Postseason
Format
- 76 teams in four regions, each seeded 1 to 16.
- Opening Round: twelve games decide the last twelve places in the bracket.
- First round, in every region: 1 plays 16, 8 plays 9, 5 plays 12, 4 plays 13, 6 plays 11, 3 plays 14, 7 plays 10, and 2 plays 15.
- One game decides each round, through the second round, the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight. The four region winners meet in the Final Four, and the two semifinal winners play for the national championship.
Who gets in
Selection Sunday is March 14, 2027. The selection committee names the field: every conference tournament champion, plus at-large teams it picks from the rest.
The 2027 tournament is the first with 76 teams, up from 68. A 12-game Opening Round on campus sites, March 17 and 18, replaces the First Four.
The WBIT, the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament, takes 24 of the teams left out, named the same day. The first four teams out of the NCAA tournament are its No. 1 seeds.
Seeding
The field is seeded into four regions. The first and second rounds, March 19 to 22, are played on campus sites hosted by the top 16 seeds.
The regionals are March 26 to 29 at two sites, Philadelphia and Las Vegas, two regions at each. The Final Four is in Columbus, Ohio: the semifinals April 2 and the championship April 4.
In the WBIT, eight seeded teams have a bye through the first round. The early rounds are on campus sites, and the semifinals, March 29, and the final, March 31, are at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita.