The NCAA Read to the Final Four Literacy competition was initiated in a partnership between the Houston Independent School District (HISD), NCAA Team Works®, Houston NCAA Final Four Local Organizing Committee, Houston Public Library, the University of Houston, and CYCLE (Changing Young Children's Lives through Education). The competition was implemented in conjunction with the April 2016, NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four championship in Houston. HISD administrators selected 68 elementary-level campuses and all third-grade students at those campuses to compete across six rounds of reading. Campuses with the highest average number of reading minutes advanced to the next level of the competition. School selection was based on high enrollment of at-risk students and the school's commitment to the district's "Literacy By 3" initiative. The "Literacy By 3" initiative aims to help every child read on grade level by the end of third grade by 2020. This study measured the impact of the NCAA Read to the Final Four Literacy competition on students' academic performance and motivation. The study assessed reading achievement over time, considering the extent that reading was documented by students. Key findings include: (1) On the beginning-of-year ISIP™ Early Reading assessment, all students who competed in the competition tested below grade level. However, on the end-of-year assessment, students in the Final Four group achieved overall reading scores that were on grade level compared to students who were eliminated in other rounds of the competition; (2) Students' overall reading performance on the ISIP™ Español assessment revealed consistent growth from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. However, the largest gain in Spanish overall reading comprehension was among the Final Four student group over the time period; and (3) Relative to reading motivation and learning, Final Four students perceived higher levels of agreement on items measuring belief in their ability to perform the reading task, the extent that learning to read was influenced by the competition, and the extent that the environment influenced their motivation to read compared to students who were eliminated in other rounds.