NCAA Basketball: Predicted Winners of last 17 Conference Tournaments of 2023-24

Week 2 of Championship Week is upon us and there are 17 more conference tournaments that get underway this week and most of them are from potential multiple bid leagues. The first week of championship week has already seen tons of upsets and there are going to be more during the second week. Rest assured there is going to be a bid stolen that will keep a deserving team out of the NCAA tournament. Championship Week is a lot of fun but it is also very stressful for bubble teams knowing that if a non tournament team wins their league, they could take their bid.

Last week I gave you the winners of the 15 tournaments already started and provided you with one sleeper who can win that tournament. The sleeper is a team that comes from outside the top three seeds. The sleepers are going to be trendy picks by a lot of people to win the league. Sleepers in the multibid leagues are teams who usually are not going to make the field without the automatic bid. The 17 auto bids below will make up the rest of the 32 that will receive their way into the tournament. The American Conference is below.

American Athletic

Dates: March 13th-17th
Location: Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, TX
Top Seed: South Florida Bulls
Winner: Memphis Tigers

South Florida enters the tournament with a 16 game winning streak and won the league going away but they are not the most talented team and they are not going to win the league tournament. Memphis had a month-long swoon in late January and early February. The Tigers are back, and they are starting to show why they were thought so highly of in the preseason and why they were able to climb all the way to the top 10 in rankings earlier this season. Memphis already has good wins, and they are starting to assert their will in the conference. David Jones is a legitimate player of the year candidate in the league and head coach Penny Hardaway is getting the Tigers to play very good basketball at just the right time. Memphis is the team who is going to win the league because they have the most talent in the league and are playing like a desperate team who needs to win the league to make the NCAA tournament. Watch out for Memphis in the American.

Sleeper: North Texas Mean Green

This is the first year for North Texas in the American, they were a member of the Conference USA last season, and they made the finals of the NIT. The Mean Green started their tenure in the American with a new roster and a new coach and no expectations. The fact that they are good enough to be considered a sleeper in the American speaks volumes for how head coach Ross Hodge has gotten his North Texas squad ready. The Mean Green have already beaten Memphis and Florida Atlantic this year. They play slow and really grind out defensive possessions. Guard Jason Edwards leads the offense and the defense and if the Mean Green are locked in on the defensive end they are going to be in every game and make life extremely hard for the opponents.