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The 2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament will involve 65 schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It will begin on March 14, 2006, and will conclude with the championship game on April 3 from RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Tournament procedure

A total of 65 teams will enter the tournament. Thirty of the teams will earn automatic bids by winning their conference tournaments. Because the Ivy League does not conduct a postseason tournament, the regular-season conference champion receives an automatic bid. The remaining 34 teams will be granted "at-large" bids, which are extended by the NCAA Selection Committee.

Two teams will play an opening-round game on March 14, popularly called the "play-in game"; the winner of that game will advance to the main draw of the tournament and plays a top seed in one of the regionals. This game has been played at the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio since its inception in 2001.

This will be the third year of the so-called "pod" system, in which the eight first- and second-round sites are distributed around the four regionals. Before the 2004 tournament, all teams playing at a first- or second-round site fed into the same regional tournament. Since 2004, teams have been assigned to first- and second-round sites so as to limit the early-round travel of as many teams as possible. Half of the teams in a pod advance into separate regional tournaments.

All 64 teams will be seeded 1 to 16 within their regionals; the winner of the play-in game automatically gets a 16 seed. The Selection Committee seeds the entire field from 1 to 65. For the first time in 2004, the ranking of the four top seeds against each other would determine the pairings in the Final Four. The top overall seed would be seeded to play the fourth overall seed in the national semifinals, should both teams advance that far.

The four regionals are officially named after their four host cities, a practice which also began in 2004. The 2006 regionals are:

• March 23 / 25:

Atlanta, Georgia Regional (Georgia Dome; Host: Georgia Tech)

Oakland, California Regional (Oakland Arena; Host: University of California)

• March 24 / 26:

Minneapolis, Minnesota Regional (Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome; Host: University of Minnesota Twin Cities)

Washington, D.C. Regional (MCI Center; Host: Georgetown University)

The first and second round games will be played at the following sites:

• March 16 / 18:

Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina (Host: Atlantic Coast Conference)

Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena, Jacksonville, Florida (Host: Jacksonville University)

Jon M. Huntsman Center, Salt Lake City, Utah (Host: University of Utah)

Cox Arena, San Diego, California (Host: San Diego State University)

• March 17 / 19:

University of Dayton Arena, Dayton, Ohio (Host: University of Dayton)

Wachovia Center, Philadelphia (Host: Atlantic 10 Conference)

American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas (Host: Big XII Conference)

Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, Michigan (Host: Mid-American Conference)

Each regional winner will advance to the Final Four, held from April 1 and 3 in Indianapolis, hosted by Butler University.

Qualifying teams

External links

• NCAA Men's Basketball

• NCAA Men's Basketball Championship
• 2006 in sports