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2000
Inasmuch as 31 conferences were to be eligible for automatic qualification in 2001, the committee agreed to conduct an opening-round game the Tuesday before the first/second rounds, pitting teams seeded No. 64 and 65.
The NCAA and the Illinois High School Association formed the “March Madness Athletic Association” and applied for trademark registration for the term “March Madness.” The registration was granted in 2001.
2001
The committee determined that, effective with the 2002 championship, first- and second-round sites would no longer be assigned to specific regions. Rather, the committee would have flexibility to assign four-team “pods” to sites near the teams’ natural geographic areas, if possible.
Effective 2002, the committee eliminated the bracketing provision that, once the highest-seeded team from a conference was assigned to a region, only the sixth team from that conference could be placed in that region.
The National Network (TNN) telecast the opening-round game.
For the first time, the NCAA registered a trademark for the term “Big Dance,” with a stated first use of 2000.
2002
First-/second-round sites in non-domed stadiums drew 99.5 percent of capacity, an all-time record.
During the selection meeting, for the first time each committee member had the use of an individual computer for researching and evaluating teams.
CBS expanded its live selection show to one hour.
ESPN televised the opening-round game for the first time.
2003
As part of the 1999 “bundled rights” agreement, Westwood One assumed administration of the tournament’s radio rights.
The basketball committee agreed that the minimum Final Four seating capacity should be 40,000 and picked San Antonio, Detroit, Indianapolis and Houston to host in 2008-2011.
2004
Rather than using the traditional annual rotation of Final Four semifinals pairings (e.g., West vs. East, South vs. Midwest) the committee began assigning the pairings during selection weekend, making best effort to assign the winner of top seed’s region to meet the fourth seed’s region and the second seed’s region to meet the third seed’s region.
Instead of using the regional site designations (i.e., East, Midwest, South, West), the committee identified regional sites by the city in which the games are being played (i.e., Atlanta Regional).
2005
Culminating a four-year study, the committee implemented a revised RPI formula to give additional weight to playing and winning games on the road. The new formula weighs road victories and home losses at 1.4; home victories and road losses, at .6; and neutral-site victories and losses at 1.0.
CBS began a two-year deal with CSTV.com for exclusive internet video streaming rights for out-of-market game coverage for the first 58 games of the championship.
Effective with the 2006 championship, the committee revised the bracketing principles so that if it is unable to reconcile the bracket after exhausting all possible options, it has the flexibility to permit two teams from the same conference to meet each other after the first round, if the conference has more than five participants.
Attendance at first-/second-round and regional sites was 98.4 percent of the facilities’ capacity, an all-time record. Arenas other than domes were filled to 99.9 percent of capacity, also a record.
2006
The Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) was made public for the first time, with updated rankings appearing on www.ncaasports.com weekly.
Becoming only the second double-digit seed to make the Final Four, 11th-seeded George Mason stuns top-seeded Connecticut in the Washington, D.C. Regional final. The Patriots defeated Michigan St. and defending national champion North Carolina to reach the regional semifinals, where they beat Wichita St. George Mason’s memorable run came to an end with a loss to eventual champion Florida in the national semifinals.
2007
The committee returned to geographical regional site designations rather than identifying the sites by the host city, as it did from 2004-06. Regional sites were referred to as East, South, Midwest and West rather than East Rutherford, San Antonio, St. Louis and San Jose.
In response to tremendous traffic resulting in 19 million video streams and five million visits in 2006, CBS Sportsline doubled its bandwidth capacity for March Madness on Demand, which offers free live internet streams of each game of the first three rounds of the championship.
CSTV’s coverage expanded to include live broadcasts of two first-round games, pregame and postgame previews and recaps on all competition dates, and video streaming of postgame press conferences that are archived at www.ncaasports.com. In addition, CSTV aired live programming during open practice day at the Final Four, aired a National Championship Pregame Show live from the Georgia Dome, and provided coverage to ancillary events such as Hoop City, My CokeFest and The Big Dance at Centennial Olympic Park.
The University of Florida became the seventh school to successfully defend its national championship as the Gators defeated The Ohio State University 84-75 in the title game. Florida joined Oklahoma St. (1945-46), Kentucky (1948-49), San Francisco (1955-56), Cincinnati (1961-62), UCLA (1964-65 and 1967-73), and Duke (1991-92) as repeat champions.