The First Four is the official start to March Madness: four games played earlier in the week before the Round of 64 in the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournament.
Here’s a quick guide to the the First Four:
When did the First Four start as part of March Madness?
In 1999, the Mountain West Conference was added to Division I. In its second season, the 2000-01 campaign, the conference received an automatic bid for the first time, bumping the total number of automatic qualifiers in the NCAA tournament to 31, and the total number of teams to 65.
From 2001 to 2010, this was addressed by an opening-round game, where the two worst-seeded teams played on the Tuesday after Selection Sunday.
In 2011, the NCAA tournament expanded again, to 68 teams, with 31 automatic qualifiers, and 37 at-large bids, and the First Four was created to trim the number of teams from 68 to 64 for the first round.
Who plays in the men’s First Four?
When selecting the teams for the NCAA tournament, the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee ranks every team from No. 1 through No. 68. In its current format, the First Four consists of eight teams — the four lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the four lowest-seeded at-large teams. Each subset plays against itself (i.e., at-large teams…
