Final Four
The playoff term Final Four was originally popularized to refer to the final four teams in the NCAA Basketball Tournament; these are the champions of the tournament's four regional brackets, and the only teams remaining on the tournament's final weekend. The term has been applied retroactively to include the last four teams remaining in those early tournaments in which only two brackets existed.
Currently, the men's tournament begins with 65 teams. The two teams deemed weakest by the NCAA Selection Committee play the first game (the "play-in game") in Dayton, Ohio, and the field is narrowed down to 64 teams. The women's tournament starts with 64 teams, with no play-in game. The tournament proceeds by means of single elimination play on consecutive weekends in March at pre-selected sites all over the United States. In the men's tournament, all sites are at least nominally neutral, as a school that hosts any session of the tournament prior to the Final Four is prohibited from playing in that session. This means, for instance, that a school which hosts a regional final cannot play in the bracket leading to it. However, the women's sites, although predetermined, are not normally neutral; the women's tournament committee deliberately places host teams on their home floors when possible. This practice is increasingly controversial.
On the third weekend, traditionally a Saturday and Monday for the men's tournament and a Friday and Sunday for the women's tournament, the final four teams meet in semifinals on the first day and the championship on the second. However, the women's tournament now conducts its semifinals on Sunday and its final game on Tuesday. For several years in the men's tournament, the teams eliminated in the semifinals met in a consolation game prior to the championship; but this was discontinued in the early 1980s.
See NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship and NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship for a list of NCAA champions.
See also
Other uses of the term
Starting from late 1990s, the term Final Four is also being used for the final four teams in other elimination tournaments. Tournaments which use "Final Four" include Euroleague in basketball, national basketball competitions in several European countries and now-defunct European Hockey League. Together with the name "Final Four", these tournaments have adopted NCAA competition format where four best teams compete in a single-elimination tournament held in one place, typically, during one weekend.
The similar term "Frozen Four" is used by the NCAA to refer to the final rounds of the Division I men's and women's ice hockey tournaments.
