Helena Frye
The NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament is an annual championship tournament for colleges and universities that are members of NCAA Division II. The tournament involves 64 teams, with the bids allocated evenly among eight NCAA-designated regions. The finals of the Division II tournaments consist of eight teams, who meet in the Elite Eight at a predetermined site. The 2025 tournament will be held at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana.
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What You'll Learn
Tournament format
The NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament is an annual championship tournament for colleges and universities that are members of NCAA Division II. These are generally smaller schools in the United States, with one school in Canada. The tournament, originally established in 1957, was initially known as the NCAA College Division Basketball Championship. It became the Division II championship in 1974 when the NCAA split the College Division into the limited-scholarship Division II and the non-scholarship Division III.
The Division II tournament usually involves 64 teams, with 23 automatic bids given to the champions of each Division II all-sports conference, and 41 at-large bids. The bids are distributed evenly across eight NCAA-designated regions: Atlantic, Central, East, Midwest, South, South Central, Southeast, and West. Each regional tournament includes teams that won their respective conference tournaments (automatic qualifiers), with the remaining spots filled by at-large bids, which are awarded regardless of conference affiliation.
The Division II tournaments for men and women differ from Divisions I and III in that the finals consist of eight teams, instead of four. These eight survivors of regional play advance to the Elite Eight round at a predetermined site. The champion is decided in a single-elimination format, similar to other NCAA basketball divisions.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 tournament was cancelled, and the 2021 tournament was reduced to 48 teams as several conferences opted out of participation. The most recent tournament in 2025 was won by Nova Southeastern, claiming their second national title.
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Tournament locations
The NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament is an annual championship tournament for colleges and universities that are members of NCAA Division II. These are generally smaller schools in the United States, with one school in Canada. The tournament was established in 1957 and was originally known as the NCAA College Division Basketball Championship. It became the Division II Championship in 1974 and the Division II men's championship in 1982 when the NCAA began sponsoring a Division II women's championship.
The Division II tournament usually involves 64 teams, with 23 automatic bids awarded to the champion of each Division II all-sports conference, and 41 at-large bids. The bids are allocated across eight NCAA-designated regions: Atlantic, Central, East, Midwest, South, South Central, Southeast, and West. The finals of the Division II tournaments consist of eight teams, known as the Elite Eight, who meet at a predetermined site.
The 2025 championship will be held at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana. Previous championship games have been held at Philips Arena in Atlanta, now known as State Farm Arena.
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Past champions
The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, also known as March Madness or The Big Dance, is a single-elimination tournament that determines the men's college basketball national champion of Division I, the top level of play in the NCAA. The tournament has been held annually since 1939, except for 2020 when it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Oregon won the inaugural tournament in 1939, defeating Ohio State 46-33 in the championship game. Before the 1941 tournament, the event was organised by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and was considered less important than the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), a New York City-based event. Teams were able to compete in both tournaments until 1971 when the NCAA barred universities from playing in other tournaments if they had been invited to the NCAA Tournament.
UCLA has been the most successful college in the tournament's history, winning 11 national titles. Ten of those championships came during a 12-year stretch from 1964 to 1975. UCLA also holds the record for the most consecutive championships, winning seven in a row from 1967 to 1973. Kentucky has the second-most titles with eight, while North Carolina and Connecticut are tied for third with six championships each.
The most recent champions are Connecticut, with consecutive wins against San Diego State in the 2023 final and Purdue in 2024.
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Bids and qualifiers
The NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament is an annual championship tournament for colleges and universities that are members of NCAA Division II. These are generally smaller schools in the United States, plus one school in Canada. The tournament was established in 1957 and became the Division II championship in 1974.
The Division II tournament usually involves 64 teams, with 64 bids available for each tournament. These are divided into 23 automatic bids and 41 at-large bids. The automatic bids are awarded to the champions of each Division II all-sports conference, while the at-large bids are awarded regardless of conference affiliation. The bids are allocated evenly among the eight NCAA-designated regions: Atlantic, Central, East, Midwest, South, South Central, Southeast, and West. Each regional tournament involves an appropriate number of automatic qualifiers (teams that won their respective conference tournaments), with the remaining participants entering via at-large bids.
The Division II tournaments for men and women differ from those in Divisions I and III in that the finals consist of eight teams, instead of four. The eight survivors of regional play meet in the Elite Eight at a predetermined site.
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Eligibility rules
The NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament is an annual championship tournament for colleges and universities that are members of NCAA Division II. Division II consists of schools in the United States and one school in Canada that are generally smaller than the higher-profile institutions in Division I.
The Division II tournament usually involves 64 teams, with 23 automatic bids and 41 at-large bids. The automatic bids are awarded to the champions of each Division II all-sports conference, while the at-large bids are awarded regardless of conference affiliation. The bids are allocated evenly among the eight NCAA-designated regions: Atlantic, Central, East, Midwest, South, South Central, Southeast, and West. Each region contains three Division II conferences that sponsor men's basketball, except for the South Central region, which only has two conferences.
The finals of the Division II tournament consist of eight teams, known as the Elite Eight, who meet at a predetermined site. This is a major difference from the Division I and III tournaments, which only have four teams in the finals.
To be eligible to participate in the tournament, teams and players must meet certain criteria. For example, in 2003, Kentucky Wesleyan forfeited its runner-up status after it was discovered that they had allowed two ineligible transfer players to compete. Therefore, it is important for teams to ensure that their players meet the eligibility requirements set by the NCAA.
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Frequently asked questions
The Division II basketball tournament is held in early April in Evansville, Indiana, at the Ford Center.
Any team that wins their respective conference tournament is automatically qualified to participate in the Division II basketball tournament.
The Division II basketball tournament began in the 1956-57 season.
