|
 The official
start of the Tournament is actually tonight.
Tuesday. Not Thursday.
With
only 2 games. Not 16 games.
At
6:30pm (ET). Not noon.
In
Dayton. Yes. In the Middle-of-nowhere, Ohio.
To
most of the world, these games do not matter.
They are play-in games.
To
these teams, they do matter.
And
to the official NCAA Tournament records, they do matter as well.
But
it wasn't always like that.
From
2001-2011, the play-in games were just that play-in games whose stats did
not count towards Tournament stats. If
you won this game, congratulations. You won, and now you can join the real
dance. But you do not get a W for your
win. Your record for that tournament
is still 0-0. Same with the loser.
However,
when the field went to 68 teams in 2011, these games now DO count and are now
called the "First Four" games.
And since then, these games have been between some pretty
bad conference champions (16v16) and your-lucky-to-even-be-here
at-large teams your last four to get in from the power conference teams,
usually 11v11 seeds.
This
year's lucky teams include the most controversial team #11
North Carolina and the last team from the SEC #11 Texas.
The
head of the selection committee is North Carolina's athletic director, whose
school now gets more revenue sharing by going to the dance.
The
SEC sent 14 of their 16 teams to the Tournament this year, that's by far a
record.
The
only two SEC teams not invited: LSU and South Carolina (at least they have
good women's teams).
Evolution of the NCAA Tournament Bracket
|
Year
|
Number of Tournament Teams
|
Total Schools in Div I
|
Change
|
|
1939
|
8
|
161
|
Conference Champions only, but only 8 of
the 14 conference champions got to go.
|
|
1951
|
16
|
152
|
Allowed
more conference champions, but still no at-large invites
|
|
1953
|
22-25
|
158
|
It varied over the next 2 decades
|
|
1975
|
32
|
235
|
At-larges permitted, but only 1 max per conference
|
|
1979
|
40
|
256
|
|
|
1980
|
48
|
260
|
At-larges permitted with no max per conference
|
|
1985
|
64
|
260
|
The beginning of the "Modern Era"
of the Tournament.
|
|
2001
|
65
|
318
|
Now called
the "Opening Round", it truly was a play-in game since stats from
this game, including win/loss, do not count towards Tournament stats. The winner advanced to Field of 64.
|
|
2011
|
68
|
346
|
The four play-in games are now called
"First Four" and stats do count.
|
|
2025
|
68
|
364
|
One more
at-large available due to dissolution of Pac-12.
|
|