The NCAA Men's Division I regions have undergone realignment for the 2006 season based upon changes recommended by the NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Committee. These changes are based upon the shifting landscape of conference alignment, which, in many cases took effect in 2005-06 and will continue beyond this season. Ideally, the Committee would have kept all conference members intact within a single region. However, because of the geographical distances of some conferences, this was not always feasible. For the most part, conferences are assigned intact to a particular region. Out of 23 NCAA Division I conferences, 20 are kept intact within a specified region. Only the Atlantic Coast Conference (included in two separate regions), Big East Conference (two regions) and Conference USA (two regions) were not kept intact. The overriding philosophy the committee utilized was that if a majority of a team's overall number of games are played within the conference, then all conference members would continue to be assigned geographically, meaning they are playing the majority of their games in that region, which could be a combination of conference and non-conference games. The purpose of realignment is for evaluation only. There is not a minimum or maximum number of teams that will be selected from each region for the Division I Men's Soccer Championship. Once the conference automatic qualifiers have been determined, the remainder of the 48-team championship field is selected according to established criteria without regard to conference or regional affiliation.