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The National Invitation tournament was created a year before March Madness as a stand alone tournament. Most teams chose the NIT over March Madness.
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The very first NCAA basketball tournament took place in Illinois and included only eight teams. The winner of the tournament was Oregon. This first event would lead to one of the world's largest sports tournaments.
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In the 1947 tournament a game for third place was added to the tournament. The game settled the dispute over 3rd place and was the first addition to the NCAA tournament.
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16 teams played in the tournament. Doubled the number of games and attracted a larger crowd.
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The first all-black team wins over an all-white Kentucky power house in the title game. The win integrated college basketball and made it so the best players would start.
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Magic Johnson and Larry Bird faced off in the title games. The two future NBA stars drew the most ratings in NCAA tournamnet history and put the NCAA tournamnet to the next level.
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Michael Jordan,at this time a UNC freshman, won the title game with a game ending shot. His win drew attention to him and launched his basketball legacy.
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CBS got the rights to all NCAA tournament games. All games were shown on network television and even minor games drew large crowds.
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Teams would choose to go to the NIT over the NCAA tournament so the NCAA bought the NIT. It made March Madness that much larger and offered more teams a chance to play a post season game.
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The final increase in teams now had 68 teams. Four spots were added to inckude play in games. The larger number of teams adds the chance for upsets, the core of March Madness.
