 for 2011. 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.^[7] 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 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."^[7] 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.^[7] In 2016, 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.^[8]

In 2016, the NCAA introduced new a new "NCAA March Madness" logo for tournament-wide branding, including fully-branded courts at each of the tournament venues. Previously, the NCAA had used the existing court or a generic NCAA court.

Beginning in 2017, 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 the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA cancelled the 2020 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 to not be held, and decided against releasing the brackets that the Selection Committee had been working on.

In 2021, the tournament was held entirely in the state of Indiana to reduce travel. This was 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 in 2022.

In response to protests from players in the 2021 women's tournament about the differing facility quality and branding, both the men's and women'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 since 1987.

Evolution overview

Titles by year

Titles by school

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 Duke 5 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, 2015 Indiana 1940, 1953, 1976, 1981, 1987 UConn 1999, 2004, 2011, 2014, 2023 Kansas 4 1952, 1988, 2008, 2022 Villanova 3 1985, 2016, 2018 Cincinnati 2 1961, 1962 Florida 2006, 2007 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 UNLV 1990 Stanford 1942 Syracuse 2003 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 Schools that have won the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament 11, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Results by year

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)
•  N  Team won the NIT that season.
•  N  Team played in the NIT that season. If a team has never appeared in the NCAA Tournament, their NIT appearances are not on this chart.
•  CH   RU   F4   E8   16   32   •   ƒ   N  The team achieved the placement shown, but the participation was later vacated. These vacated appearances are not included in the total columns.

For each season starting in 1979, the 4 teams seeded No. 1 are shown with double underline, and 12 teams seeded between No. 2 and No. 4 are shown with dotted underline.