From Wikipedia: The two teams aren't officially in the tournament before the game is played. As recently as 1991, the NCAA has conducted play-in games (usually between champions of what were considered to be the weakest conferences[citation needed]) prior to the announcement of the brackets; the losers were not considered to have been in the tournament. Note that the losers of the current opening round game aren't credited with a tournament appearance for purposes of sharing in the NCAA basketball contract revenues, while the winners receive a share for being in the round of 64. Consequently, in 2001, Northwestern State technically became the first No. 16 seeded team to win a game in the men's NCAA tournament by virtue of the team's opening round victory.