NCAA basketball conference tournament schedule: Tracking 32 automatic bids

By Adam Zielonka - The Washington Times - Monday, March 9, 2020

UPDATE: The NCAA canceled its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments on Thursday.

The first five tickets to the NCAA Tournament were punched over the weekend, including one Virginia school in the form of the Atlantic Sun champion Liberty Flames.

The time of year just before March Madness has arrived, a time still mad unto itself: For example, one of the best teams in the country this year, San Diego State, failed to clinch its conference’s automatic bid when Utah State upset the Aztecs on Sam Merrill’s game-winning 3-pointer in the Mountain West championship game.

That result means Utah State earned an automatic bid and San Diego State will be left to receive an at-large bid — which, in turn, shrinks the bubble for teams on the fringe. Needless to say, the next week before Selection Sunday is quite important.

Below is the schedule of all 32 Division I conference championship games. As tournaments play out over the course of the week, this post will be updated throughout the week.

Canceled tournaments:

ACC, America East, American, Atlantic 10, Big East, Big Sky, Big Ten, Big West, Big 12, Conference USA, Ivy League, MAC, Pac-12, SEC, Southland, Sun Belt, SWAC, WAC

Automatic bid from regular-season title:

Ivy League champion: Yale (first postseason tournament to be canceled due to coronavirus)

Saturday, March 7

Mountain West champion: Utah State (59-56 win over San Diego State)

Ohio Valley champion: Belmont (76-75 win over Murray State)

Sunday, March 8

Atlantic Sun champion: Liberty (73-57 win over Lipscomb)

Big South champion: Winthrop (76-68 win over Hampton)

Missouri Valley champion: Bradley (80-66 win over Valparaiso)

Monday, March 9

Southern champion: East Tennessee State (72-58 win over Wofford)

Tuesday, March 10