The NCAA Tournament was expanded to 68 teams starting with the 2011 Big Dance, which is also when the First Four made its debut in Dayton, Ohio. In theory, the First Four features the four worst conference champions in the entire field and the last four at-large teams to get a bid. Every year so far at least one First Four team has gone on to win at least a first-round game as well. VCU in 2011 went all the way to the Final Four.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

The opening game of this year’s First Four Tuesday on the University of Dayton campus is No. 16 Prairie View A&M vs. No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson, with the Knights as 2-point favorites. They were the regular-season and tournament champions of the Northeast Conference. FDU has never won a game in the NCAA Tournament and played in the 2016 First Four, getting trounced by Florida Gulf Coast.

Prairie View A&M dominated the SWAC with a 17-1 regular-season record and then beat Texas Southern in the conference tournament title game. Perhaps no school had a more unusual non-conference schedule. The Panthers went 2-11 but played every game but one on the road.