The 2011–12 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 7, 2011 with the (2K Sports Classic) and ended with the 2012 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament's championship game on April 2, 2012 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans. The tournament began with four first-round games on March 13–14, 2012 in Dayton, Ohio, US, followed by second and third rounds on Thursday through Sunday, March 15–18, 2012. Regionals games were played on Thursday through Sunday, March 22–25, 2012, with the Final Four played on Saturday and Monday, March 31 and April 2, 2012.

Kentucky claimed its eighth NCAA title, defeating Kansas 67–59 in the final. Consensus national player of the year Anthony Davis of Kentucky was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

The 2011–12 season saw the first wave of membership changes resulting from a major realignment of NCAA Division I conferences. The cycle began in 2010 with the Big Ten and the then-Pac-10 publicly announcing their intentions to expand. The fallout from these conferences' moves later affected a majority of D-I conferences.

Beginning in 2011–12, the following rules change was implemented:

The top 25 from the AP and ESPN/USA Today Coaches Polls.

A number of early-season tournaments marked the beginning of the college basketball season.

*Although these tournaments include more teams, only the number listed play for the championship.

Thirty athletic conferences each end their regular seasons with a single-elimination tournament. The teams in each conference that win their regular season title are given the number one seed in each tournament. The winners of these tournaments receive automatic invitations to the 2012 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. The Ivy League does not have a conference tournament, instead giving their automatic invitation to their regular-season champion. As of 2012, the Great West Conference does not have an automatic bid to the NCAA Men or Women's College Tournament but the men's tourney champion does receive an automatic bid to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament

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