Here’s a look at the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball and Women’s Basketball Tournaments. The single-elimination tournament is nicknamed “March Madness” or “The Big Dance.”
2024 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Finals
April 8, 2024 - Men’s Finals - The University of Connecticut Huskies defeat the Purdue Boilermakers 75-60 in Glendale, Arizona, to win their second successive men’s basketball national championship title and sixth overall.
April 7, 2024 - Women’s Finals - The South Carolina Gamecocks defeat the University of Iowa Hawkeyes 87-75 in Cleveland, to complete a perfect 38-0 season and win a third national championship.
2023 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Finals
April 3, 2023 - Men’s Finals - Uconn wins its fifth men’s basketball national title with a 76-59 victory over the San Diego State University Aztecs in Houston.
April 2, 2023 - Women’s Finals - The Louisiana State University Tigers defeat the Iowa Hawkeyes 102-85 in Dallas, to win the program’s first NCAA women’s basketball national championship.
Men’s Selection Process
68 teams are invited to compete.
- 32 teams receive automatic bids by winning their conference tournaments.
- 36 teams receive an at-large bid from the NCAA Selection Committee.
The 12-member selection committee, comprised of athletic directors and conference commissioners, is responsible for selecting the 36 at-large teams, seeding (or ranking) all 68 teams and placing them in one of four regions within the bracket. The committee’s field of 68 is revealed on the Sunday before the four first-round games, appropriately dubbed “Selection Sunday.”
The selection committee primarily uses the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings, which is comprised of Team Value Index (TVI), or wins against quality opponents, and an adjusted net efficiency across all games. The NET replaces the Ratings Percentage Index.
Women’s Selection Process
68 teams are invited to compete.
- 32 teams receive automatic bids by winning their conference tournaments.
- 36 teams receive an at-large bid from the NCAA Selection Committee.
Similar to the men’s selection process, a 12-member selection committee primarily uses NET rankings to choose the 36 at-large teams, seed (or rank) all 68 teams and place them in one of four regions within the bracket.
The committee’s field of 68 is revealed on the Sunday before the four first-round games.
Other Facts
The “First Four” are the four opening round games in the Men’s tournament. Two games match number 16 seeds against each other, and the other two games feature the last four at-large teams selected into the tournament. The winners advance to the next round, the round of 64.
For both the men’s and women’s tournaments, each of the four regions consists of 16 teams that are seeded No. 1 to No. 16. In the first round, teams are paired according to seed. The No. 1 seed faces No. 16, No. 2 faces No. 15, No. 3 faces No. 14, and so forth. The winning teams advance to the second round.
The 16 teams that advance beyond their first and second-round games are referred to as the “Sweet Sixteen.” The remaining eight teams are called the “Elite Eight,” and the last four teams are the “Final Four.”
An underdog or lower-seeded team that advances throughout the tournament is often referred to as a “Cinderella” team.
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Bruins have the most NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament titles with 11.
The University of Connecticut (UConn) Huskies have the most NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament titles with 11.
Timeline
1939 - The first men’s tournament is held, and eight teams compete. Oregon defeats Ohio State 46-33.
1954 - The tournament final is broadcast live nationwide for the first time.
1982 - The first women’s tournament is held, and 32 teams compete. Louisiana Tech beats Cheyney State 76-62.
1991 - CBS begins broadcasting all games live.
1999 - CBS obtains an 11-year contract through 2013 worth $6 billion to broadcast the tournament.
2005 - College Sports Television begins a two-year agreement with CBS Sportsline.com and the NCAA for exclusive video streaming rights on CSTV.com for out-of-market game coverage. CSTV pays CBS $3 million for the rights and expects to be profitable in the first year.
April 22, 2010 - In addition to expanding the men’s tournament basketball field to 68 teams from 65, the NCAA announces a 14-year, $10.8 billion television rights deal with CBS and Turner Sports. The deal, which goes into effect in 2011, marks the first time that each game will be televised nationally.
April 12, 2016 - The NCAA announces an 8-year extension of its TV deal with Turner Broadcasting and CBS Sports. The extension to the current deal – for a combined total rights fee of $8.8 billion – will keep the big game at Turner and CBS until 2032.
February 20, 2018 - The NCAA Infraction Appeal Committee announces they will uphold penalties against the Louisville Cardinals Men’s Basketball team for their serious violations of NCAA rules. The Committee panel found that they “acted unethically….by arranging striptease dances and sex acts for prospects, student-athletes and others, and did not cooperate with the investigation.” The penalties vacate every win from 2011 to 2015, including the 2013 national championship and the 2012 Final Four appearance.
August 22, 2018 - The NCAA announces a new ranking tool, the NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool). It replaces RPI, or the ranking performance index, as the method which will be used to choose which teams will be selected to participate in the tournament.
March 12, 2020 - NCAA President Mark Emmert and the Board of Governors cancel the men’s and women’s Division I basketball tournament, and other winter and spring NCAA championships, due to concern over the Covid-19 pandemic. The Division I championships have been played every year since the men’s inception in 1939 and women’s in 1982.
January 4, 2021 - The NCAA announces that the entire 2021 NCAA men’s basketball tournament will be played in the state of Indiana, with the majority of the 67 scheduled games to be played in Indianapolis.
February 5, 2021 - The NCAA announces that the entire 2021 NCAA women’s basketball tournament will be played in Texas, with the majority of the 63 scheduled games to be played in San Antonio.
September 29, 2021 - After a “comprehensive external review of gender equity issues,” the NCAA announces that beginning in 2022, the “March Madness” branding that has historically been used for the Division I men’s basketball tournament will also be used for the women’s basketball tournament.
November 17, 2021 - The expansion of the women’s tournament bracket is approved. Sixty-eight teams will participate in the 2022 championship, up from 64.
April 7, 2024 - The NCAA tournament national title game between undefeated and top overall seed South Carolina and Caitlin Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes breaks women’s college basketball ratings records, averaging 18.7 million viewers, according to preliminary numbers from Nielsen.