2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament - Tournament Procedure

Tournament Procedure

For more details on this topic, see NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship#Tournament format.

Sixty-five teams were selected for the tournament. Thirty of the teams earned automatic bids by winning their conference tournaments. The automatic bid of the Ivy League, which does not conduct a postseason tournament, went to Cornell, its regular season champion. The remaining 34 teams were granted "at-large" bids by the NCAA Selection Committee.

Two teams play an opening-round game, popularly called the "play-in game". The winner of that game advances to the main draw of the tournament as a 16 seed and plays a top seed in one of the regionals. The 2009 game was played on Tuesday, March 17, at the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio, as it has since its inception in 2001.

All 64 teams were seeded 1 to 16 within their regions; the winner of the play-in game automatically received a 16 seed. The Selection Committee seeded the entire field from 1 to 65. SEC commissioner Mike Slive served his last year as chairman of the committee.

Kansas City Philadelphia Portland Boise Dayton Miami Minneapolis 2009 subregionals — Green 19/21 March — Orange 20/22 March

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

First and Second Rounds

Thursday and Saturday, March 19 and 21, 2009

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

Sprint Center, Kansas City, Missouri (host: Big 12 Conference)

Wachovia Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (host: St. Joseph's University)

Rose Garden, Portland, Oregon (host: University of Oregon)

First and Second Rounds

Friday and Sunday, March 20 and 22, 2009

Taco Bell Arena, Boise, Idaho (host: Boise State University)

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

American Airlines Arena, Miami, Florida (host: Florida International University)

Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, Minneapolis, Minnesota (host: University of Minnesota)

Glendale Memphis Indianapolis Detroit 2009 Regionals (blue) and Final Four (red)

The four regionals are officially named after their areas, a practice which resumed in 2007. Between 2004 and 2006, the regionals were named for their host cities. The following were the sites for the 2009 regionals:

Regionals

Thursday and Saturday, March 26 and 28, 2009

East, TD Banknorth Garden, Boston, Massachusetts (host: Boston College)

West, University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Arizona (host: Arizona State University)

Regionals

Friday and Sunday, March 27 and 29, 2009

South, FedExForum, Memphis, Tennessee (host: University of Memphis)

Midwest, Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, Indiana (hosts: Horizon League & Butler University)

Regional winners advanced to the Final Four, hosted at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan by the University of Detroit Mercy on April 4 (semifinals) and April 6 (National Championship).