2026 NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament
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Gainbridge Fieldhouse,
Indianapolis, Indiana
| Teams | 64 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finals site | Championship game: Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana | ||||
| Champions | Gannon (1st title) | ||||
| Runner-up | Lander (1st title game) | ||||
| Semifinalists |
| ||||
| Winning coach | Easton Bazzoli (1st title) | ||||
| MOP | Pace Prosser (Gannon) | ||||
| |||||
The 2026 NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament was a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division II college basketball in the United States, the culmination of the 2025–26 NCAA Division II men's basketball season.
The tournament featured 64 teams, with teams placed into one of eight geographically oriented, eight-team regionals. The first three rounds were played on campus sites. The quarterfinals and semifinals were held at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh, and the national championship game was held at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on April 5.[1]
Goldey–Beacom, Lake Erie, Western New Mexico, and Young Harris participated in the tournament for the first time.
Automatic bids (23)
A total of 64 bids are available for the tournament: 23 automatic bids (awarded to the champions of the twenty-three Division II conferences) and 41 at-large bids.
The bids are allocated evenly among the eight NCAA-designated regions (Atlantic, Central, East, Midwest, South, South Central, Southeast, and West), each of which contains either two or three of the 23 Division II conferences that sponsor men's basketball. Each region consists of two or three automatic qualifiers (the teams that won their respective conference tournaments) and either five or six at-large bids, awarded regardless of conference affiliation.
| Automatic bids | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region (Bids) | Conference | School | Record (Conf.) | Appearance | Last bid |
| Atlantic (3) | CIAA | Fayetteville State | 23–6 (14–2) | 5th | 2025 |
| Mountain East | West Liberty | 27–4 (18–2) | 18th | 2025 | |
| PSAC | California (PA) | 22–8 (16–4) | 16th | 2024 | |
| Central (3) | Great American | Harding | 24–7 (17–5) | 8th | 2025 |
| MIAA | Washburn | 31–1 (18–1) | 18th | 2025 | |
| Northern Sun | Minnesota–Duluth | 21–11 (14–9) | 9th | 2024 | |
| East (3) | CACC | Felician | 27–3 (19–1) | 3rd | 2022 |
| East Coast | Daemen | 30–1 (16–0) | 6th | 2025 | |
| Northeast–10 | Saint Anselm | 23–7 (14–4) | 26th | 2023 | |
| Midwest (3) | GLIAC | Grand Valley State | 25–6 (15–5) | 12th | 2019 |
| GLVC | William Jewell | 22–9 (15–5) | 2nd | 2024 | |
| Great Midwest | Walsh | 27–3 (17–3) | 5th | 2024 | |
| South (3) | Gulf South | West Florida | 25–8 (15–7) | 2nd | 2018 |
| SIAC | Morehouse | 22–9 (19–5) | 8th | 2018 | |
| Sunshine State | Nova Southeastern | 27–1 (19–1) | 7th | 2025 | |
| South Central (2) | Lone Star | Dallas Baptist | 27–6 (18–2) | 10th | 2025 |
| RMAC | Black Hills State | 27–4 (17–3) | 3rd | 2023 | |
| Southeast (3) | Carolinas | Young Harris | 22–8 (16–4) | 1st | Never |
| Peach Belt | Lander | 25–5 (17–3) | 8th | 2024 | |
| South Atlantic | Anderson (SC) | 29–2 (20–2) | 5th | 2014 | |
| West (3) | CCAA | Cal State East Bay | 30–0 (22–0) | 6th | 1988 |
| Great Northwest | Saint Martin's | 25–5 (15–3) | 4th | 2023 | |
| PacWest | Point Loma | 25–5 (18–4) | 8th | 2025 | |