The NJCAA divides the 185 DI Men’s Basketball members into sixteen Districts. Each District determines their own own champions through a playoff system they design. Those champions receive automatic bids to the National Tournament held annually in March at the Hutchinson Sports Arena in Hutchinson, KS. Eight At-large teams are included to bring the total tournament field to 24 teams.
The Districts are not to be confused with the 24 regions of the NJCAA, however, the regions do conduct their own post-season tournaments and crown their champions as well. Some of the larger Regions are also their own separate District, while some of the smaller regions are paired with other similar sized regions to comprise a District.
After some temporary adjustments to the District alignment during the covid period (2020-21), the Districts were restored to there original format in 2022-23, as they will be again in the 2023-24 season.
Here are the District breakdowns:
- Appalachian: Region 7 (Tennessee) 10 teams
- Atlantic: Region 10 (North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia & Southern West Virginia) 9 teams (+2)
- Central: Region 24 (Southern Illinois) 9 teams (-1)
- East: Region 15 (Lower New York State) 1 team, Region 19 (Eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, & New Jersey) 1 team, Region 20 (Maryland, Western Pennsylvania, & West Virginia Panhandle) 4 teams
- Gulf: Region 23 – Mississippi & Eastern Louisiana) 19 teams
- Midwest: Region 4 (Northern Illinois) 9 teams, Region 16 (Missouri) 5 teams
- Mid-South: Region 14 (Eastern Texas & West Louisiana) 14 teams
- North Central: Region 11 (Iowa) 3 teams, Region 13 (Eastern Montana, Minnesota, N. Dakota, S. Dakota, Upper Michigan & Upper Wisconsin) 6 teams
- Northwest Plains: Region 9 (Nebraska, Wyoming, Western Montana, Eastern. Colorado) 14 teams (+1)
- Plains: Region 6 (Kansas) 13 teams
- South: Region 22 (Alabama) 8 teams (-8)
- South Atlantic: Region 8 (Florida) 14 teams (-2)
- South Central: Region 2 (Oklahoma) 9 teams
- Southeast: Region 17 (Georgia) 9 teams
- Southwest: Region 5 (West Texas & New Mexico) 17 teams
- West: Region 1 (Arizona) 6 teams, Region 18 (Idaho, Utah, Western Colorado, Western) 7 teams