With the field of 68 for March Madness coming out in two weeks, it is time for the smaller teams and conferences to earn their bid. Of the 68 total teams selected 31 teams come from the winner of each of the conference’s winners. Every conference has a different style of tournament that they run to find their winner. All 352 teams in college basketball look to win their conference in order to play late in March.
This week all the smaller conferences started their tournaments with each team hoping to get their bid to the big dance. These smaller teams’ only chance to get into March Madness is winning these tournaments.
Each of the conferences has a different layout all with very fun unique styles. The ones that stand out the most are the Sun Belt Conference and the WCC with the top two teams having a bye until the semi-finals. The bottom four teams each have to win up to seven games in a row in order to win the tournament. But other conferences like the Patriot League where the bottom 4 teams have a round one play-in to win the tournament. Each team only needs to win three straight games to win the conference. Most teams that win these smaller conferences turn out to be a lower seed like a 14-16 but they are always scary teams to see in March Madness. In these tournaments, although the odds are stacked to the best team all the teams have a pretty equal chance to win and make the tournament
The Power Five Conference typically has many teams going to the Big Dance but winning these tournaments can help improve your seed which can make your winning March Madness way easier. Along with this typically each team in these Power Conferences has immense skill that could always go on a run. Teams that won’t get a bid from the tournament committee can always win these tournaments to move on. Last year we saw NC State win 4 games in the ACC tournament and the ACC and went into March Madness as one of the hottest teams in the country and went on to advance to the Final Four.
