The 2026 America East Men's Basketball Conference tournament was the 2026 postseason men's basketball tournament for the America East Conference. It was held March 7–14, 2026, at campus sites of the higher seeds. The winner, UMBC, received the conference's automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA Tournament. The tournament was sponsored by the United States Air Force Reserve and officially known as the 2026 Air Force Reserve America East Men's Basketball Playoffs.
Seeds Eight of the nine America East teams qualified for the tournament. The teams were seeded by record in conference, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records.
SeedSchoolAEC RecordTiebreaker1UMBC14–22Vermont12–43NJIT10–64UMass Lowell9–75Albany7–96Maine6–107Bryant5–111–1 vs. UMBC8New Hampshire5–110–2 vs. UMBCDNQBinghamton4–12
Schedule GameTime*Matchup#ScoreTelevisionQuarterfinals – Saturday, March 711:00 pmNo. 8 New Hampshire at No. 1 UMBC69–84ESPN+21:00 pmNo. 5 Albany at No. 4 UMass Lowell76–8132:00 pmNo. 7 Bryant at No. 2 Vermont57–7744:00 pmNo. 6 Maine at No. 3 NJIT58–60Semifinals – Tuesday, March 1056:00 pmNo. 4 UMass Lowell at No. 1 UMBC69–91ESPN+67:00 pmNo. 3 NJIT at No. 2 Vermont54–63Championship – Saturday, March 14711:00 amNo. 2 Vermont at No. 1 UMBC59–74ESPN2*Game times in EST. #-Rankings denote tournament seeding.
Bracket
Awards and Honors All-Tournament Team Player Team DJ Armstrong Jr. UMBC Ace Valentine Jose Roberto Tanchyn TJ Hurley Vermont TJ Long
Source:
See also
2026 America East women's basketball tournament
References