AAC men's basketball tournament | |
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Conference basketball championship | |
Sport | College basketball |
Conference | American Athletic |
Number of teams | 14 |
Format | Single-elimination |
Current stadium | Dickies Arena |
Current location | Fort Worth, TX |
Played | 2014–present |
Last contest | 2024 AAC tournament |
Current champion | UAB |
Most championships | Cincinnati, Houston, SMU (2) |
TV partner(s) | CBS ESPN / ESPN2 / ESPNU / ESPNews |
Official website | theamerican.org/mbball |
The American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament (sometimes known simply as The American Championship) is the conference tournament in men's basketball for the American Athletic Conference. It is a single-elimination tournament that involves all league schools (14 as of the 2023–24 season[1]). Its seeding is based on regular season records. The winner receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA men's basketball tournament; however, the official conference championship is awarded to the team or teams with the best regular season record.
The creation of the conference tournament was a product of the split of the original Big East Conference. While The American is the legal successor to the old Big East, it gave up the rights to the long-standing conference tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York City to the new Big East. As a result, the 2014 tournament was numbered as the first tournament for the conference.