The 2026 American Conference women's basketball tournament was the postseason women's basketball tournament for the American Conference for the 2025–26 season. It was held from March 10-14, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama for the first time in history. UTSA 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, as a result renaming itself the American Conference.

No. 6 seed UTSA defeated regular season champion Rice 54–40 in the championship game, earning them their first conference title in program history and sending them to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2009. They beat No. 3 seed South Florida and No. 2 seed East Carolina on the way to the title, becoming the first team to beat all of the top 3 teams in tournament history.

Seeds Only the top ten conference teams 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 AC Record Tiebreaker1Rice #‡ 17–12East Carolina ‡ 14–43South Florida † 13–54Tulsa † 11–7 1–0 vs. North Texas5North Texas 11–7 0–1 vs. Tulsa6 UTSA 9–9 7 Temple 8–10 2–0 vs. Charlotte8 Charlotte 8–10 0–2 vs. Temple9 Florida Atlantic 7–1110 Tulane 6–12Wichita State 5–13UAB 4–14 2–0 vs. MemphisMemphis 4–14 0–2 vs. UAB# – American regular season champions, and tournament No. 1 seed.‡ – Received a bye to the semifinals in the conference tournament.† – Received a bye to the quarterfinals in the conference tournament.

Schedule GameTimeMatchupScoreTelevision First round – Tuesday, March 10112:00 p.m.No. 8 Charlotte vs. No. 9 Florida Atlantic70–74OT ESPN+22:00 p.m.No. 7 Temple vs No. 10 Tulane86–77OT Second round – Wednesday, March 11 3 12:00 p.m.No. 5 North Texas vs No. 9 Florida Atlantic80–57 ESPN+42:00 p.m.No. 6 UTSA vs. No. 7 Temple59–51 Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 12512:00 p.m.No. 4 Tulsa vs. No. 5 North Texas73–76 ESPN+62:00 pmNo. 3 South Florida vs. No. 6 UTSA51–62 Semifinals – Friday, March 1376:00 p.m. No. 1 Rice vs. No. 5 North Texas 71–67ESPN+88:00 p.m.No. 2 East Carolina vs. No. 6 UTSA 44–54 Championship – Saturday, March 1498:30 p.m. No. 1 Rice vs. No. 6 UTSA 40–54ESPNU *Game times in CT. ()-Rankings denote tournament seeding.

Bracket

Source:

* denotes overtime period

See also 2026 American Conference men's basketball tournament

References