Selection Sunday: 2009 NCAA Tournament

In 2009, Selection Sunday is on March 15th. The NCAA Tournament field will be announced on CBS,begining at 6 PM.

The 65 teams that make up the NCAA Tournament field are selected by the NCAA Selection Committee, made up of Athletic Directors and Conference Commissioners. Shortly after the field is finalized, the NCAA Tournament bracket is announced on CBS (beginning at 6 PM).. and immediately after that, you can find printable brackets and Tournament predictions here on Collegehoops.net.. as well as inevitable criticism of the teams selected.

According to many college basketball fans, Selection Sunday is the best day of the college basketball season.. even surpassing the National Championship game.

The field consists of the following:

Automatic bids - These bids, 31 in all, go to conference champions. Of these bids, 30 go to conference tournament champions. Most conferences have their tournaments on the week preceding Selection Sunday. The Ivy League is the only conference that does not conduct a postseason tournament; in that conference, the regular-season champion receives the automatic bid.

At-large bids - These are schools that the NCAA selection committee deems worthy of a tournament bid. The NCAA tournament has 34 at-large bids available. The "major" conferences of the Big East, ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 10, and SEC traditionally earn at least 4 bids each in the tournament. The selection committee takes great care, however, to treat teams from "mid-major" and "minor" conferences fairly; however, the selection of a fourth-place (or lower) "major" conference team over a "deserving" second- or third-place "mid-major" conference team always brings out the usual critics charging "bias" on the part of the selection committee.

Check out CHN's Bracketology for projections of who will be selected.

For more information.. see the ole Wiki.

Also related: The CBS Tournament TV Schedule