2010 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#Format history.

A total of 65 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, which are extended 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 and plays a top seed in one of the regionals. The 2010 game was played on March 16 at University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio, as it has been since its inception in 2001. The University of Dayton hosted the game.

All 64 teams are seeded 1 to 16 within their regions; the winner of the play-in game automatically receives a 16 seed. The Selection Committee seeds the entire field from 1 to 65. UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero took over as chair of the Division I Men's Basketball Committee.

Defending champion North Carolina did not qualify for the tournament, while two schools made their first post-season appearance: Southern Conference champion Wofford and SWAC champion Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Conference USA champion Houston made its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 18 years.

New Orleans Oklahoma City San Jose Buffalo Jacksonville Milwaukee Spokane 2010 subregionals—Green 18/20 March—Orange 19/21 March

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

• March 18 / 20

Dunkin' Donuts Center, Providence, Rhode Island (Hosts: Big East Conference and Providence College)

New Orleans Arena, New Orleans, Louisiana (Host: Tulane University)

Ford Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (Host: Big 12 Conference)

HP Pavilion, San Jose, California (Host: San José State University)

• March 19 / 21

HSBC Arena, Buffalo, New York (Hosts: Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Canisius College, and Niagara University)

Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena, Jacksonville, Florida (Host: Jacksonville University)

Bradley Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Host: Marquette University)

Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, Spokane, Washington (Host: Washington State University)

Salt Lake City St. Louis Houston Indianapolis 2010 Regionals (blue) and Final Four (red)

The 2010 regional sites were:

• March 25 / 27

East Regional, Carrier Dome, Syracuse, New York (Host: Syracuse University)

West Regional, EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah (Host: University of Utah)

• March 26 / 28

Midwest Regional, Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, Missouri (Host: Missouri Valley Conference)

South Regional, Reliant Stadium, Houston, Texas (Hosts: University of Houston, Rice University)

Each regional winner advanced to the Final Four, held on April 3 and 5 in Indianapolis, Indiana at Lucas Oil Stadium, hosted by the Horizon League and Butler University, as per the NCAA's mandate that one Final Four is held every five years in the city that houses the NCAA's headquarters. With Butler's win in the West Regional final, this marked the first time since 1972 that the host city had a home team in the Final Four (when UCLA went) and the first time that a host school played in the Final Four since Louisville did so in 1959.