NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament
Current season, competition or edition: 2022 NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament | |
Sport | Basketball |
---|---|
Founded | 1975 |
No. of teams | 64 |
Country | NCAA Division III (USA) |
Most recent champion(s) | Randolph-Macon (2022; 1st title) |
TV partner(s) | CBS Sports Network |
Official website | NCAA.com |
The NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament (officially styled as "Championship" instead of "Tournament") is a tournament to determine the NCAA Division III national champion. It has been held annually from 1975 to 2019 & since 2022, but not played in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 issues.
From 1996 to 2012 and 2014 to 2018, the NCAA Division III men's basketball championship was held at the Salem Civic Center in Salem, Virginia. The event had been hosted by the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and the City of Salem. From 2017 to 2020 & since 2022, the tournament has been a 64-team single-elimination tournament, with teams advancing from four sectionals to the semifinals and final in Fort Wayne.
For 2013, as part of the celebration of the 75th NCAA Division I tournament, the championship games in both the NCAA Division II and Division III tournaments were played at Philips Arena, now known as State Farm Arena, in Atlanta. From 2014 to 2018, the final game returned to Salem. Currently, the Final Four is held in Fort Wayne, Indiana at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. For 2020 only, the national semifinals were to be played in Fort Wayne, but the championship game was to have returned to Atlanta, with the NCAA choosing to hold the championship games of both Divisions II and III as part of the festivities surrounding the men's Division I Final Four; however, the NCAA decided to abandon the tournament after the second round, 16 teams remaining. The NCAA also canceled the 2021 tournament after a majority of D-III conferences chose not to play due to continued COVID-19 issues. Of teams and conferences that played, D3Hoops' top two ranked teams, No. 1 Randolph-Macon College and No. 2 Trine University, opted to play a self-organised mythical national championship game. Randolph-Macon won, 69-55.
Randolph-Macon is the most recent national champion, beating Elmhurst College 75-45 to win the 2022 championship.
Qualification
Since 2021–22, a total of 64 bids were intended to be available for the tournament:
- 44 automatic bids, awarded to the champions of all Division III conferences.
- 20 at-large bids.
Changes from the 2020 tournament, ultimately canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, are:
- The American Collegiate Athletic Association merged into the Capital Athletic Conference to form the Coast to Coast Athletic Conference.
- The Atlantic East Conference, which began play in 2018–19 with seven members that all sponsor men's basketball, will receive its first automatic bid in the 2022 tournament, assuming that it is held.
Conference tournaments
Schools in italics are, as of the current 2022–23 basketball season, no longer members of that specific conference.
Summary
- Source:
- Notes
- ^ Only the championship game was played in Atlanta. The semifinals were played at the then-traditional site of the Salem Civic Center in Salem, Virginia.
- ^ Only the championship game would have been played in Atlanta. The semifinals would have been played at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Locations
- Reading, Pennsylvania 1975–1976
- Rock Island, Illinois 1977–1981
- Grand Rapids, Michigan 1982–1988
- Springfield, Ohio 1989–1992
- Buffalo, New York 1993–1995
- Salem, Virginia 1996-2018 (semifinals only in 2013)
- Atlanta 2013 (championship game only)
- Fort Wayne, Indiana 2019, 2022–
Championships, by team
Schools in italics no longer compete in NCAA Division III.
School | Titles | Years |
---|---|---|
North Park | 5 | 1978, 1979, 1980, 1985, 1987 |
Wisconsin–Stevens Point | 4 | 2004, 2005, 2010, 2015 |
Wisconsin–Whitewater | 1984, 1989, 2012, 2014 | |
Wisconsin–Platteville | 1991, 1995, 1998, 1999 | |
St. Thomas (MN) | 2 | 2011, 2016 |
Amherst | 2007, 2013 | |
Calvin | 1992, 2000 | |
Potsdam State | 1981, 1986 | |
Scranton | 1976, 1983 | |
Washington (MO) | 2008, 2009 | |
Randolph-Macon | 1 | 2022 |
Wisconsin-Oshkosh | 2019 | |
Nebraska Wesleyan | 2018 | |
Babson | 2017 | |
Virginia Wesleyan | 2006 | |
Williams | 2003 | |
Otterbein | 2002 | |
Catholic | 2001 | |
Illinois Wesleyan | 1997 | |
Rowan | 1996 | |
Lebanon Valley | 1994 | |
Ohio Northern | 1993 | |
Rochester | 1990 | |
Ohio Wesleyan | 1988 | |
Wabash | 1982 | |
Wittenberg | 1977 | |
LeMoyne–Owen | 1975 |
Appearances, by team
- Programs with more than 20 appearances in the Division III tournament:
Bids | School | Conference | First Bid | Most Recent |
---|---|---|---|---|
30 | Wittenberg | NCAC | 1975 | 2020 |
29 | Hope | MIAA | 1982 | 2022 |
28 | Scranton | Landmark | 1975 | 2017 |
28 | Wooster | NCAC | 1978 | 2019 |
25 | Franklin & Marshall | Centennial | 1975 | 2018 |
25 | Illinois Wesleyan | CCIW | 1984 | 2018 |
25 | Salem State | MASCAC | 1980 | 2019 |
23 | Christopher Newport | C2C | 1986 | 2019 |
22 | Calvin | MIAA | 1980 | 2022 |
21 | Washington–St. Louis | UAA | 1987 | 2018 |
21 | Wisconsin–Whitewater | WIAC | 1983 | 2017 |
See also
- NCAA Division III women's basketball tournament
- NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
- NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament
- NAIA men's basketball tournament