March Madness is officially upon us.
The first tickets to the 2023 men’s NCAA Tournament were punched Saturday night. Southeast Missouri State defeated Tennessee Tech 89-82 in a dramatic overtime game to win the Ohio Valley Conference tournament, earning the OVC’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid with the victory. Fairleigh Dickinson also earned the Northeast Conference’s spot by advancing to the league championship game. The schools will soon be joined by 66 other squads who will fill out the March Madness bracket, several punching their tickets in conference tournaments to be played over the next week and the rest earning their spots on Selection Sunday (March 12).
Here’s a quick refresher on how the NCAA Tournament’s automatic bids are handed out and a quick glance at who has already put on their dancing shoes:
How is the NCAA Tournament field filled?
There are two ways to make the NCAA Tournament: Win your conference tournament or earn an at-large bid. There’s good news and bad news. The good? Unless banned from March Madness due to NCAA violations or if the team is in a transition period between divisions – Fairleigh Dickinson’s spot was secured because NEC title game opponent Merrimack is not yet eligible – if you win the conference tournament you earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Every team (with few exceptions) is entered in its conference tourney, no matter how bad the regular season went. The bad news? For the so-called “one-bid” leagues where an at-large bid is realistically out of the question, it doesn’t matter how good your regular season was. If you don’t win the conference tournament, you’re not going dancing.
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How many automatic bids are there?
There are 32 conference tournaments that produce 32 automatic bids. The other 36 at-large teams selected to the field will be announced on Selection Sunday.
Who has secured automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament?
Charleston: Colonial Athletic Association tournament champion
Colgate: Patriot League tournament champion
Drake: Missouri Valley tournament champion
Fairleigh Dickinson: Earns Northeast Conference bid due to title game opponent Merrimack’s ineligibility
Furman: Southern tournament champion
Gonzaga: West Coast Conference tournament champion
Kennesaw State: Atlantic Sun tournament champion
Louisiana: Sun Belt tournament champion
Montana State: Big Sky tournament champion
North Carolina-Asheville: Big South tournament champion
Northern Kentucky: Horizon League tournament champion
Oral Roberts: Summit League tournament champion
Southeast Missouri State: Ohio Valley Conference tournament champion
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi: Southland Conference tournament champion