Round of 64 play in the NCAA tournament begins on Thursday, but March Madness officially tips off on Tuesday night in Dayton.
We're set for the First Four, which features a pair of play-in games on both Tuesday and Wednesday, with the winners moving on to the Round of 64.
Two of the four games feature members of the Last Four In (the final four teams to receive an at-large invitation to the tournament), while the other two feature the bottom four-ranked No.
16 seeds, which are all teams that received automatic bids by winning low-major tournaments.
The First Four has existed in its current format since 2011, when the Last Four In were included in the play-in matchups.
The tournament originally didn't feature any play-in games when it expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
That changed in 2001, when the creation of the Mountain West Conference led to an additional automatic bid.
To rectify this, the NCAA expanded the tournament to 65 teams, with a pair of No.
16 seeds facing off in a play-in game.
After a decade with that system, the First Four expanded to eight teams.
The women's tournament eventually followed suit, expanding from 64 teams to 68 in 2022.
Despite having to play an extra game on the front end, there is some precedent for First Four teams finding success in the NCAA tournament.
One of the two No.
16 seeds to ever upset a No.
1 seed, Fairleigh Dickinson in 2023, had to play in Dayton.
Meanwhile, two Last Four In teams have gone on to make a Final Four run after winning in Dayton: VCU in the inaugural year of the format in 2011, and UCLA in 2021.
Three others — 2013 La Salle, 2014 Tennessee and 2018 Syracuse — have gone on to reach the Sweet 16.
Though the First Four round has been the subject of some criticism over the years, it does provide some exciting matchups before the main event begins on Thursday and Friday.
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This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: March Madness: What is the First Four round in Dayton?
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