March Madness is one of the most anticipated and watched events in all of sports. Here’s everything you need to know about the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, which has been played since 1939. It’s evolved through the years, including the expansion to 76 teams for 2027.
What is March Madness?
The NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament is a single-elimination tournament of 76 teams that compete in seven rounds for the national championship. The penultimate round is known as the Final Four, when (you guessed it) only four teams are left.
What (and when) is Selection Sunday?
Selection Sunday is the day when the Selection Committee reveals the full NCAA tournament bracket, including all teams and all seeds.
When is this year’s March Madness men’s tournament?
Here is the full schedule for the upcoming season’s 2027 NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
Selection Sunday: Sunday, March 14
Opening Round (12 games): Tuesday, March 16 and Wednesday, March 17
First Round (32 games): Thursday, March 18 and Friday, March 19
Second Round (16 games): Saturday, March 20 and Sunday, March 21
Sweet 16 (eight games): Thursday, March 25 and Friday, March 26
Elite Eight (four games): Saturday, March 27 and Sunday, March 28
Final Four: Saturday, April 3 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan
NCAA championship game: Monday, April 5 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan
Where can I get an NCAA bracket?
You can click or tap here to get a printable .PDF of the NCAA bracket. It will open in a new tab or window.
When did March Madness start?
The first NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament was in 1939 and was held every year until the 2019-20 season. The event was canceled in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
How has the tournament changed since 1939?
The inaugural tournament had just eight teams, and saw Oregon beat Ohio State 46-33 for the title:
In 1951, the field doubled to 16, and kept expanding over the next few decades until 1985, when the modern format of a 64-team tournament began. In 2001, after the Mountain West Conference joined Division I and received an automatic bid, pushing the total teams to 65, a single game was added prior to the first round. In 2011, three more teams were added, and with them, three more games to round out the First Four. The tournament expanded again for 2027, with eight more teams added to the field to create the new 76-team format. Those additions mean the Opening Round will have 24 teams playing in 12 games, with the 12 winners advancing to the 64-team bracket.
Where did the term “March Madness” come from?
March Madness was first used to refer to basketball by an Illinois high school official, Henry V. Porter, in 1939, but the term didn’t find its way to the NCAA tournament until CBS broadcaster Brent Musburger (who used to be a sportswriter in Chicago) used it during coverage of the 1982 tournament. The term has been synonymous with the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament ever since.
How are the teams selected?
There are two ways that a team can earn a bid to the NCAA tournament. The 32 Division I conferences all receive an automatic bid, which they each award to the team that wins the postseason conference tournament. Regardless of how a team performed during the regular season, if they are eligible for postseason play and win their conference tournament, they receive a bid to the NCAA tournament. These teams are known as automatic qualifiers.
The second avenue for an invitation is an at-large bid. The selection committee (more on them in a second) convenes on Selection Sunday, after all regular season and conference tournament games are played, and decides which teams that are not automatic qualifiers have the pedigree to earn an invitation to the tournament.
What is the March Madness selection committee?
The NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Committee is responsible for selecting, seeding and bracketing the field for the NCAA tournament. School and conference administrators are nominated by their conference, serve five-year terms and represent a cross-section of the Division I membership.
How do they decide which teams get an at-large bid?
There are a multitude of stats and rankings that the Selection Committee takes into account, but there is no set formula that determines whether a team receives an at-large bid or not.
What happens once the teams are selected?
Once the field of 76 is finalized, each team is assigned a seed and placed in one of four regions, which determines their first round matchups and their path to the championship.
What are seeds?
The NCAA men’s basketball tournament is made up of 76 teams. On Selection Sunday, before any tournament game is played, those teams are ranked 1 through 76 by the Selection Committee, with the best team in college basketball — based on regular season and conference tournament performance — sitting at No. 1. Twelve of those teams are eliminated in the Opening Round, leaving us with a field of 64 for the first round.
Those 64 teams are split into four regions of 16 teams each, with each team being ranked 1 through 16. That ranking is the team’s seed.
In order to reward better teams, first-round matchups are determined by pitting the top team in the region against the bottom team (No. 1 vs. No. 16). Then the next highest vs. the next lowest (No. 2 vs. No. 15), and so on. In theory, this means that the 1 seeds have the easiest opening matchup in the bracket.
How to watch March Madness:
Every March Madness game will be broadcast on either TBS, TNT, TruTV or CBS. You can also stream every game on March Madness Live.
How can you participate in March Madness?
