In American 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 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. "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 Marquettebasketball team "was one of the final four" during the previous season's tournament. The National Collegiate Athletic Association 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 Division I Men's Basketball Tournament. Each Final Four team is the regional champion from the East, South, Midwest, or West regions of the tournament. 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 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 Division I Women's Basketball Tournament. 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. The NCAA also uses "Final Four" for other sports besides basketball, such as the Men's and Women's Volleyball Championship. For ice hockey tournaments, the NCAA uses a variation of the term: the "Frozen Four".
"Final Four" refers to the crew of STS-135, the final Space Shuttle mission. The term is also used in some television shows to denote the last remaining four contestants, such as the Philippine TV series StarStruck and the reality show Survivor.
