From the first tournament in 1939 to 1951, the National Semifinals were also considered the Regional Championships, with the National Championship was held separately a week later. During this period, the tournament was divided into the East and West Regions. From 1952 to 1955, the Regional Championships were held at four sites, with two designated for the East and two for the West. In 1956, the four regions were given unique names for the first time.
From 1946 to 1981, a consolation game was conducted before the Championship for the losing teams of the National Semifinals; the winning team was awarded third place and the losing team was awarded fourth place. In 1982, the NCAA eliminated the game and the two losing teams of the semifinal games are considered tied for third place in the official record book.
At the conclusion of the championship game, one player is awarded the Most Outstanding Player award. Eleven times a player was awarded the MOP without being on the championship team. Five players have won the award twice, one player, Lew Alcindor, won the award three times.
Since 1939, 95 schools have appeared in the Final Four. Four additional schools, Minnesota, Saint Joseph's, UMass, and Western Kentucky, had their only appearance vacated. This table shows non-vacated Final Four appearances and victories by school; vacated records are shown in parentheses. The Third Place column is blank for schools whose Final Four appearances were before 1946 or after 1981.
Eleven teams have appeared three or more times in the Final Four in consecutive tournaments. In the following table, National Champions are indicated by bold years, runners-up by underlined years, and third place by italics.
Since 1939, 158 head coaches have appeared in the Final Four. Six additional coaches have had their only Final Four appearance vacated. This table shows non-vacated Final Four appearances and victories by coach; vacated records are shown in parentheses. The Third Place column is blank for coaches whose Final Four appearances were before 1946 or after 1981.
Coaches still active in Division I are highlighted in green.
Fifteen coaches have non-vacated Final Four appearances with multiple schools. Of these, 14 have coached two schools and only one, Rick Pitino, has coached three schools. Two additional coaches appeared with multiple schools but had all appearances with one of those schools vacated. Larry Brown appeared with UCLA and Kansas but his only appearance with UCLA school were vacated. John Calipari appeared with UMass, Memphis, and Kentucky, but his only appearances at UMass and Memphis were vacated. Five coaches are still active, with Calipari, Huggins, Larrañaga, and Sampson coaching at a school they have already taken to the Final Four. Pitino is the only coach on this list currently active at a school he has not taken to the Final Four.
Seven coaches have both played and coached in the Final Four. Dick Harp at Kansas and Hubert Davis at North Carolina did so at the same school. Dean Smith and Bob Knight are the only two coaches to win a championship as player and coach.
Head Coach
As Player
As Coach
Team
Year(s)
Team
First Appearance
Dick Harp
Kansas
1940
Kansas
1957
Bones McKinney
North Carolina
1946
Wake Forest
1962
Vic Bubas
North Carolina State
1950
Duke
1963
Dean Smith
Kansas
1952
North Carolina
1967
Bob Knight
Ohio State
1960, 1961, 1962
Indiana
1973
Billy Donovan
Providence
1987
Florida
2000
Hubert Davis
North Carolina
1991
North Carolina
2022
Final Four appearances by conference
The following table shows Final Four appearance statistics based on teams' conference affiliations contemporaneous to their appearance. Therefore some schools are included across multiple conferences. Conferences are listed by their current or final name as found in the official NCAA record book.
There have been 26 unique conferences appearing in the Final Four, of which 19 are still in existence.
Final Fours with multiple schools from the same conference
There have been 25 Final Fours with multiple teams from the same conference. In two of these Final Fours, one of the conference team's appearance was later vacated later by the NCAA. The Big Ten has achieved this nine times, with one appearance later vacated, tying them with the Atlantic Coast Conference for non-vacated multi-team Final Four appearances. The Big East is the only conference to have three teams in the Final Four, which was in 1985.
Teams from the same conference have played against each other in nine National Semifinal games. Only three times have teams from the same conference played each other in the National Championship.
†National Champion; ‡Runner Up; §Teams played in National Semifinals
†‡Teams played in National Championship game
Final Four appearances by state
Schools from 38 states, including the District of Columbia, have appeared in the Final Four. An additional state, Minnesota, had its only appearance vacated. This table shows non-vacated Final Four appearances and victories by state; vacated records are shown in parentheses. The Third Place column is blank for states whose Final Four appearances were before 1946 or after 1981. Schools noted as vacated had all their Final Four appearances vacated.
State/Territory
Schools
Final Fours
Third Place
Runner Up
Champion
First
Last
Number
Alabama
2
2019
2024
2
0
0
Arizona
1
1988
2001
4
1
1
Arkansas
1
1941
1995
6
1
1
1
California
7
1940
2023
30 (1 vac.)
3
3 (1 vac.)