By filling out a bracket! The Bracket Challenge Game, the official bracket game of the NCAA, will open immediately after the committee announces the field on Selection Sunday. The brackets will lock before the first game of the first round begins, so get your picks in before then. How hard is filling out a bracket? Well no one has ever gotten a perfect bracket, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying.
What are the odds of a perfect bracket?
About 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (if you just guess or flip a coin)
Roughly 1 in 120.2 billion (if you know a little something about basketball, like not picking all 16 seeds to make the Final Four)
You can see how we arrived at those numbers in this article, first written in 2018 by NCAA.com’s Daniel Wilco.
Who has won every NCAA tournament?
Since the tournament’s inception, no team has won more than UCLA, which has 11 — 10 of which came a span of 12 years from 1964 to 1975.
Here is the list of every men’s basketball national championship since the NCAA tournament first started in 1939:
YEAR
CHAMPION (RECORD)
COACH
SCORE
RUNNER-UP
SITE
TITLE GAME REPLAYS/HIGHLIGHTS
2026
Michigan (37-3)
Dusty May
69-63
UConn
Indianapolis, Ind.
Watch game highlights
2025
Florida (36-4)
Todd Golden
65-63
Houston
San Antonio, Texas
Watch the full game
2024
UConn (37-3)
Dan Hurley
75-60
Purdue
Glendale, Ariz.
Watch the full game
2023
Connecticut (31-8)
Dan Hurley
76-59
San Diego State
Houston, Tex.
Watch the full game
2022
Kansas (34-6)
Bill Self
72-69
North Carolina
New Orleans, La.
Watch the full game
2021
Baylor (28-2)
Scott Drew
86-70
Gonzaga
Indianapolis, Ind.
Watch the full game
2020
Canceled due to COVID-19
—
—
—
—
—
2019
Virginia (35-3)
Tony Bennett
85-77 (OT)
Texas Tech
Minneapolis, Minn.
Watch the full game
2018
Villanova (36-4)
Jay Wright
79-62
Michigan
San Antonio, Tex.
Watch the full game
2017
North Carolina (33-7)
Roy Williams
71-65
Gonzaga
Phoenix, Ariz.
Watch the full game
2016
Villanova (35-5)
Jay Wright
77-74
North Carolina
Houston, Texas
Watch the full game
2015
Duke (35-4)
Mike Krzyzewski
68-63
Wisconsin
Indianapolis, Ind.
Watch the full game
2014
Connecticut (32-8)
Kevin Ollie
60-54
Kentucky
Arlington, Texas
Watch the full game
2013
Louisville (35-5)*
Rick Pitino
82-76
Michigan
Atlanta, Ga.
2012
Kentucky (38-2)
John Calipari
67-59
Kansas
New Orleans, La.
Watch the full game
2011
Connecticut (32-9)
Jim Calhoun
53-41
Butler
Houston, Texas
Watch the full game
2010
Duke (35-5)
Mike Krzyzewski
61-59
Butler
Indianapolis, Ind.
Watch the full game
2009
North Carolina (34-4)
Roy Williams
89-72
Michigan State
Detroit, Mich.
Watch the full game
2008
Kansas (37-3)
Bill Self
75-68 (OT)
Memphis
San Antonio, Texas
Watch the full game
2007
Florida (35-5)
Billy Donovan
84-75
Ohio State
Atlanta, Ga.
Watch the full game
2006
Florida (33-6)
Billy Donovan
73-57
UCLA
Indianapolis, Ind.
Watch the full game
2005
North Carolina (33-4)
Roy Williams
75-70
Illinois
St. Louis, Mo.
2004
Connecticut (33-6)
Jim Calhoun
82-73
Georgia Tech
San Antonio, Texas
2003
Syracuse (30-5)
Jim Boeheim
81-78
Kansas
New Orleans, La.
Watch the full game
2002
Maryland (32-4)
Gary Williams
64-52
Indiana
Atlanta, Ga.
2001
Duke (35-4)
Mike Krzyzewski
82-72
Arizona
Minneapolis, Minn.
Watch the full game
2000
Michigan State (32-7)
Tom Izzo
89-76
Florida
Indianapolis, Ind.
1999
Connecticut (34-2)
Jim Calhoun
77-74
Duke
St. Petersburg, Fla.
Watch the full game
1998
Kentucky (35-4)
Tubby Smith
78-69
Utah
San Antonio, Texas
Watch the full game
1997
Arizona (25-9)
Lute Olson
84-79 (OT)
Kentucky
Indianapolis, Ind.
