The 75th annual edition of the tournament (dating to 1939) began on March 19, 2013, and concluded with the championship game on April 8, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

On February 20, 2018, the NCAA automatically vacated Louisville's entire tournament run, including its national title, due to a 2015 sex scandal.

This would not happen again until 2020, when the competition, which ironically would have seen the Final Four held in Atlanta that year, was cancelled outright due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The most notable was Florida Gulf Coast University of the Atlantic Sun Conference, who made their tournament debut in only their second year of Division I eligibility.

They upset Georgetown and San Diego State in their first two games, becoming the first #15 seed to advance to the regional semifinals (where they were defeated by Florida).

Another school, Liberty, won the Big South tournament to become the second 20-loss team to make the field, after Coppin State did that in 2008.

[23] It became the eighth school to win at least three championships [23] until vacated by the NCAA on February 20, 2018, due to a 2015 sex scandal.

[24] With Burke on the bench, Michigan got a spark from freshman Spike Albrecht, a minor role player during the regular season.

Albrecht hit four straight 3-pointers en route to a 17-point first half performance, easily surpassing his previous single game best of 7.

[24] Louisville trailed Michigan 35–23 late in the first half, before going on a run fueled by four straight three-pointers by Luke Hancock.

Michigan fought back, closing the gap to four points in the last minute, but ran out of time in its comeback effort.

[24] On May 10, 2012, the NCAA announced that as part of the celebration of the 75th Division I tournament, it would hold all three of its men's basketball championship games in Atlanta.

March Madness studio analyst Charles Barkley and Dick Vitale were among the guests who appeared.

As in past years, TSN and TSN2 carry whiparound coverage (often in parallel) during the second, third and fourth rounds, in 2013 focusing when possible on games not being broadcast on CBS (as that network, but not the Turner channels, is also widely available in Canada).