Basketball Tournaments

By Robert Grazian

Some of the greatest basketball tournaments are scheduled by the NCAA for the college conferences. These are so numerous that there is rarely a day goes by, during the course of the season, that there is not a game being played.

From the beginning with all the Conference games right through to March Madness and the Final Four, the NCAA have one of the most passionately fought basketball tournaments that you can imagine. It is not only the teams who are a part of all this, but the fans and supporters too. As the teams are all college teams, there is a great deal of support from the students at the various colleges. This, combined with the followers from the town and area, guarantees that the games are all well attended and passionately supported. The NCAA tournament really is huge. In Division 1 there are 341 colleges in 31 Conferences so just the scheduling of the games for the tournament is not easy. The sheer numbers of colleges that take part means that to get into the Final Four is a real achievement. By the time the Final Four have been decided and come together in battle, there will have been three weekends of very exciting college basketball.

The Big 12 Tournament is a round robin tournament involving eight of the teams from the Big 12 Conference of NCAA basketball. These eight teams are split into two groups of four and the winner of each group will meet in the tournament final. This has been the format of the Big 12 championship for just a couple of years. Prior to this there have been other formats including elimination rounds. Until 1999 only six teams were involved in the Big 12 Tournament. Although this is only an inter conference championship, it another of the well known basketball tournaments and the winner will go through to the NCAA Championships.

With the arrival of the Womens National Basketball Association in 1996 a women's league was started. Play in this league began in 1997 and one of the best know basketball tournaments for women is the WNBA playoffs leading onto the WNBA Finals. Each conference will put forward a team to the finals. This team will be chosen by a system of playoffs between the four top teams. These take place in August and September, after the end of the regular season and culminate in a best of five play off to establish the winner of the WNBA league.

There are so many basketball tournaments that it would be impossible to list them all here. As well as the NCAA, the NBA and the WNBA there are hundreds of High School and smaller leagues who are playing regularly during the season. You will never have to look very far if you are interested in supporting a local team.

Robert Grazian is an accomplished niche website developer and author.

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