Basketball players from teams on the NCAA tournament bubble aren't the only ones anxiously awaiting their postseason fates this week. Game officials can log on to a secure internet site Friday night and find out if they're among the 96 officials and eight alternates selected to work the event.

It will be the culmination of a season-long evaluation process headed up by John W. Adams, who is in his first year as the NCAA's National Coordinator of Men's Basketball Officiating. Adams has worked with four regional advisors and officiating coordinators from all 31 Division I conferences to find the best men.

The selected officials will hear Sunday evening from site managers for the NCAA's eight first-round venues about which game site they're to report to.

There are four first-round games at each of the eight sites, meaning a dozen officials will work games in each city in the first round. Seven, including a standby, will stay for the two second-round games at each place.

As evaluations continue, nine of the officials will work at each of the four regional sites the following week. Ten, including one standby, will be sent to the Final Four in Detroit.

Selections for the tournament will be brought before members of the men's basketball committee in Indianapolis for final approval this weekend.

Adams says there are four criteria that officials have to meet as part of the process.

"They have to work a minimum of 25 games prior to the start of conference tournaments, they have to attend a regional clinic, they must pass, with an 80% score, an on-line rules questionnaire and mechanics test, and they must allow for the NCAA to do a background check," says Adams.

The 25-game minimum is a new requirement this season, but last year, a number of high-profile officials missed out on tournament assignments because they did not meet all the other administrative requirements.

Among them were Bernard Clinton and Jim Burr, who has worked 16 Final Fours. Burr last year told USA TODAY, "There was a document online that I thought I did, and (NCAA officials) claim they didn't receive it."

Administrative requirements have not led to similar issues with officials this year, Adams says.

Coordinators for each of the 31 Division I conferences submit nominations by Feb..15 for consideration for the tournament. "Each league will have at least one representative from that list working in the tournament," Adams says.

Many of the officials work in several leagues.

"There's competition (among conferences) for the best officials on certain days," Adams says. "They're independent contractors, and many of them do it for a living."

The NCAA likes to have tournament assignments set up so that officiating crews are either familiar with both teams or unfamiliar with both.

"Say you have a Big East team against an SEC team in a regional. We don't want a guy who has worked one league substantially and not the other," says Adams. "We like to find guys who are either common to both or have worked neither team.

"We'll have our fingers crossed and hope we made the right selections. Unforseen things happen in sports. It's all in the rulebook, but they're always under the gun."