A live view at every conference bracket and every league’s auto-bid into March Madness
Welcome to the most wonderful month of the year! There’s nothing quite like March Madness, and over the next few weeks, we’re going to find out what teams will earn their automatic right into the dance as conference tournaments get underway.
We’re going to look at these in chronological order, so we’ll begin with the ASUN.
ASUN CONFERENCE | MARCH 4-10
Regular Season Champion: Eastern Kentucky
Tournament Site: High seed hosts
Betting Favorite: Eastern Kentucky
Dark Horse: Kennesaw State
ASUN Quickie
Eastern Kentucky clinched the 1-seed Friday night, and the ASUN Tournament is one of the only conference tournaments that will re-seed prior to its semifinals, thus that 1-seed is given even more importance. This is an incredibly tightly ranked league by metrics and NET as just 35 spots separate six teams from the 5-seed to the 10-seed. This league has also been among the absolute best shooting conferences in the nation. Six teams shot at least 36% from three in conference play this season, so expect some high scoring, tightly contested games.
PATRIOT LEAGUE | MARCH 5-13
Regular Season Champion: Colgate
Tournament Site: High seed hosts
Betting Favorite: Colgate
Dark Horse: Lehigh
Patriot League Quickie
Colgate dominated the league once again, but it’s the race for the two-seed that holds intrigue heading into this conference tournament. American picked up a massive upset win at Colgate on Sunday and then went to Army and won on Tuesday. With that, they sit at 10-7, tied with Lafayette, but the Leopards have that tiebreaker with a head-to-head win. However, the smoke is far from settled there as Lehigh, Boston, and Bucknell all sit at 9-8 with one game remaining in league play.
Home court advantage is used so much in sports that it could be cliché if it weren’t so true, especially in 2024’s college basketball landscape, but not in the Patriot this year. American, Lehigh, Boston, and Bucknell are all 4-4 in league play at home while Lafayette went 4-5 in their friendly confines. All four teams will get a first round bye as Navy, Army, Holy Cross, and Loyola bring up the rear as the bottom four teams in the league. Army and Holy Cross are listed without seeds as they’re tied in the standings heading into their last regular season games.
SUN BELT | MARCH 5-11
Regular Season Champion: Appalachian State
Tournament Site: Pensacola Bay Center (Pensacola, FL)
Betting Favorite: James Madison
Dark Horse: Arkansas State
Sun Belt Quickie
The Sun Belt was an incredibly top-heavy league in 2023-24. The top five teams (App State, James Madison, Troy, Arkansas State, Louisiana) in the league all rank within the top 140 in KenPom, but the rest of the league all falls below the 200 mark. Needless to say, there isn’t much doubt as to who the favorites are heading into the conference tournament next week. With the seeding set, will we get a third game between James Madison and Appalachian State in the finals?
HORIZON LEAGUE | MARCH 5-12
Regular Season Champion: Oakland
Tournament Sites: Campus (1st Rd & QF); Indiana Farmers Coliseum
Betting Favorite: TBD
Dark Horse: Purdue Fort Wayne
Horizon League Quickie
The Horizon League has been one of the country’s most entertaining conferences this season. Five teams sit within 128 to 185 in KenPom, and it’s made seeding the Horizon League Tournament incredibly fun. Oakland has the 1-seed locked up, but the 2-seed is very much up for grabs. If Green Bay can win on the road against Milwaukee on Saturday, due to tiebreaker rules. If a team doesn’t sweep its two games with the team its tied with, it pits two tied teams’ performances against the top team in the league against each other (and if they had the same result, it continues down the standings), they’ll leap Youngstown State for the 2-seed. However, should Green Bay lose, they will need help to even get a home game at all.