Watch the full game
1996
Kentucky (34-2)
Rick Pitino
76-67
Syracuse
East Rutherford, N.J.
1995
UCLA (31-2)
Jim Harrick
89-78
Arkansas
Seattle, Wash.
1994
Arkansas (31-3)
Nolan Richardson
76-72
Duke
Charlotte, N.C.
Watch the full game
1993
North Carolina (34-4)
Dean Smith
77-71
Michigan
New Orleans, La.
Watch the full game
1992
Duke (34-2)
Mike Krzyzewski
71-51
Michigan
Minneapolis, Minn.
Watch the full game
1991
Duke (32-7)
Mike Krzyzewski
72-65
Kansas
Indianapolis, Ind.
Watch the full game
1990
UNLV (35-5)
Jerry Tarkanian
103-73
Duke
Denver, Colo.
Watch the full game
1989
Michigan (30-7)
Steve Fisher
80-79 (OT)
Seton Hall
Seattle, Wash.
1988
Kansas (27-11)
Larry Brown
83-79
Oklahoma
Kansas City, Mo.
1987
Indiana (30-4)
Bob Knight
74-73
Syracuse
New Orleans, La.
Watch the full game
1986
Louisville (32-7)
Denny Crum
72-69
Duke
Dallas, Texas
1985
Villanova (25-10)
Rollie Massimino
66-64
Georgetown
Lexington, Ky,
Watch the full game
1984
Georgetown (34-3)
John Thompson
84-75
Houston
Seattle, Wash.
Watch the full game
1983
North Carolina State (26-10)
Jim Valvano
54-52
Houston
Albuquerque, N.M.
Watch the full game
1982
North Carolina (32-2)
Dean Smith
63-62
Georgetown
New Orleans, La.
Watch the full game
1981
Indiana (26-9)
Bob Knight
63-50
North Carolina
Philadelphia, Pa.
1980
Louisville (33-3)
Denny Crum
59-54
UCLA
Indianapolis, Ind.
Watch the full game
1979
Michigan State (26-6)
Jud Heathcote
75-64
Indiana State
Salt Lake City, Utah
Watch the full game
1978
Kentucky (30-2)
Joe Hall
94-88
Duke
St. Louis, Mo.
1977
Marquette (25-7)
Al McGuire
67-59
North Carolina
Atlanta, Ga.
1976
Indiana (32-0)
Bob Knight
86-68
Michigan
Philadelphia, Pa.
Watch the full game
1975
UCLA (28-3)
John Wooden
92-85
Kentucky
San Diego, Calif.
1974
North Carolina State (30-1)
Norm Sloan
76-64
Marquette
Greensboro, N.C.
1973
UCLA (30-0)
John Wooden
87-66
Memphis State
St. Louis, Mo.
1972
UCLA (30-0)
John Wooden
81-76
Florida State
Los Angeles, Calif.
1971
UCLA (29-1)
John Wooden
68-62
Villanova
Houston, Texas
1970
UCLA (28-2)
John Wooden
80-69
Jacksonville
College Park, Md.
1969
UCLA (29-1)
John Wooden
92-72
Purdue
Louisville, Ky.
1968
UCLA (29-1)
John Wooden
78-55
North Carolina
Los Angeles, Calif.
1967
UCLA (30-0)
John Wooden
79-64
Dayton
Louisville, Ky.
Watch the full game
1966
UTEP (28-1)
Don Haskins
72-65
Kentucky
College Park, Md.
Watch the full game
1965
UCLA (28-2)
John Wooden
91-80
Michigan
Portland, Ore.
1964
UCLA (30-0)
John Wooden
98-83
Duke
Kansas City, Mo.
1963
Loyola (Ill.) (29-2)
George Ireland
60-58 (OT)
Cincinnati
Louisville, Ky.
1962
Cincinnati (29-2)
Ed Jucker
71-59
Ohio State
Louisville, Ky.
1961
Cincinnati (27-3)
Ed Jucker
70-65 (OT)
Ohio State
Kansas City, Mo.
1960
Ohio State (25-3)
Fred Taylor
75-55
California
Daly City, Calif.
1959
California (25-4)
Pete Newell
71-70
West Virginia
Louisville, Ky.
Watch the full game
1958
Kentucky (23-6)
Adolph Rupp
84-72
Seattle
Louisville, Ky.
1957
North Carolina (32-0)
Frank McGuire
54-53 (3OT)
Kansas
Kansas City, Mo.
1956
San Francisco (29-0)
Phil Woolpert
83-71
Iowa
Evanston, Ill.
