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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

School	Conference	Berth Type
Penn	File:IvyLeague 100.png Ivy League	Regular-Season Champion
Winthrop	File:BigSouthConference 100.png Big South	Tournament Champion
Belmont	File:AtlanticSunConference 100.png Atlantic Sun	Tournament Champion
Murray State	File:OhioValleyConference 100.png Ohio Valley	Tournament Champion
Davidson	File:SouthernConference 100.png Southern	Tournament Champion
Southern Illinois	File:MissouriValleyConference 100.png Missouri Valley	Tournament Champion
UNC-Wilmington	File:ColonialAthleticAssociation 100.png Colonial	Tournament Champion
Iona	File:MetroAtlanticAthleticConference 100.png Metro Atlantic	Tournament Champion
Gonzaga	File:WestCoastConference 100.png West Coast	Tournament Champion
Oral Roberts	File:Mid-ContinentConference 100.png Mid-Continent	Tournament Champion
Wisconsin-Milwaukee	File:HorizonLeague 100.png Horizon League	Tournament Champion
South Alabama	Sun Belt	Tournament Champion
Monmouth	File:NorthEastConference 100.png Northeast	Tournament Champion
Montana	File:BigSkyConference 100.png Big Sky	Tournament Champion
Bucknell	File:PatriotLeague 100.png Patriot League	Tournament Champion
Memphis	File:ConferenceUSA 100.png Conference USA	Tournament Champion
Albany	File:AmericaEastConference 100.png America East	Tournament Champion
UCLA	Pac 10	Tournament Champion
Xavier	File:Atlantic10 Main Logo.png Atlantic 10	Tournament Champion
Syracuse	File:Big East new.gif Big East	Tournament Champion
Hampton	File:MidEasternAthleticConference 100.png MEAC	Tournament Champion
Kent State	MAC	Tournament Champion
Southern	File:SouthWesternAthleticConference 100.png SWAC	Tournament Champion
Nevada	File:Logo WAC.gif WAC	Tournament Champion
San Diego State	File:MountainWestConference 100.png Mountain West	Tournament Champion
Pacific	File:BigWestConference 100.png Big West	Tournament Champion

External links

• NCAA Men's Basketball

• NCAA Men's Basketball Championship
• 2006 in sports