March 12, 2008

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - (official bracket) The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has officially released the game times and pairings for the 71^st Annual Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship. Coined college basketball's toughest tournament, Municipal Auditorium hosts the March 19-25 event in downtown Kansas City, Mo.

No. 1 seed Georgetown (Ky.) tops the field with a perfect 32-0 record. The Tigers are the only undefeated program this year in Division I and are no strangers to the Championships. GC makes its 27^th appearance and 17^th straight, the most overall trips among this year's field. Georgetown faces Emmanuel (Ga.), who makes its first trip ever to Kansas City, on Wednesday, March 19 at 4:30 p.m. CST.

Defending national champion Oklahoma City is the No. 7 seed. Coming from the Sooner Athletic Conference, the Stars own a Championship record of 42-12 (.778) in 17 previous appearances. OCU boasts the most Championships (5) of any program in this year's field and takes on Cumberland (Tenn.) on Thursday, March 20 at 8 p.m.

Action gets underway from historic Municipal Auditorium with No. 12 Martin Methodist (Tenn.) taking on Wayland Baptist (Texas) at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

The first 28 games of the Championships will be video-streamed live on the Internet, while the Semifinal round (March 24) and National Championship Game (March 25) will air live nationwide on CBS College Sports Network (CSTV), with Jason Knapp calling the action and Steve Wolf providing color analysis.

In all, there are 31 games spanning seven days. The first three days pack in eight games each day starting at 9 a.m. Single session and all-tournament tickets are on sale through the Municipal Auditorium Box Office or Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.com, by calling 816-931-3330 or in person at any Ticketmaster Outlet throughout the Kansas City metropolitan area.

The Championships are a single-elimination tournament featuring 15 automatic qualifiers from eleven Division I affiliated conferences, one independent and 16 at-large berths, which are determined using the final regular-season rating released March 5.

For more information on the Championships, click here.
For complete conference tournament breakdown, click here.
Qualifier release, click here