1955
San Francisco (28-1)
Phil Woolpert
77-63
LaSalle
Kansas City, Mo.
1954
La Salle (26-4)
Ken Loeffler
92-76
Bradley
Kansas City, Mo.
1953
Indiana (23-3)
Branch McCracken
69-68
Kansas
Kansas City, Mo.
1952
Kansas (28-3)
Phog Allen
80-63
St. John’s
Seattle, Wash.
1951
Kentucky (32-2)
Adolph Rupp
68-58
Kansas State
Minneapolis, Minn.
1950
CCNY (24-5)
Nat Holman
71-68
Bradley
New York, N.Y.
1949
Kentucky (32-2)
Adolph Rupp
46-36
Oklahoma A&M
Seattle, Wash.
1948
Kentucky (36-3)
Adolph Rupp
58-42
Baylor
New York, N.Y.
1947
Holy Cross (27-3)
Doggie Julian
58-47
Oklahoma
New York, N.Y.
1946
Oklahoma State (31-2)
Henry Iba
43-40
North Carolina
New York, N.Y.
1945
Oklahoma State (27-4)
Henry Iba
49-45
NYU
New York, N.Y.
1944
Utah (21-4)
Vadal Peterson
42-40 (OT)
Dartmouth
New York, N.Y.
1943
Wyoming (31-2)
Everett Shelton
46-34
Georgetown
New York, N.Y.
1942
Stanford (28-4)
Everett Dean
53-38
Dartmouth
Kansas City, Mo.
1941
Wisconsin (20-3)
Bud Foster
39-34
Washington State
Kansas City, Mo.
1940
Indiana (20-3)
Branch McCracken
60-42
Kansas
Kansas City, Mo.
1939
Oregon (29-5)
Howard Hobson
46-33
Ohio State
Evanston, Ill.
*Louisville’s participation in the 2013 tournament was later vacated by the Committee on Infractions.
March Madness glossary:
The Madness of March isn’t just confined to what happens on the basketball court. When discussing teams, there are a bevy of statistics, terms, and acronyms thrown out. There’s a team’s NET rankings and BPI. The SOS and the SOR. The automatic bid and the at-large bid. It can be a bit daunting.
Maybe you’ve never heard of any of these, maybe you just need a quick refresher. Either way, we’ve compiled a list of the 29 most helpful terms when dealing with the NCAA tournament. These are stats and phrases that the Selection Committee will use to determine the field, and understanding what they mean can go a long way in helping you make informed decisions while filling out your bracket.
At-large bid — Teams that receive a bid to the NCAA tournament are broken into two categories: At-large bids, and automatic bids. The selection committee hands out at-large bids to teams that did not win their conference tournament, but impressed the committee enough to earn a trip to the tournament. There is no limit on the number of at-large teams the committee may select from one conference.
Automatic bid — In Division I, there are 32 conferences. Each has its own conference tournament at the conclusion of the regular season. Teams that win this tournament, regardless of their regular-season performance, automatically earn a trip to the NCAA tournament.
AP ranking – The Associated Press has been ranking the top basketball teams since 1948. In its current form, the poll ranks the top 25 teams in Division I via a ranking that is compiled from the ballots of 65 sports journalists across the country. The ranking has no official weight in the selection process, and even a No. 1 ranking in the AP poll does not technically guarantee a team a bid to the NCAA tournament. View the current AP rankings here.
BPI — College Basketball’s Power Index, invented by ESPN, is a statistic that measures how far above or below average every team is, and projects how well the team will do going forward. The index uses two measurements to do this: BPI Offense (measure of a team’s offensive strength compared to an average offense) and BPI Defense (measure of a team’s defensive strength compared to an average defense). BPI is calculated by finding the difference between these two measurements. View the current BPI rankings here.
The bubble — A team that is “on the bubble” for the NCAA tournament is one whose qualification for the tournament could go either way. They’re on the verge of making the field of 76, but an invitation isn’t guaranteed.
Cinderella — Much like the titular character from the fairy tale, a Cinderella team is one that is much more successful than expected. Examples in March would be Villanova’s 1985 championship run, when the eighth-seeded Wildcats became the lowest seeded team to ever win the title, knocking off the heavy favorite Georgetown.
Defensive efficiency — A simple statistic that calculates the points allowed per 100 defensive possessions. For example, if Team A’s opponent scored 80 points in a game with 75 possessions, Team A’s defensive efficiency would be 106.7. View current defensive efficiency rankings here.
