NCAA Tournament Lines

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NCAA Tournament Lines

Traces the path of how the NCAA tournament lines has evolved since its inception in 1939. Although the tournament serves today as the most elite national championship tourney, it has witnessed a number of changes over the years.

Currently the NCAA tournament lines determines the national basketball champion; however, this has not always been the case. Until the 1950s the NIT was largely considered to be the more prestigious tournament. The NCAA had only been around since 1939 and was still relatively new in the world of basketball. As a result, teams often chose to enter the NIT and ignore the NCAA tournament lines altogether. In some cases; however, teams chose to enter both tourneys and some even walked away with both national tournament championships. This was the case of City College of New York, who entered and one both tournaments in 1950. In other cases, it was not unknown for a team to enter both tournaments; lose in one and win in the other. Utah managed to pull off such a feat in 1944 when they lost during the first round of the NIT but went on to win the NCAA championship. Kentucky followed up with a similar pattern in 1949.

While today the NCAA tournament lines serves as a single elimination event, a third place game was added into the schedule in 1941 by the East region. A national third place game as added for the first time in 1946 and remained as a permanent fixture in the NCAA championship until 1980.

The tournament was expanded to include 16 teams in 1951, with further divisions occurring five years later when the tournament was expanded to include four regions. The 1970s saw further developments. In 1975 the tournament was expanded to 32 teams. Eight more teams were added in 1979. That year teams were also seeded for the first time. As Magic Johns lead Michigan State over Larry Bird and Indiana to win the national championship, the NCAA tournament lines began to draw attention from around the country. Today, the tournament remains highly popular.

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