In the Final Four, North Carolina beat Oregon in Oregon's first Final Four appearance since the inaugural tournament in 1939,[1] while Gonzaga defeated South Carolina in both teams' first ever Final Four appearance.[2] This was the first NCAA tournament since 1979 to see two first-time Final Four participants. North Carolina then defeated Gonzaga 71–65 to win their 6th national championship, and 3rd under Roy Williams.[3]
A total of 68 teams entered the 2017 tournament, with all 32 conference tournament winners receiving an automatic bid. The Ivy League, which previously granted its automatic tournament bid to its regular season champion, hosted a postseason tournament to determine a conference champion for the first time. In previous years, had the Ivy League had two schools tied for first in the standings, a one-game playoff (or series as was the case in the 2002 season) determined the automatic bid. On March 10, 2016, the Ivy League's council of presidents approved a four-team tournament where the top four teams in the regular season would play on March 11 and 12 at Philadelphia's Palestra.[5]
The remaining 36 teams received "at-large" bids which are extended by the NCAA Selection Committee. On January 24, 2016, the NCAA announced that the Selection Committee would, for the first time, unveil in-season rankings of the top four teams in each division on February 11, 2017.[6]
Eight teams—the four lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the four lowest-seeded at-large teams—played in the First Four (the successor to what had been known as "play-in games" through the 2010 tournament). The winners of these games advanced to the main draw of the tournament.
The committee's selections resulted in two historic milestones. The Northwestern Wildcats of the Big Ten Conference made their first-ever NCAA Tournament in school history, officially becoming the last "power conference" school to make the tournament. (This fact is ironic considering that Northwestern hosted the first-ever NCAA Tournament in 1939). The Wildcats' First round opponent, the Vanderbilt Commodores of the Southeastern Conference, also made history: with a record of 19–15, they set the mark for the most ever losses for an at-large team in tournament history.
2017 First Four (orange) and First and Second rounds (green) Note: Greensboro, North Carolina was originally awarded First and Second round games, but the games were relocated to Greenville, South Carolina due to NCAA objections over HB2.
2017 Participants: East Region (blue), South Region (red), Midwest Region (green), and West Region (purple)
Eight teams, out of 351 in Division I, were ineligible to participate in the 2017 tournament due to failing to meet APR requirements, self-imposed postseason bans, or reclassification from a lower division.[n 1]Hawaii had previously been banned from entering the tournament as a penalty for infractions, but the NCAA later reversed its ban.[13][14]
Automatic qualifiers
The following 32 teams were automatic qualifiers for the 2017 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's automatic bid.[15]
During the Final Four round, regardless of the seeds of the participating teams, the champion of the top overall top seed's region (Villanova's East Region) plays against the champion of the fourth-ranked top seed's region (Gonzaga's West Region), and the champion of the second overall top seed's region (Kansas's Midwest Region) plays against the champion of the third-ranked top seed's region (North Carolina's South Region).
Per the NCAA, "Upsets are defined as when the winner of the game was seeded five or more places lower than the team it defeated." The 2017 tournament saw a total of 9 upsets; 4 of them were in the first round, 4 of them were in the second round, and one of them in the Sweet Sixteen.
The R64, R32, S16, E8, F4, CG, and NC columns indicate how many teams from each conference were in the round of 64 (first round), round of 32 (second round), Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four, championship game, and national champion, respectively.
The "Record" column includes wins in the First Four for the Big 12, Big West, NEC, and Pac-12 conferences and losses in the First Four for the ACC and Big East conferences.
The MEAC and Southland each had one representative, both eliminated in the First Four with a record of 0–1.
The America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big South, CAA, Horizon, Ivy League, MAAC, MAC, Mountain West, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Southern, Summit, Sun Belt, SWAC, and WAC conferences each had one representative, eliminated in the first round with a record of 0–1.
Media coverage
Television
CBS Sports and Turner Sports held joint U.S. television broadcast rights to the Tournament under the NCAA March Madness brand. As part of a cycle beginning in 2016, CBS held rights to the Final Four and championship game.[21][22][23][24] As CBS did not want its audience to be diffused across multiple outlets, there were no localized "Team Stream" telecasts of the Final Four or championship games on Turner channels as in previous years.[25]
Following criticism of the two-hour format of the 2016 edition, the Selection Sunday broadcast was shortened to 90 minutes. CBS Sports executive Harold Bryant promised that the unveiling of the bracket would be conducted in an "efficient" manner, and leave more time to discuss and preview the tournament.[26]
Jim Nantz/Bill Raftery/Grant Hill/Tracy Wolfson – First and Second Rounds at Indianapolis, Indiana; South Regional at Memphis, Tennessee; Final Four and National Championship at Glendale, Arizona
Westwood One had exclusive radio rights to the entire tournament. For the first time in the history of the tournament, broadcasts of the Final Four and championship game were available in Spanish.[27]
Ian Eagle and Donny Marshall – East Regional at New York City, New York
Tom McCarthy and Will Purdue – Midwest Regional at Kansas City, Missouri
Gary Cohen and P. J. Carlesimo – South Regional at Memphis, Tennessee
Kevin Kugler and Jim Jackson – West Regional at San Jose, California
Final Four
Kevin Kugler, Clark Kellogg, and Jim Gray – Glendale, Arizona
Internet
Video
Live video of games was available for streaming through the following means:[24]
NCAA March Madness Live (website and app, no CBS games on digital media players; access to games on Turner channels requires TV Everywhere authentication through provider)
CBS All Access (only CBS games, service subscription required)
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