BIG SOUTH | MARCH 6-10
Regular Season Champion: High Point
Tournament Sites: Qubien Center (High Point, NC)
Betting Favorite: High Point
Dark Horse: Longwood
Big South Quickie
High Point had no problem locking up the top overall seed as they’ve been at the top of the standings all season. The Panthers also boast a top 30 offense in the nation per KenPom. UNC Asheville sits currently as the 2-seed, and a win at Radford will lock that up on Saturday. However, with a loss and two Gardner-Webb wins to close the season, Gardner-Webb would take control of that 2-seed because they swept Asheville in their two meetings.
Longwood is listed as a dark horse pick, but that could turn on its head rather quickly should they not take care of their business as they get Gardner-Webb and High Point to round out the season. Longwood currently sits at 5-9 in conference play, but Radford and Presbyterian sit at 5-10 and USC Upstate at 5-11. Due to losing both meetings to Radford this season, should Longwood lose out and Presbyterian win their final game at home against Charleston Southern, Longwood goes from 6-seed to a first round game against USC Upstate. With a lot on the line, GW and High Point are certainly not ideal opponents.
NORTHEAST CONFERENCE | MARCH 6-12
Regular Season Champion: TBD
Tournament Sites: High seed hosts
Betting Favorite: TBD
Dark Horse: Le Moyne
NEC Quickie
Merrimack and Central Connecticut are in quite the race for first place. Merrimack currently holds first place, but they finish the season with two road games (Fairleigh Dickinson and Sacred Heart) against two teams who happen to be vying for third and fourth place. Merrimack badly needs to win these two games because if they drop one or both and it results in a tie with Central Connecticut, it does not favor Merrimack.
Merrimack and Central Connecticut split their two games this season, ruling out the first tiebreaker. The second tiebreaker then goes to “winning percentage of each team vs. the second-place team…This process continues with winning percentage vs. the third-place team, fourth-place team, etc., as necessary, until the tie is broken and seeding is complete.” With either of the teams being in second place, we move onto the latter step here. Again, FDU and Sacred Heart are in third and fourth place right now. Central Connecticut swept all four matchups against those two teams. Should Merrimack and Central Connecticut tie, it will mean Merrimack lost to one of those two teams, thus losing first place.
OHIO VALLEY CONFERENCE | MARCH 6-9
Regular Season Champion: TBD
Tournament Sites: Ford Center (Evansville, IN)
Betting Favorite: TBD
Dark Horse: TBD
OVC Quickie
A whole lot of TBD’s across the board right now as the OVC is completely up in the air right now, and its conference tournament format (the best one for one-bid leagues in my opinion) makes it even more insane.
Morehead State had this conference won comfortably two weeks ago. Then they lost three straight. While they did that, Little Rock has won seven in a row and 10 of 11 overall to work its way into a tie at 12-4. Tennessee Martin has also surged up the standings to tie both Little Rock and Morehead State, winning five straight and 10 of their last 12. All of a sudden, the conference with the wildest tournament layout and just two double-byes has three teams tied atop the standings with Western Illinois just a game back of them with Tennessee State a game back of Western Illinois for that fourth spot and a first round bye.
Due to uneven scheduling, a Little Rock/Morehead State/UT-Martin tie gives the edge to Little Rock as they won their head-to-head matchup against Morehead State and split with UT-Martin. Morehead split their games with UT-Martin. Overall, the edge goes to Little Rock as they have a higher winning percentage over the two teams. Overall, Little Rock holds the OVC in their hands.
On the opposite end of this, the 11 teams in the OVC, just eight will qualify for the conference tournament. Lindenwood and Southeast Missouri State are near locks to miss, but that third and final non-qualifier is up in the air between a pair of 5-11 conference teams in Tennessee Tech and Southern Indiana.
Tennessee Tech and Southern Indiana split their two meetings this year which means should they end with the same conference record, it solely depends on who comes in first place. Neither team beat either Little Rock, Tennessee Martin, or Western Illinois, but Southern Indiana pulled off a huge upset win against Morehead State. The way this tiebreaker works is the same as others above this. It works down the standings and takes the record of the two teams tied against first place and works its way down until there’s a difference. That difference is that win over Morehead State, so Southern Indiana has the upper hand.