Miami (Ohio) and Prairie View A&M win First Four to reach 2026 NCAA Tournament

Miami (Ohio) and Prairie View A&M won their First Four games in Dayton, Ohio, and both programs will now compete in the Round of 64 starting Thursday. Miami defeated SMU 89-79, and Prairie View beat Lehigh to earn the final two spots in the 2026 NCAA Tournament field. Prairie View's win is the program's first in NCAA Tournament history.

The First Four has been part of the tournament structure since 2011, when the field expanded from 65 to 68 teams. Four play-in games are held in Dayton each year, with two games featuring the weakest at-large bids and two matching the automatic qualifiers from the smallest conferences who receive the lowest seedings in the field. Both Miami and Prairie View fall into the latter category, which means both entered as No. 16 seeds who had to win an extra game before the main bracket even began.

Miami (Ohio) beats SMU 89-79 in a higher-scoring game than expected

Miami's 89-79 win over SMU was a competitive game throughout, and the final margin flatters Miami slightly. SMU trailed by as many as 14 points in the second half before cutting it to six with under four minutes remaining. Miami's half-court offense, which ranked 47th nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency according to KenPom's end-of-season ratings, was effective at generating quality looks against SMU's zone defense.

Miami (Ohio) plays in the Mid-American Conference, a league that rarely produces tournament teams that advance deep into the bracket. The RedHawks won the MAC tournament to earn their automatic bid and entered the First Four having won 10 of their last 12 regular season games. Their reward for beating SMU is a Round of 64 matchup against Duke, the overall top seed, which is the draw that comes with being a No. 16 seed in the East Region.

Prairie View A&M's historic first tournament win over Lehigh

Prairie View A&M's win over Lehigh is the program's first victory in the NCAA Tournament. Prairie View has made six previous tournament appearances, all of them ending in first-round or play-in losses. The Panthers are a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, the historically Black conference that has produced tournament programs including Grambling, Southern, and Jackson State over the years.

Dontae Horne had 25 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals in the win. Those are exceptional numbers for a game of that magnitude, and Horne's defensive production was as important as his scoring. Lehigh is a Patriot League program that won its conference tournament to earn an automatic bid, and the Mountain Hawks entered the game as a slight favorite in most pre-game models. Prairie View controlled the final eight minutes to secure the win.

What Prairie View faces next in the Round of 64

Prairie View now faces a No. 1 seed in the Round of 64, which is the standard outcome for a team that wins the First Four as a No. 16. No. 16 seeds are 1-140 all-time against No. 1 seeds in the Round of 64, with UMBC's 2018 win over Virginia being the only exception. Prairie View's next opponent is Houston, the South Region's top seed, which finished the regular season ranked second in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency by KenPom.

Houston against Prairie View is a significant mismatch on paper. Houston has reached the Final Four in 2021, 2023, and 2024 and enters the tournament as one of the four No. 1 seeds in the field. Prairie View will have had three days of rest between the Lehigh win and their game against Houston, which is the same recovery window as teams entering the main bracket directly.

The First Four's role in the tournament and Dayton's place in it

Dayton has hosted the First Four every year since 2011 and the UD Arena on the University of Dayton campus has become one of the most reliably sold-out venues in the tournament despite the games featuring teams that most casual fans do not follow. The atmosphere in Dayton is consistently described by players and coaches as more intense than a typical mid-week college basketball game, partly because the crowd is made up almost entirely of fans who specifically travelled to watch play-in games and understand what they are watching.

The 2026 First Four drew an average announced attendance of 13,407 per game across the four contests, which is consistent with the venue's typical capacity crowd. CBS Sports carried both Tuesday games, with the Miami-SMU and Prairie View-Lehigh results confirmed before midnight Eastern. Both winning teams fly to their Round of 64 sites on Wednesday ahead of Thursday's games.