Last four teams remaining in a sports playoff tournament
An example of a final four event
In sports, the final four is the last four teams remaining in a playofftournament. 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.
History
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. Previously, it was believed that the phrase "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 myth that "final four" was first used in 1975 is refuted by the fact that the term "final four" was in widespread use in descriptions of the NCAA basketball tournament by the 1960s.[1] For example, Bill Mayer of the Kansas-based Lawrence Daily Journal World wrote in 1966, "What a great year it could be if... KU... could advance to the NCAA Final Four by winning the regional here."[2] The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) later trademarked the term.[3][4]
The oldest and most common use of the term is in reference to the final four teams in the annual NCAA basketball tournaments: each Final Four team is the champion from one of four regions of the tournament. These regional champions then travel from the four separate sites of their regional rounds to a common venue for the Final Four. A team must advance through multiple rounds of play—typically winning four consecutive games in a field of 64 (or 68) teams—to qualify for the Final Four. These four teams are matched against each other on the last weekend of the tournament. The Final Four of the men's Division I tournament is traditionally held on a Saturday, while the Final Four of the women's Division I tournament is usually played on a Friday.
"Final Four" was used to refer to the crew of STS-135, the final Space Shuttle mission.[5][6]
The term has also been used in some television shows to denote the last remaining four contestants, such as the Philippine TV series StarStruck and the reality show Survivor.[citation needed]
^Lubinger, Bill (March 14, 2011). "Interested in making some profit from the Final Four? That's just March Madness (for your lawyers)". The Plain Dealer. Retrieved March 9, 2016. Was a mere passing reference by Ed Chay, the late Plain Dealer sportswriter, in a story he wrote on page 5 of the 1975 Official Collegiate Basketball Guide. 'Outspoken Al McGuire of Marquette, whose team was one of the final four in Greensboro, was among several coaches who said it was good for college basketball that UCLA was finally beaten,' Chay wrote. Previously, it was erroneously reported that the first capitalized use of 'Final Four' was in the NCAA's 1978 basketball guide, when (as shown above) Final Four was in capitalized use at least by 1966.