15
Colorado
1
1942
1955
2
1
0
0
Connecticut
1
1999
2024
7
0
6
District of Columbia
1
1943
2007
5
3
1
Florida
5
1970
2023
9
0
3
2
Georgia
2
1983
2004
3
1
0
Illinois
4
1943
2018
11
4
3
1
Indiana
5
1940
2024
15
2
6
5
Iowa
3
1944
1980
5
1
1
0
Kansas
3
1940
2022
22
0
7
4
Kentucky
2 (1 vac.)
1942
2015
25 (3 vac.)
1 (1 vac.)
4
10 (1 vac.)
Louisiana
1
1953
2006
4
0
0
0
Maryland
1
2001
2002
2
0
1
Massachusetts
2 (1 vac.)
1947
1996 (vac.)
2 (1 vac.)
1
0
1
Michigan
2
1957
2019
16 (2 vac.)
1
5 (2 vac.)
3
Minnesota
0 (1 vac.)
1997 (vac.)
1997 (vac.)
0 (1 vac.)
0
0
Mississippi
1
1996
1996
1
0
0
Nevada
1
1977
1991
4
1
0
1
New Hampshire
1
1942
1944
2
2
0
New Jersey
3
1965
1989
3
1
1
0
New Mexico
1
1970
1970
1
1
0
0
New York
5
1945
2016
13
0
4
2
North Carolina
5
1946
2024
44
5
12
13
Ohio
3
1939
2012
17 (1 vac.)
4
6
3
Oklahoma
2
1939
2016
11
0
3
2
Oregon
2
1939
2017
4
0
0
1
Pennsylvania
7 (1 vac.)
1939
2022
14 (2 vac.)
3 (1 vac.)
1 (1 vac.)
4
Rhode Island
1
1973
1987
2
0
0
0
South Carolina
1
2017
2017
1
0
0
Tennessee
1
1973
2008 (vac.)
1 (2 vac.)
0
1 (1 vac.)
0
Texas
6
1943
2021
15
2
4
2
Utah
1
1944
1998
4
0
1
1
Virginia
3
1981
2019
5
1
0
1
Washington
4
1941
2021
5
1
4
0
West Virginia
1
1959
2010
2
0
1
0
Wisconsin
2
1941
2015
7
0
2
2
Wyoming
1
1943
1943
1
0
1
Final Fours with multiple schools from the same state
Eleven Final Fours have had two teams from the same state. North Carolina and Ohio both have three Final Fours with two teams, the most, and Kentucky is the only other state to do it more than once. Teams from the same state have played each other four times in a National Semifinal and teams from the same state have played each other twice in the National Championship, both times Cincinnati and Ohio State in 1960 and 1961.
Thirteen Final Four appearances have been vacated by ten schools. Two of these schools won the Third Place Game and five schools were the National Runners Up. Only one school, the University of Louisville, has had its National Championship vacated.
Louisville vacated its 2012 semifinal loss and their 2013 national championship because several unnamed players were declared ineligible as a result of a sex scandal.[12] The Most Outstanding Player award, awarded to Luke Hancock, was vacated as part of the disciplinary action. Hancock and four other players sued the NCAA and alleged they had been cast in a "false light" in relation to the scandal. The NCAA agreed to restore their awards and statistics as part of a settlement, including Hancock's MOP award.[13]
Notes
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaabacadaeafagahaiajThe Pac-12 Conference was previously named the Pacific Coast Conference, Athletic Association of Western Universities, Pacific-8 Conference, and Pacific-10 Conference. Although the Pacific Coast Conference operated under a separate charter from the current Pac-12, both the Pac-12 and NCAA consider the PCC and Pac-12 to be the same conference.
^ abcdefghijklThe Big Eight Conference was previously named the Big Seven Conference and Big Six Conference.
^ abcdeThe Mountain States Athletic Conference was more popularly known as the Skyline Six and Skyline Eight at various points in its history.
^ abcdefOklahoma State University was named Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College and known as Oklahoma A&M before 1957.
^ abcdeThe Big Ten Conference was known as the Big Nine from the 1946–47 season to 1953–54 season.
^ abcdThe West Coast Conference was previously named the California Basketball Association and West Coast Athletic Conference.
^The East Coast Conference was previously named the Middle Atlantic Conference.
^ abcThe University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) was named Texas Western College before 1967.
^ abcdefThe University of Memphis was named Memphis State University before 1995.
^Syracuse qualified for the tournament via the ECAC Upstate tournament.
^Rutgers qualified for the tournament via the ECAC Metro tournament.
^ abcdCharlotte was branded as UNC Charlotte during its 1977 appearance.
^ abcdIn the 1978 tournament teams were seeded in two pools of automatic qualifiers (Q) and at-large teams (L). Each region had seeds 1Q–4Q and 1L–4L.
^ abcdeUConn was officially known as Connecticut before 2013, when it adopted the short form as its official athletic brand name.
^The NCAA allowed Luke Hancock to retain his Most Outstanding Player award as part of a settlement.
^The official NCAA records book considers both iterations of the Big East the same conference despite the original Big East legally being succeeded by the American Athletic Conference in 2013 and the current Big East Conference being a completely new entity.