Final four

In American sports, the final four is the last four teams remaining in a playoff tournament. Usually the final four compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final (penultimate) round. Of these teams, the two who win in the semi-final round play another single-elimination game whose winner is the tournament champion. In some tournaments, the two teams that lose in the semi-final round compete for third place in a consolation game.

The term "final four" is most often used in the United States and in sports heavily influenced by that country; elsewhere, only the term "semi-finals" is in common use. "Final four" first appeared in print in a 1975 article for the Official Collegiate Basketball Guide, whose author Ed Chay was a sportswriter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Chay stated that the Marquette basketball team "was one of the final four" during the previous season's tournament. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) pioneered the term and later trademarked it.

The oldest and most common use of the term is in reference to the final four teams in the annual NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. Each Final Four team is the regional champion from the East, South, Midwest, or West regions of the tournament. (Other region names have been used, such as "Mideast" replacing South, or "Southeast" and "Southwest" replacing South and Midwest.) The teams travel from the four separate sites of their regional rounds to a common venue for the Final Four. In the men's basketball tournament, a team must win either four or five consecutive rounds (games) to qualify for the Final Four. The four teams are matched against each other on the last Saturday of the tournament. The two winners emerge to play in the national championship game two nights later, traditionally on Monday evening. The same concept is used for the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship (which has a Sunday/Tuesday semifinal/final scheduling to not conflict with the men's tourney). Because most teams in the men's, and all teams in the women's tournament begin play from a field of 64, each team must win four games to qualify for the Final Four.

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