NCAA Basketball: Ranking all 32 conference tournaments for 2019-20
By Connor Hope
8) American Athletic Conference
March 12-15
I am going to be frank about this one, the AAC has excited me less this season than it has in any season since its formation. I understand that Houston is a Top 25 team, but even the Cougars can’t move the AAC higher in these rankings. The two saving graces for the AAC will be the wildcards found throughout the conference. UConn is in its last season in the conference, Memphis still has a lot of talent, and Tulsa is the ultimate monkey wrench. There are plenty of other conferences that will be more exciting to watch, but the AAC will be as unpredictable as any of them.
7) Atlantic Coast Conference
March 10-14
While the ACC Tournament Champion is likely to be Florida State, Louisville, Duke or Virginia, that doesn’t mean these four teams will all survive to play each other. All four teams have shown issues against lower-level teams, and it has made for some embarrassing losses. While there is likely to be one or two upsets over these four teams, the fact that the ACC is one of the more disappointing conferences this season drops it to the seven spot on this list.
6) Atlantic 10 Conference
March 11-15
This ranking relies heavily on history repeating itself, at least to some extent. It is no secret that the A10 has been the most dangerous conference tournament to 1-seeds this decade, with the regular-season champion winning the auto-bid just once since the 2010-11 season. Enter the Dayton Flyers. I am not saying that Dayton will be upset, but their fans certainly shouldn’t feel safe. The conference has six other Top-100 teams, and all of them will be gunning to take out the Final Four contender.
5) Southeastern Conference
March 11-15
The SEC may have more teams on the NCAA Tournament bubble than any other conference in the country. Kentucky, Auburn and LSU are virtual locks for the Big Dance, but the remainder of the conference will need to either pick up a few key wins, or cut down the nets, in order to get a bid. This will make for a very heated first three rounds. The Semifinals and Championship should provide the high quality games that will be found in some of the conference tournaments higher on this list.