March Madness Bracket Selection Process for 68 DI Men’s Teams

The following details contain the principles and criteria for developing the 2022–23 NCAA Division-I Men’s Basketball Championship bracket.

The procedure is divided into three stages:

1. Choose the 36 top at-large teams
2. Arrange the 68 teams into groups
3. Arrange the groups of teams in the bracket for the championship

Selection, Seeding, and Bracketing Process Principles

The following guidelines guide the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship selection, seeding, and bracketing process:

1. To fill the 36 at-large spots, the committee chooses the 36 best teams that are not automatically automatic qualifiers for their conference. The committee may decide as to many at-large teams from a single panel as they like

2. The committee strives to achieve a fair, competitive balance in each bracket region.

3. No committee member (“Member”) shall participate in any debate involving the choice or seeding of a team that person represents as an athletics director or commissioner.

4. Only straightforward, factual inquiries concerning the teams in the conference the member represents may be answered by the participant.

5. A member may not vote for a team they are the athletics director or commissioner for at any stage.

6. No vote or discussion about a team that has formally proclaimed its intent to transfer to the conference the member represents may be attended by a member who means a conference office.

7. As the committee members re-enter the room, the vice president of men’s basketball for the NCAA will inform them of any pertinent discussions. Suppose a member of their immediate family is a student-athlete on the team, a coach for the men’s basketball team, or a senior administrator for athletics at the school. In that case, they may not participate in any discussions about the selection or seeding of a team.

8. Suppose a participant’s direct family member is a student-athlete on the men’s basketball team, a men’s basketball coaching staff member, or a senior administrator in the institution’s athletics department at any point in the voting process. In that case, they are not eligible to vote for that team.

9. Each ballot will be submitted in secret.

The Division I Men’s Basketball Championship Principles and Processes are among the many elements of the comprehensive annual review completed after each tournament. The Division I Men’s Basketball Committee updated and approved this document in the summer of 2022, and it will be utilized for the 2023 tournament.

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