Further, televised road games played in the same time zone as that of the visiting team's fans tend to draw larger audiences, which enhances the value of the media rights.

For instance, as of 2024[update], all full members of the West Coast Conference are Christian colleges and universities located in the Pacific Time Zone.

The Ivy League comprises institutions with similar, high academic standards that prefer to schedule nearly all their conference basketball games on Fridays and Saturdays, except during breaks between semesters, to minimize the disruption caused to the studies of the student-athletes.

The shifts in conference membership are primarily driven by schools seeking lucrative media rights deals and appropriately competitive playing partners for their football programs.

This triggers a domino effect, and smaller, less stable conferences struggle to remain large enough to compete at the same level as they had in the past.

It uses the regular-season conference standings to determine qualification for its tournament, but seeding is based on a formulaic ranking of the strength of the qualifiers, including their performances against non-conference opponents.

The date of the first formal basketball game played at the Springfield YMCA Training School under Naismith's rules is generally given as December 21, 1891.

[9] In March 1908, a two-game "championship series" was organized between the University of Chicago and Penn, with games played in Philadelphia and Bartlett, Illinois.

[13] Not long afterward, assisted by the 1951 scandals based in New York City, the NCAA tournament had become more prestigious than before, with conference champions and the majority of top-ranked teams competing there.

The NCAA did consider granting waivers to the student athletes who participated in winter sports (including basketball) so that they could regain eligibility for the 2021 season.

However, many of the seniors were projected to be picked in the NBA draft, so this led to the difficult decision of playing one more year with their college teammates or moving on to the big stage.

LSU's women and UConn's men were the 2023 national champions, defeating Iowa and San Diego State, respectively, in the championship games.

These issues included inequality, racism, and the alumni demand for the top players needed to win high-profile games.

"College basketball data allow for direct comparisons of the racial differences in the marginal revenues generated by players" (Brown and Jewell 1995).

[24][25] With an alumni base that dominated local and state politics, society and business, the ACC flagship schools were successful in their endeavor—as Pamela Grundy argues, they had learned how to win: In 1969, for the first time, the NCAA Council did not permit participation by American college basketball players in the Maccabiah Games.

The Maccabiah Games are an international multi-sport event held in Israel, open to all Jewish athletes from around the world, and to all Israeli citizens regardless of their religion.

[37] In 1969—against the wishes of the NCAA—Yale University Jewish center Jack Langer played for Team United States at the 1969 Maccabiah Games in Israel.

[38][30] A special assistant to the President of Yale, Henry Chauncey Jr., said: "There is no question that Jack Langer will continue to play basketball.

[40] It thereby restricted Yale teams and athletes (not just basketball players) for two years from competing in NCAA tournaments, championships and other postseason competitions, and from receiving any monies for televised events.

[43] The Presidents of the other seven Ivy League schools issued a statement condemning the NCAA's actions in regard to the "Langer Case".

[32] Harvard track and field captain Ed Nosal and two other Harvard athletes, sympathetic to Langer and Yale and disdainful of the absurdity of the NCAA rule, protested at the 1970 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships by standing on the awards stand wearing blue Yale jerseys.

[44] In February 1970, Representative Robert N. Giaimo (D-Connecticut) said in the U.S. Congress: The Yale case, involving basketball player Jack Langer, is tragic.

It shows once again that the NCAA is ... under the control of a stubborn, dictatorial hierarchy that does not hesitate to use athletes and schools alike as mere pawns in a game of power politics.

All of these schools also sponsor women's basketball except The Citadel and VMI, two military colleges that were all-male until the 1990s and remain overwhelmingly male today.

A growing number of poor, but highly talented, teenage basketball players found the system exploitative—they brought in funds to schools where they played without income.

The ensuing legal battle went to the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled in 1971 that the NBA does not have the same antitrust exemption enjoyed by Major League Baseball.

[55] In 1974, Moses Malone joined the Utah Stars of the American Basketball Association (which became part of the NBA after the ABA–NBA merger in 1976) straight out of high school and went on to a Hall of Fame career.

[citation needed] College basketball remains more popular than the NBA in some regions of the United States, such as in North Carolina and the Midwest (where traditionally strong programs at Louisville, Kansas,and Indiana are found).

In the NCAA, once the first possession has been established from the opening tip, no further jump balls occur except to begin an overtime period.

Central Missouri and Fort Hays State have won NAIA and NCAA Division II national titles.