NCAA basketball

INDIANAPOLIS, March 10 (UPI) -- U.S. college conference tournaments conclude this week, helping an NCAA committee determine the teams for its 65-team tournament lovingly called March Madness.

Several teams have already claimed berths in the season-ending tournament, including Cornell, a member of the Ivy League which automatically sends its regular-season champion to the NCAAs.

But most conferences put on post-season tournaments with their automatic NCAA bids up for grabs even after a log regular season. The events are very popular and very lucrative for the member schools.

They also represent a final chance for teams to play their way into the tournament. Teams such as top-ranked Kansas, No. 2 Kentucky and No. 3 Syracuse -- all of which were on top of the USA Today/ESPN coaches' men's basketball poll this season -- can be assured of spots.

For some teams, however, getting into the tournament is a long shot and winning that tournament, while far-from simple, is the easiest way to make the field. In addition to 30 conferences sending designated champions, the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee, selects 35 at-large teams to fill out its field.

The committee will unveil its brackets Sunday. The first game will be Tuesday and is basically a play-in with the winner inserted into a No. 16 seeding and next playing a No. 1 seed -- one of the top four teams in the country.

The tournament begins in earnest March 18 and concludes with the Final Four in Indianapolis with the semifinals April 3 and the national championship game April 5.