Query: The 2003 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament featured the top tier of intercollegiate players.

Relevant passages:
2003 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament <=SEP=> The 2003 NCAA Division I Men 's Basketball Tournament involved 65 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men 's NCAA Division I college basketball . It began on March 18 , 2003 , and ended with the championship game on April 7 in New Orleans , Louisiana at the Superdome . A total of 64 games were played .   The Final Four consisted of Kansas , making their second straight appearance , Marquette , making their first appearance since they won the national championship in 1977 , Syracuse , making their first appearance since 1996 , and Texas , making their first appearance since 1947 . Texas was the only top seed to advance to the Final Four ; the other three ( Arizona , Kentucky , and Oklahoma ) advanced as far as the Elite Eight but fell .   Syracuse won their first national championship in three tries under Jim Boeheim , defeating Kansas 81 -- 78 in what would be Roy Williams ' final game as head coach of the team ; he would depart to become the head coach at North Carolina , a position he still holds as of the 2016 -- 2017 season .   Carmelo Anthony of Syracuse was named the tournament 's Most Outstanding Player .   Syracuse beat four Big 12 teams on its way to the title : Oklahoma State , Oklahoma , Texas , and Kansas . Those victories helped earn Boeheim the national title that had eluded him in 1987 and 1996 .

NCAA Division I <=SEP=> Division I ( D-I ) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association ( NCAA ) in the United States . D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic powers , with larger budgets , more elaborate facilities and more athletic scholarships than Divisions II and III as well as many smaller schools committed to the highest level of intercollegiate competition .   This level was once called the University Division of the NCAA , in contrast to the lower level College Division ; these terms were replaced with numeric divisions in 1973 . The University Division was renamed Division I , while the College Division was split in two ; the College Division members that offered scholarships or wanted to compete against those who did became Division II , while those who did not want to offer scholarships became Division III .   For football only , Division I was further subdivided in 1978 into Division I-A ( the principal football schools ) , Division I-AA ( the other schools with football teams ) , and Division I ( those schools not sponsoring football ) . In 2006 , Division I-A and I-AA were renamed `` Football Bowl Subdivision '' ( FBS ) and `` Football Championship Subdivision '' ( FCS ) , respectively . FBS teams are allowed a maximum of 85 players receiving athletically-based aid per year , with each player allowed to receive up to a full scholarship ; FCS teams have the same 85-player limit as FBS teams , but are only allowed to give aid equivalent to 63 full scholarships . FCS teams are allowed to award partial scholarships , a practice technically allowed but essentially never used at the FBS level . FBS teams also have to meet minimum attendance requirements ( average 15,000 people in actual or paid attendance per home game ) , while FCS teams do not need to meet minimum attendance requirements .   Another difference is post season play . Since 1978 , FCS teams have played in a college football playoff system to determine a NCAA-sanctioned national champion ; the FBS teams play in bowl games where various polls rank the number one team after the conclusion of the bowl games . Starting with the 2014 postseason , a four-team playoff called the College Football Playoff , replaced the previous one game championship format . Even so , Division I FBS football is still the only NCAA sport in which a yearly champion is not determined by an NCAA-sanctioned championship event .   For the 2014-15 school year , Division I contained 345 of the NCAA 's 1,066 member institutions , with 125 in FBS , 125 in FCS , and 95 non-football schools with six additional schools in transition from Division II to Division I . There was a moratorium on any additional movement up to D-I until 2012 , after which any school that wants to move to D-I must be accepted for membership by a conference and show the NCAA it has the financial ability to support a D-I program .   All D-I schools must field teams in at least seven sports for men and seven for women or six for men and eight for women , with at least two team sports for each gender . Division I schools must meet minimum financial aid awards for their athletics program , and there are maximum financial aid awards for each sport that a Division I school can not exceed . Several other NCAA sanctioned minimums and differences that distinguish Division I from Divisions II and III . Each playing season has to be represented by each gender as well . There are contest and participant minimums for each sport , as well as scheduling criteria . For sports other than football and basketball , Division I schools must play 100 percent of the minimum number of contests against Division I opponents -- anything over the minimum number of games has to be 50 percent Division I. Men 's and women 's basketball teams have to play all but two games against Division I teams ; for men , they must play one-third of all their contests in the home arena .   In addition to the schools that compete fully as D-I institutions , the NCAA allows D-II and D-III schools to classify one men 's and one women 's sport ( other than football or basketball ) as a D-I sport , as long as they sponsored those sports before the latest rules change in 2011 . Also , Division II schools are eligible to compete for Division I national championships in sports that do not have a Division II national championship , and in those sports may also operate under D-I rules and scholarship limits .