‘Read to the Final Four’ Competition Begins

As the 2021 Men’s Final Four in Indianapolis draws near, the NCAA and the Indiana Sports Corp. have launched a statewide literacy program for students. Read to the Final Four is a personalized reading tournament designed to encourage Hoosier third graders to achieve reading growth through incentives and prizes.

Students have unlimited access to more than 6,000 digital books for free on a personalized digital literacy platform, which will track the amount of time spent reading. The competition encourages schools to log the most minutes reading to make the top 68 schools in the state.

The top schools will be announced January 29 during an official selection show, which will set the brackets for the competition. The schools will then advance based on the number of minutes read during each week. The final four schools will be recognized during the weekend of the 2021 Final Four in Indianapolis.

Former Indiana Fever star Katie Douglas, who also serves as co-chair of the Indianapolis Local Organizing Committee, says the competition creates a great opportunity to engage students.

“Indianapolis is huge in making sure that the events are bigger than the Final Four and making sure that we capture that youth and make sure we kind of use the Final Four as at a platform to encourage and motivate them to read,” said Douglas. “They’re going to get prizes throughout the tournament and throughout the championship. So it’s super cool, super exciting for the kids, again, to motivate and encourage and find a passion for reading.”

Registration for the program is still available. However, the deadline to compete in the bracket-style tournament has passed. You can find more information by clicking here.