2012 NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament

The 2012 [NCAA NCAA Division II|Division II Men's Basketball Championship|NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament] involved 64 schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division II college basketball as a culmination of the 2011–12 basketball season.
The Western Washington Vikings won the tournament to earn the first basketball national championship in school history.

Qualification and tournament format

The champions of 22 of the 23 Division II basketball conferences qualified automatically. An additional 42 teams were selected as at-large participants by the selection committee. The first three rounds of the tournament were organized in regions comprising eight participants in groups of two or three conferences. The eight regional winners met at the Elite Eight for the final three rounds held at The Bank of Kentucky Center, now known as BB&T Arena, on the campus of Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky, after the final rounds were held in Springfield, Massachusetts for the previous six years.

Automatic qualifiers

The following teams automatically qualified for the tournament as the winners of their conference tournament championships: The newly formed Great American Conference began play for the 2011–12 season, composed of former members of the Lone Star Conference and Gulf South Conference. The conference champion, Arkansas Tech, was not eligible for an automatic berth, but did receive an at-large No. 3 seed in the South Central Region.

Team	Conference	Region
Humboldt State	CCAA	West
Bloomfield	CACC	East
Winston-Salem State	CIAA	Atlantic
Barton	Conference Carolinas	Southeast
C.W. Post	ECC	East
Findlay	GLIAC	Midwest
Southern Indiana	GLVC	Midwest
Montana State Billings	GNAC	West
Alabama-Hunstville	Gulf South	South
St. Mary's (Texas)	Heartland	South Central
Midwestern State	Lone Star	South Central
Washburn	MIAA	South Central
Stonehill	Northeast-10	East
Southwest Minnesota State	NSIC	Central
Dixie State	Pacific West	West
Montevallo	Peach Belt	Southeast
East Stroudsburg	PSAC	Atlantic
Colorado Mines	RMAC	Central
Wingate	SAC	Southeast
Benedict	SIAC	South
Florida Southern	Sunshine State	South
West Liberty	WVIAC	Atlantic