Final Four is a sports term that is commonly applied to the last four teams remaining in a playoff tournament, most notably the NCAA Division I college basketball tournament. Typically it refers to a tournament format where four teams play two rounds of single-elimination games, the second of which is commonly called The Championship Game or colloquially the Terrific Two, resulting in a single champion. The term is most often used in the United States and in sports heavily influenced by that country; elsewhere the stage is called the "semi-finals" (which is also used in the U.S.). The term is a registered trademark of the NCAA in the U.S., so no other organizations in that country can use the phrase to refer to their tournaments. The oldest and most common use of the term is in reference to the final four teams in the annual NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship and the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship. 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 four consecutive rounds (games) 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 the next Monday evening. Until 1982, the two losers played in a consolation game on Monday just prior to the championship game.
Final Four can also refer to:
In sports:
- The Final Four of the Euroleague basketball competition
- The Final Four of the NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship or NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship
- The Frozen Four, the final two rounds of each of the four NCAA Ice Hockey Championships
- The teams in the semifinal round of tournaments in college basketball in the Philippines, and, by analogy, other college sports in that country
In television:
- The last four contenders in StarStruck, a Philippine TV series
- The last four contestants on many reality shows, such as Survivor