1. Sun Belt
Look at this beautiful sob:
That's right, for the first time in college basketball history, it's possible that the team will be playing for a week in a row in the postseason. Louisiana and/or Southern Miss managed to win five games in five days. This was achieved with the same feat as NC State, which reached the ACC tournament title last season.
This league throws the fact that they had a four-way tie for first place (South Alabama, James Madison, Arkansas, Troy) at the end of the regular season. I don't know what else I want here.
Now, some may say that setting up your brackets like this will create two days of unnecessary tournament play. They might say that this is a waste of time, money and resources, especially in today's university sports climate.
To those people I would say… shut up. I'm doing something here. Let's have fun.
2. Atlantic Atlantic Athletics
Every year, this always means one of the strangest tournaments in March.
MAAC has lost multiple top three seeds before the semifinals at 3 PF over the past four years. No other Division I meetings can argue that. Since 2018, the top three seeds in the MAAC tournament have been 8-10 sad ones in the quarter. If that wasn't enough, at least one team has been seeded at least fourth and reached the tournament championship game for the seventh year in a row.
Even in all that insanity, Iona has won six of his past eight MAAC tournaments. St. Peter won two others.
3. Missouri Valley
Arch Madness is always, always delivered. There's no reason to believe this year will be different.
Although they don't hand over the bees in the semi-finals, the tournament has created a classic No. 1-2 title game for three of the past four years. The top two seeds have also lost only one quarterfinal in the last 26 MVC tournaments (2020).
If Tani did not consistently offer elite semi-finals and championship games, I would be troubled by a lack of confusion.
Drake vs. Bradley is definitely on the way.
