March Madness is one of the gambling world’s favorite events. It’s one of the best times to be a player at BetMGM.
With college basketball’s postseason more popular than ever, thanks in part to the growth of women’s college basketball odds, many new fans are watching their first NCAA basketball tournaments and wondering how the tournament format actually works.
Here are the basics.
How Many At Large Bids Are In the NCAA Basketball Tournament?
A total of 36 college basketball teams receive at-large bids into the NCAA Tournament every year.
The remaining 32 teams for the 68-team field are automatic qualifiers as conference tournament champions. Many of them come from smaller conferences and receive double-digit seeds.
What Is an At Large Bid in the NCAA Tournament?
If a team doesn’t automatically qualify for March Madness by winning its conference tournament, it can still earn one of 36 at-large bids chosen by the 10-person NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Committee. These at-large bids are given to the best remaining Division I teams that didn’t previously earn an automatic bid.
The committee chooses (and then seeds) these at-large teams using dozens of metrics and records, including NET rankings, strength of schedule, and quadrant records.
The 68-team field for the 2025 NCAA Tournament will be unveiled on Selection Sunday on March 16.
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