The first Final Four tournament was held in Patton Gym in Evanston, Illinois, a fact that is quite fitting given that March Madness got its own start in Illinois. This was the year after the first National Invitational Tournament and the NCAA along with the National Association of Basketball Coaches joined forces to make Final Four history. The teams in that first tournament were Oregon, Oklahoma, Ohio State, and Villanova. Oregon and Ohio State played for the championship which Oregon won 46-33. Oregon ended the season 29-5.

For the first 12 years of Final Four history, the entire tournament would only have 8 teams that would be whittled down to the Final Four. The next major advance in Final Four History came in 1951 when the tournament expanded to include 16 teams.

The games were played at Williams Arena in Minneapolis, MN. The final four that year consisted of Kentucky, Illinois, Kansas St., and Oklahoma A&M. Kentucky would beat Kansas State 68-58 in the final game and end their season 32-2. This was also the first year that a team, Columbia, would be undefeated at the beginning of the tournament. Columbia lost to Illinois in the first round against Illinois. Over the years, the bracket grew and expanded.

By 1953, the tournament would include 22 teams, 24 teams in 1954, 32 teams in 1957 and so forth until we reach this point in Final Four History. It wasn't until 1985 that the men's division one tournament expanded to its present form with 64 teams. The women's tournament took even longer to catch up to the men; that didn't happen until 1994. It was also in the 90's when most of the teams that dominate Final Four play today began to make history. For example, Coach K led his Duke Blue Devils to the national championship for the first time in 1991 with a team that included college basketball legends Christian Laettner and Grant Hill.

The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is held each spring featuring 65 college basketball teams in the United States.

The 20-day tournament, colloquially known as March Madness or the Big Dance, has become one of the United States' most prominent sports events.

The tournament, whose field includes regional conference champions and other top teams, is staged in a single elimination format. Since its 1939 inception, it has built a legacy that includes dynasty teams and dramatic underdog stories. In recent years, friendly wagering on the event has become something of a national pastime, spawning countless "office pools" that attract expert fans and novices alike. All games of the tournament are broadcast on the CBS broadcast television network in the United States, except for the Opening Round game (or "play-in game" as it has been called), which aired on TNN in 2001, and ESPN since 2002.

The tournament bracket is made up of champions from each Division I conference, which receive automatic bids. The remaining slots are at-large berths, with teams chosen by an NCAA selection committee. The selection process and tournament seedings are based on several factors, including team rankings, win-loss records and RPI data.

The two lowest-seeded teams (typically teams with poor records that qualified by winning their conference tournament championships) play a pre-tournament game to determine which will advance into the first round of the tournament, with the winner advancing to play the top seed in one of the four regions. This play-in game was added in 2001 and has been played in University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio each subsequent year.

A Most Outstanding Player honor is awarded by the Associated Press at the end of each tournament.