Elite Eight — The fourth round of the tournament, when just eight teams remain, is known as the Elite Eight. This round is the final game for each regional, before the four winners move on to the national semifinal, known as the Final Four.
Final Four — The fifth round of the tournament, when just four teams remain, is known as the Final Four. This is the penultimate round of the tournament, when the winners of each regional face off for a chance to play in the championship game.
First four out — When ranking all 68 teams in the NCAA tournament, the First Four Out fall in spots 69-72. These teams will not make the NCAA tournament, but will be the top-seeded teams in the NIT Championship.
Last four in — Another unofficial term, the “last four in” refers to the final four teams that receive at-large bids to the tournament. These are teams that are usually on the bubble as Selection Sunday draws near.
NET — NCAA Evaluation Tool was a new ranking in 2018-19 that relies on game results, strength of schedule, game location, scoring margin, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses. The ranking replaces RPI as the main sorting tool for the selection committee. Some of the unique aspects of the NET include the omission of game date and order (to give equal importance to both early and late-season games), and the inclusion of a cap of 10 points for winning margin (to prevent teams needlessly running up the score in a game where the outcome was certain).
Offensive efficiency — Points scored per 100 offensive possessions. For example, if a team scored 95 points in a game with 85 possessions, their offensive efficiency would be 115.9. View current offensive efficiency rankings here.
Opening Round — When the NCAA tournament was expanded to 76 teams, a new round was added to the format: The Opening Round. Twelve games, played on the Tuesday and Wednesday after Selection Sunday, determine which of 24 teams advance to the First Round of the tournament.
Pace/Tempo — An estimate of the number of possessions a team has per regulation (40 minutes).
Per-40 stats — A reference used to compare two or more players who do not play the same amount of minutes per game. It is measured by taking each statistic, dividing it by the minutes played per game, and then multiplying it by 40 — a full regulation game. For example, if Player A scores an average of 20 points in 30 minutes of play, his points per-40 would be 26.7.
POM — Kenpom.com, run by Ken Pomeroy, is a website devoted to advanced basketball statistics. The site gives an overall rating to each Division I team throughout the season based on a multitude of advanced metrics. The Selection Committee uses these rankings to help evaluate teams.
Quadrants (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4) — In order to determine the strength of a team’s wins or losses, the selection committee divides the team’s record into four quadrants on each team sheet. The quadrants are meant to serve as an indicator of how good a team’s wins are, or how bad their losses are. Each quadrant is divided based on a combination of the location of the game — Home (H), Neutral court (N), or Away (A) — and the opponent’s NET ranking.
Q1: H: 1-30; N: 1-50; A: 1-75
Q2: H: 31-75; N: 51-100; A: 76-135
Q3: H: 76-160; N: 101-200; A: 136-240
Q4: H:161-353; N: 201-353; A: 241-353
Regional — The NCAA tournament bracket is split into four regionals. The South, East, West, and Midwest. The first four rounds of the tournament are played in regionals, with the Elite Eight serving as the regional championship game. Teams are assigned a regional based on a combination of factors, such as overall seed, proximity to the regional, the other teams in that regional, and more.
Seed — 76 teams earn bids to the NCAA tournament, and each one receives a seed — from 1 to 16 —that determines where the team will be placed in the bracket. After the First Four, there are four of every seed. The seeds are also ranked overall from 1 to 76. This overall ranking affects the order in which team locations are selected (with higher-ranked teams getting preference), and which teams play in the Opening Round (the 12 lowest-seeded at-large teams and the 12 lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers go to the First Four).
Selection committee —The NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Committee is responsible for selecting, seeding and bracketing the field for the NCAA Tournament. School and conference administrators are nominated by their conference, serve five-year terms and represent a cross-section of the Division I membership.
Selection Sunday — The day everyone waits for, when the Selection Committee announces the tournament field. For 2027, Selection Sunday is March 14.
Strength of record — From ESPN: “Strength of Record (SOR) is a measure of team accomplishment based on how difficult a team’s W-L record is to achieve. SOR reflects the chance a typical 25th ranked team would have team’s record or better, given the schedule on a 0 to 100 scale, where 100 is best.”
Strength of schedule — Strength of Schedule (or SoS) measures the difficulty of a team’s schedule, based on the win percentage of the team’s opponents.
Sweet 16 — The third round of the tournament, where only 16 teams remain. The winner of each game will play in the Elite Eight.
Team sheet — A one-page document for every team in Division I that helps the committee get a complete picture of that team’s performance during the season. The team sheets contain in-depth team information about strength of schedule, performance against top-50 teams and home/road records.
