1978 was the first year that the NCAA committee attempted to publish how teams were seeded. There were 32 teams invited to the tournament. 16 of the teams were conference champions who were automatically invited. These 16 teams were seeded 1 through 4 in each of the 4 regions. They also had a "Q" after their seed to show that they had automatically qualified. The other 16 teams were also seeded 1 through 4 in each of the 4 regions, but they had an "L" after their seed to show that they were "at large" qualifiers. After 1978, the NCAA committee dropped the letters in the seeds, as well as any designation of how they qualified.