LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – There will be a lot of hopes dashed for college basketball fans in the coming weeks.
For today’s Good Question, Mariah asks: I saw that some teams were already out of the NCAA Tournament on Tuesday and Wednesday. How is that possible if the tournament starts today?
The field for the NCAA tournament, for both men and women, is actually 68 teams.
It’s the reason you’ll sometimes see two names on a line if you’re filling out a bracket early.
The eight men’s teams that played Tuesday and Wednesday took part in what is known as the First Four.
In 1939, eight teams played for the men’s NCAA championship. In 1951, the field doubled to 16. As conferences kept being added, and with them automatic qualification to the tournament, the field kept increasing. By 1985, the 64-team tournament was in place. And in 2011, they moved to 68.
The First Four consists of eight teams, the four lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the four lowest-seeded at-large teams.
This year, for the men, those were Xavier, Texas, North Carolina, San Deigo State, Mount St Mary’s, American University, Alabama State and Saint Francis.
The first four games were added to the women’s tournament in 2022, and this year, the eight teams were Southern, UC San Diego, Iowa State, Princeton, Columbia, Washington, High Point, and William and Mary.
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