In four weeks, the NCAA Tournament bracket will be set, which means that in three weeks, the American Conference will head to Birmingham for its conference tournament. Even a month and a half into conference play, the American looks like it’s up for grabs for any team, and currently five teams are 2.5 games or less out of first place.
The American changed the conference tournament format ahead of the 2025-26 season, and only the top 10 teams will play for the conference title in Birmingham. In addition to limiting the field, the new format gives the No. 3 and No. 4 teams automatic byes to the quarterfinals, while the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds won’t play until the semifinals on Saturday, March 14.
While the Tigers struggled in the last two games against North Texas and Utah State, they are currently only 2.5 games out of first place. Tulsa, Wichita State, Temple and Charlotte all sit with five losses in conference play, while USF leads the conference with a 10-3 record.
UAB and Tulane both have six losses, while North Texas and FAU sit at No. 9 and No. 10 in the standings.
If the conference ended today, Rice, ECU and UTSA would not make the conference tournament, but the Owls are only a game out of the 10th and final spot. Rice is currently 5-8 but lost to ECU, who sits one game behind them on Saturday.
The Roadrunners are last in the conference by a significant margin. They entered their game on Sunday without a conference win but pulled an upset on the road against Charlotte to improve to 1-12 in American play this season.
For Memphis, they’re in an interesting spot right now. Despite losing five conference games with six remaining, they would be the fourth seed if the season ended today, but with a loss on the road Thursday night, the Tigers could drop to No. 7 or No. 8 in the conference standings.
Sunday was a perfect example of how unpredictable this season is in the American. In the four games, all four road teams won, and three of the underdogs won outright. It’ll be interesting to see how Memphis fares over the last few weeks of the regular season, but conference play has shown that anyone can win the conference tournament in Birmingham.