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Conference tournaments are under way in college basketball in advance of March Madness.
A total of 31 automatic bids will be awarded for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in 2021 with the Ivy League on pause, the only conference that does not have a tournament. (Normally the field of 68 consists of 32 auto-qualifiers and 36 at-large bids).
A total of 11 bids have been decided, and 20 more will be given out on conference championship weekend. Saturday’s schedule includes 15 conference championship games:
Saturday, March 13
| CONFERENCE | MATCHUP | TIME |
| America East | Hartford 64, UMass-Lowell 50 | 11 a.m. |
| MEAC | Norfolk State 71, Morgan State 63 | 1 p.m. |
| MAAC | Iona 60, Fairfield 51 | 4 p.m. |
| Big 12 | Texas 91, Oklahoma State 86 | 6 p.m. |
| Mountain West | San Diego State 68, Utah State 57 | 6 p.m. |
| SWAC | Texas Southern 80, Prairie View A&M 61 | 6 p.m. |
| Big East | Georgetown 73, Creighton 48 | 6:30 p.m. |
| MAC | Ohio vs. Buffalo | 7:30 p.m. |
| Big Sky | Montana State vs. Eastern Washington | 8 p.m. |
| ACC | Georgia Tech vs. Florida State | 8:30 p.m. |
| C-USA | Western Kentucky vs. North Texas | 9 p.m. |
| Southland | Nicholls vs. Abilene Christian | 9:30 p.m. |
| Pac-12 | Oregon State vs. Colorado | 10 p.m. |
| WAC | Grand Canyon vs. New Mexico State | 10 p.m. |
| Big West | UC-Santa Barbara vs. UC-Irvine | 11:30 p.m. |
Sunday, March 14
| CONFERENCE | MATCHUP | TIMES |
| Patriot | Loyola (Md.) vs. Colgate | 12 p.m. |
| Atlantic 10 | VCU vs. St. Bonaventure | 1 p.m. |
| SEC | Alabama vs. LSU | 1 p.m. |
| AAC | Cincinnati vs. Houston | 3:15 p.m. |
| Big Ten | Ohio State vs. Illinois | 3:30 p.m. |
Here’s a look at the full conference tournament schedule (in alphabetical order). The list below will be updated as teams punch their tickets to March Madness. Sporting News will track all of the automatic bids to March Madness below as the bracket starts to fill out. The rest of the automatic bids will be decided on Selection Sunday, which is March 14.
MORE: March Madness COVID-19 replacement rules, explained
March Madness bracket automatic bids 2021
| CONFERENCE | TOURNAMENT DATES |
| America East | Hartford (15-8) |
| AAC | March 11-14 |
| ACC | March 9-13 |
| Atlantic 10 | March 3-14 |
| Atlantic Sun | Liberty (23-5) |
| Big East | Georgetown (12-12) |
| Big Sky | March 10-13 |
| Big South | Winthrop (23-1) |
| Big Ten | March 10-14 |
| Big 12 | Texas (19-7) |
| Big West | March 9-13 |
| Colonial | Drexel (12-7) |
| Conference USA | March 9-13 |
| Horizon League | Cleveland State (19-7) |
| Ivy League | No tournament |
| MAAC | Iona (12-5) |
| Mid-American | March 11-13 |
| MEAC | Norfolk State (16-7) |
| Missouri Valley | Loyola-Chicago (24-4) |
| Mountain West | San Diego State (22-4) |
| Northeast | Mount St. Mary’s (12-10) |
| Ohio Valley | Morehead State (23-7) |
| Pac-12 | March 10-13 |
| Patriot | March 6-14 |
| SEC | March 10-14 |
| Southern | UNC-Greensboro (21-8) |
| Southland | March 10-13 |
| Summit | Oral Roberts (16-10) |
| Sun Belt | Appalachian State (17-11) |
| SWAC | Texas Southern (16-8) |
| WAC | March 10-13 |
| West Coast | Gonzaga (26-0) |
After Selection Sunday, the First Four games will tip March Madness off in Dayton, Ohio, on March 18. The real first round begins after that, on March 19-20. The second round follows from March 21-22.
Until the final bracket is released, follow SN’s expert predictions in our Field of 68 projections released every week leading into Selection Sunday.
NCAA Tournament bracket predictions
Here are Sporting News’ latest March Madness bracket predictions, according to Bill Bender as of March 10:
No. 1 seeds
- Gonzaga
- Baylor
- Michigan
- Illinois
Last four in
- Drake
- Utah State
- Colorado State
- Syracuse
First four out
- Ole Miss
- Xavier
- St. Louis
- Boise State
Read the rest of our Field of 68 projections here.
