winner of each bracket moved on to the College World Series to play a best-of-three-game series. 1949 The third year of the tournament consisted of four regions named Region A, Region B, Region C, and Region D. Each region consisted of two teams playing in a best-of-three-game series. The winner of each region moved on to the College World Series, which was now a four-team double-elimination tournament. 1950–1953 From 1950 through 1953, the preliminary rounds were not managed by the NCAA but rather by the district colleges, and thus these games are not recorded in the official history books of the NCAA. The winner of each district managed playoff (although some districts did not have playoffs and chose to select their teams by committee) were sent to the College World Series, which was an eight-team double-elimination tournament. The 1950 event was the first in Omaha, where it has remained. 1954–1974 From 1954 through 1974 the tournament consisted of eight districts, named by number. Each consisted of between two and five teams playing in differently formatted tournaments. Some years included automatic College World Series qualifiers, and that team played no district games; for an example see 1959. The winner of each district moved on to the College World series, which was double-elimination. 1975 The first year of the regional format was 1975. Eight regionals consisted of four teams in a double-elimination tournament. The winner of each regional moved on to the College World Series, also double-elimination. 1976–1981 The tournament essentially remained unchanged from the 1975 version, however, one regional consisted of six teams in a double-elimination tournament, with four teams in each of the other seven regionals. The winner of each regional moved on to the College World Series, also double-elimination. 1982–1987 The tournament expanded again in 1982—to 36 teams—to include two regionals with six teams while the other six regionals only had four teams. The Regionals remained double-elimination with the winners moving onto the College World Series, also double-elimination. Subsequently, the tournament field expanded to 38 teams in 1985, 40 teams in 1986, and 48 teams in 1987. 1988–1998 From 1988 through 1998, the NCAA tournament featured 48 teams, which contested in eight regionals of six teams each for the right to go to the College World Series. 1999–2017 The four-team regional format and the best-of-three super regional format debuted in 1999, with the expansion of the tournament to 64