The 1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game was the final of the 1979 NCAA Division I basketball tournament and determined the national champion for the 1978–79 season. The game was held on March 26, at the Special Events Center (now the Jon M. Huntsman Center) at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In the game, the Indiana State Sycamores of the Missouri Valley Conference faced the Michigan State Spartans of the Big Ten Conference. The Sycamores entered the contest undefeated for the season, while the Spartans had six losses. Spartans guard Magic Johnson and Sycamores forward Larry Bird competed against each other for the first time; the pair developed a rivalry in the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the 1980s.

Michigan State won 75–64 to claim the school's first national championship in men's basketball. The 1979 NCAA tournament final had the highest Nielsen ratings of any game in the history of American basketball.

The Sycamores were not ranked in the Associated Press (AP) or United Press International preseason polls, and coaches in their Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) did not pick them to win the league. The team, which had been coached by Bob King in 1977–78, was led by senior forward Larry Bird, who had averaged 30.0 points per game during the previous season (second in NCAA Division I basketball) and been named an All-American in 1978. Indiana State's lineup also featured Carl Nicks, a junior guard who was returning to the school after spending his sophomore season at Gulf Coast Community College. However, the four starters from the 1977–78 team other than Bird had graduated. Before the start of the season, King suffered a heart attack and left the job; he was replaced by Bill Hodges. The Sycamores won their first game versus Lawrence University by a score of 99–56, and followed that performance by traveling to Purdue and winning by 10 points. Bird scored 40 points in Indiana State's next contest, a 74–70 victory at Evansville. That began a streak of seven games in which Bird scored over 30 points, including a 48-point effort against Butler.

Indiana State entered the AP poll at number 20 on December 12, rising as the season progressed and the team remained unbeaten. One challenge came during a game against Bradley, which elected to play with a triangle-and-two defense that Bradley coach Dick Versace called the "Bird Cage". The alignment was effective in containing Bird, who scored four points (his lowest total for Indiana State) on two field goal attempts; the Sycamores, however, managed to win. By February 13, the Sycamores were the top-ranked team in the country, and they held that position in the final rankings. Indiana State won all 16 of its games against MVC competition. The Sycamores were the number one seed in the Midwest region of the NCAA Tournament, and began their run in the event with an 86–69 second-round win over Virginia Tech. A 93–72 win over Oklahoma followed, and a two-point victory against Arkansas gave Indiana State a Final Four spot.

In the national semifinal against DePaul, Bird made 16 of 19 field goal attempts and had 16 rebounds and 9 assists. In a close game, Indiana State won 76–74 to reach the final without a loss on the season, at 33–0.

Coached by Jud Heathcote, Michigan State featured sophomore Magic Johnson, who had been instrumental in helping the team win the Big Ten Conference championship the previous season. It was their first solo conference title since 1958–59; the Spartans reached the regional finals at the 1978 NCAA Tournament, but lost by three points to eventual champion Kentucky. The team also had Greg Kelser, who was later chosen in the first round of the NBA draft. Writer Michael Wilbon said that entering the season, the team was "talented but seemed just a little less than they should have been in the Big Ten". The Spartans began the season with three straight wins, then lost by a point, 70–69, at North Carolina. Michigan State followed that defeat with six consecutive wins, and was top-ranked in the AP poll in early January. However, the team lost consecutive games to Illinois and Purdue (both losses coming on jumpers in the closing seconds), causing it to fall five places in the poll. Afterwards, the Spartans posted a blowout victory over Indiana and a win in overtime over Iowa. Ranked third in the AP poll following those games, the Spartans lost at Michigan 49–48, as Keith Smith made the winning free throw with no time remaining.

In their next game, an unheralded Northwestern team handed Michigan State its worst defeat of the season, beating them 83–65 for their fourth loss in six games. After that game, they faced Ohio State in a contest that required overtime; the Spartans emerged with an 84–79 win. That led to a winning streak; Michigan State ran off wins in their next nine games, defeating four of the teams that had beaten them in the process. Wisconsin snapped the Spartans' streak in their final game before the NCAA tournament, winning 83–81 on a long-range shot at the buzzer. The Spartans' 13–5 Big Ten record put them in a three-way tie with Iowa and Purdue for first in the conference, and they won 21 of 27 games in all regular season play; their final AP poll ranking was third.