Tournament Procedure
For more details on this topic, see NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship#Tournament format.The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is an annual single-elimination tournament featuring 65 teams representing all Division I Conferences in the nation. A "play-in" game determined which of the two lowest seeds would play in the first round of 64 against a top seed team. The Selection Committee seeded the entire field from 1 to 65 within four regionals of 16 teams; Mount St. Mary's, as the winner of the play-in game, automatically received a 16 seed. The first and second round games were played at the following sites, which were not restricted to any one particular Tournament Region, because of the "pod system":
- March 20 and 22
- Honda Center, Anaheim, California (Host: Big West Conference)
- Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado (Hosts: Colorado State University and Mountain West Conference)
- Qwest Center Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska (Hosts: Creighton University and Missouri Valley Conference)
- Verizon Center, Washington, D.C. (Host: Georgetown University)
- March 21 and 23
- BJCC Arena, Birmingham, Alabama (Host: Southeastern Conference)
- Alltel Arena, North Little Rock, Arkansas (Host: University of Arkansas at Little Rock)
- RBC Center, Raleigh, North Carolina (Host: North Carolina State University)
- St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa, Florida (Host: University of South Florida)
The four regionals are officially named after their geographic areas, a practice that resumed in 2007. Between 2004 and 2006, the regionals were named for their host cities. The following arenas/stadia and cities were the sites for the 2008 regionals:
- March 27 and 29
- East Regional, Charlotte Bobcats Arena, Charlotte, North Carolina (Host: University of North Carolina at Charlotte)
- West Regional, US Airways Center, Phoenix, Arizona (Host: Arizona State University)
- March 28 and 30
- Midwest Regional, Ford Field, Detroit, Michigan (Host: University of Detroit Mercy)
- South Regional, Reliant Stadium, Houston, Texas (Hosts: University of Houston and Rice University)
Each regional winner advanced to the Final Four.
- April 5 and 7
- Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas (Host: University of Texas at San Antonio)
Read more about this topic: 2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament