INDIANAPOLIS – The NCAA Division II Championships Committee announced Friday afternoon that West Liberty University has been selected as one of eight pre-determined regional sites for the 2020-21 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Championships. 
     Due to the health and safety protocols surrounding the pandemic, the NCAA felt it was necessary to conduct all championship competition at predetermined sites. The committee believes the sites and hosts chosen will provide an exceptional and safe experience for all participants.
     "We were very pleased with the quantity and quality of the options the committee was able to select from under the circumstances," said Saint Leo (Fla.) University vice president and director of athletics Fran Reidy, chair of the Division II Men's Basketball Committee.
     "While predetermined sites are new for our regional format, each host site has a history of successfully hosting NCAA events and we're confident our basketball student-athletes will have a championship experience at each of the venues."
     The 2020-21 NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional is scheduled for March 13-16 at the ASRC on the campus of West Liberty University. The Atlantic Region champion will advance to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight in Evansville, Ind., on March 24-27.
     As noted, West Liberty is no stranger to hosting men's basketball regionals – this marks the seventh time the NCAA has chosen as a regional host – but this year's event will have a different look and format due to changes necessitated by the pandemic.
     Several conferences and more than 100 schools opted out of championship competition this winter – including such traditional Atlantic Region leagues as the CIAA and PSAC – so the NCAA Division II Tournament field was reduced from 64 teams to 48. Each regional field will consist of six teams with the top two seeds receiving byes.
     The Championships Committee also realigned the regional assignments among participating conferences and teams in order to better balance out the regional pools.
     This year's Atlantic Region field will be selected from a pool including members of the Mountain East Conference (MEC), the Great Midwest Conference (G-MAC) and the three PSAC teams – Mercyhurst, Gannon and Clarion – which are competing independently following the PSAC's decision to opt out of conference competition.
     The MEC and G-MAC Tournament champions will receive automatic bids with the remaining four spots to be filled by at-large selections. Regional committees will release lists of teams under consideration over the next two weeks before releasing a set of regional rankings in early March prior to the conference tournaments.
     Selection Sunday is set for March 7 with the men's basketball selection show to be streamed live on www.ncaa.com at 10:30 p.m.
     Additional information, including attendance policies, will be provided in the coming weeks.
     Region                     Site                                    Host Institution
Atlantic                    West Liberty, W.Va.      West Liberty University
Central                     Aberdeen, S.D.               Northern State University
East                          Albany, N.Y.                    The College of Saint Rose
Midwest                  Evansville, Ind.                University of Southern Indiana
South                       Valdosta, Ga.                   Valdosta State University
South Central         Lubbock, Texas               Lubbock Christian University
Southeast                Harrogate, Tenn.            Lincoln Memorial University
West                        Golden, Colo.                  Colorado School of Mines