The 68 teams competing in the 2025 NCAA men’s basketball tournament have been finalized, with 31 teams earning automatic bids through their conference championships. The remaining 37 teams will be selected from a pool of top programs and ranked in the final Associated Press poll.
The SIUE Cougars have secured an automatic bid to the tournament after winning the Ohio Valley Conference championship. The Cougars will host the Ohio Valley Conference semifinals at the Ford Center on campus.
Here’s a breakdown of the 31 automatic-bid teams:
* Atlantic Sun Conference: Florida Gulf Coast
* Big East Conference: None (None of its teams earned an automatic bid)
* Big Sky Conference: Montana State
* Big South Conference: High Point
* Big Ten Conference: Northwestern, Penn State
* Colonial Athletic Association: Hofstra
* Conference USA: Marshall, Old Dominion
* Horizon League: Green Bay
* Ivy League: None (None of its teams earned an automatic bid)
* Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference: Quinnipiac
* Mid-American Conference: Akron
* Missouri Valley Conference: Drake
* Northeast Conference: Merrimack
* Pac-12 Conference: None (None of its teams earned an automatic bid)
* Patriot League: Loyola-Maryland, American, Lehigh
* Southeastern Conference: Arkansas State
* Southland Conference: Sam Houston State
* Southern Conference: Wofford
* Southwestern Athletic Conference: Texas Southern
* Summit League: North Dakota State
* Sun Belt Conference: Louisiana Monroe
* The West Coast Athletic Conference: None (None of its teams earned an automatic bid)
The tournament is scheduled to begin on March 12, with the first round taking place across multiple sites.
Source: https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2025-03-08/2025-ncaa-conference-tournaments-schedules-brackets-scores-auto-bids