The 2026 American Conference men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball tournament for the American Conference for the 2025–26 season. The tournament was held from March 11–15, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama. The winner, South Florida, received the conference's automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA tournament.

This was the first conference tournament under the American Conference name. In July 2025, the conference dropped the word "Athletic" from its name, renaming itself the American Conference.

Seeds Only the top ten conference teams will qualify to participate in the tournament. Teams will be seeded by conference record. The conference adopted a stepladder format for the tournament, with the top two seeds receiving byes to the semifinals, the third and fourth seeds to the quarterfinals, and so on.

Tiebreakers may be applied as needed to properly seed the teams.

Seed School Conferencerecord Tiebreaker 1 Tiebreaker 21South Florida15–32Wichita State13–51–1 vs. South Florida3Tulsa13–50–2 vs. South Florida4UAB11–75Charlotte9–92–0 vs. Rice6North Texas9–91–1 vs. Rice1–0 vs. Florida Atlantic7Florida Atlantic9–90–1 vs. Rice0–1 vs. North Texas8Memphis8–102–1 vs. Tulane/Temple9Tulane8–102–2 vs. Memphis/Temple10Temple8–101–2 vs. Memphis/Tulane DNQRice7–11 DNQEast Carolina 6–12 DNQ UTSA1–17

Venue Birmingham was announced as the host city in May 2025, with Legacy Arena serving as the venue for the second consecutive year.

Schedule GameTime *MatchupScoreTelevisionFirst Round – Wednesday, March 1116:00 p.m.No. 8 Memphis vs. No. 9 Tulane69–81ESPNEWS28:00 p.m.No. 7 Florida Atlantic vs. No. 10 Temple63–59ESPN+Second Round – Thursday, March 1236:00 p.m.No. 5 Charlotte vs. No. 9 Tulane74–60ESPNU48:00 p.m.No. 6 North Texas vs. No. 7 Florida Atlantic74–70Quarterfinals – Friday March 13512:00 p.m.No. 4 UAB vs. No. 5 Charlotte78–83ESPN262:00 p.m.No. 3 Tulsa vs. No. 6 North Texas90–84 3OTSemifinals – Saturday, March 1472:00 p.m.No. 1 South Florida vs. No. 5 Charlotte86–64ESPN284:00 p.m.No. 2 Wichita State vs. No. 3 Tulsa81–68Final – Sunday, March 1592:15 p.m.No. 1 South Florida vs. No. 2 Wichita State70–55ESPN* Game times in CDT; ()-ranking denotes tournament seeding.

Bracket Source:

Game Summaries First Round

Second Round

Quarterfinal Round

Semifinal Round In the first semifinal, South Florida defeated Charlotte 86-64 to advance to the championship game.

In the second semifinal, Wichita State defeated Tulsa 81-68 to advance to the championship game.

Final Round South Florida defeated Wichita State 70–55 in the championship game on March 15, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, claiming the program's first conference tournament title in 36 years and earning an automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA tournament, and South Florida's first NCAA tournament appearance in 14 years.

Awards and Honors All-Tournament Team Player Team Will Berg Wichita State Wes Enid South Florida Kenyon Giles Wichita State Dezayne Mingo Charlotte Izaiyah Nelson South Florida MVP denotes Most Valuable Player

Source:

See also 2026 American Conference women's basketball tournament

References