The Big Four Tournament was an annual college basketball tournament played from 1971 to 1981 in

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; ) is a city in Guilford County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 299,035; it was estimated to be 307,381 in 2024. It is the List of municipalitie ...

. The field consisted of the " Big Four" North Carolina

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

schools:

NC State Wolfpack The NC State Wolfpack is the nickname of the athletic teams representing North Carolina State University. The Wolfpack competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I (NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subd ...

Duke Blue Devils The Duke Blue Devils are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Duke University, located in Durham, North Carolina. Duke's athletics department features 27 varsity teams that all compete at the N ...

North Carolina Tar Heels The North Carolina Tar Heels (also Carolina Tar Heels) are the college sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to ...

, and

Wake Forest Demon Deacons The Wake Forest Demon Deacons are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Wake Forest University, located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. They compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Assoc ...

. The four previously participated in the Dixie Classic from 1949–1960. The tournament was held in December, before the holiday season started, and consisted of two rounds. Each team would play one other team. The two winners then played for the championship and the two losers would play for third place. The games did not count in the ACC standings, but did count on a team's overall seasonal record, as did their team and individual stats. The tournament came to an end in 1981, when participating schools and their coaches decided that the extra competition, aggravation of playing top conference rivals a ''third'' time each season, and the toll of all but one team getting one or more losses on its record so early in the season, outweighed their share of the gate and media revenues, substantial fan interest, and the chance to test themselves against the best in the ACC without the outcome affecting their conference records.

Games

Championships

* ''All games played at

Greensboro Coliseum First Horizon Coliseum (formerly Greensboro Coliseum) is an arena in Greensboro, North Carolina. Opened in 1959 as the first building of the Greensboro Complex, the 22,000-seat arena is the home arena of the UNC Greensboro Spartans basketball t ...

''.

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , title = "Tobacco Road" teams , list1 = {{Duke Blue Devils men's basketball navbox {{NC State Wolfpack men's basketball navbox {{North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball navbox {{Wake Forest Demon Deacons men's basketball navbox Recurring sporting events established in 1971 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 1981 College men's basketball competitions in the United States Duke Blue Devils men's basketball NC State Wolfpack men's basketball North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball Wake Forest Demon Deacons men's basketball 1971 establishments in North Carolina 1981 disestablishments in North Carolina Basketball competitions in Greensboro, North Carolina