1957 NAIA Men's Basketball Tournament
The 1957 NAIA Men's Basketball Tournament was held in March at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The 20th annual NAIA basketball tournament featured 32 teams playing in a single-elimination format. This would be the first tournament to have seeded teams. This also means that this is the first tournament to have an 'upset'. The first upset in tournament history was when the 3 seeded West Virginia Tech lost to Villa Madonna, predecessor to today's Thomas More of Kentucky, 93–91. There were three upsets this year, including the championship game. The  NAIA seeded teams 21 years prior to the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament. The NAIA would adjust seeding to 16 seed system, in 1959. In 2016 the seeds would be adjust again, each bracket would be ranked 1-8, with the overall number 1 in the Naismith Bracket. The championship game featured Tennessee State University and Southeastern Oklahoma State University. With Tennessee State's win, they became the first historically black institution to win a collegiate basketball national championship. This would be the first of three national championship titles for Tennessee State. The 3rd place game featured Pacific  Lutheran University defeating Eastern Illinois University. Awards and honors. Many of the records set by the 1957 tournament have been broken, and many of the awards were established much later: 1957 NAIA bracket. Third place game. The third place game featured the losing teams from the national semifinalist round to determine third and fourth places in the tournament. This game was played until 1988.