The American Athletic Conference begins its postseason basketball tournament at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth this week.
The conference was one of many affected by realignment throughout college sports. It featured a new look entering the season with several AAC teams returning and others joining from Conference USA, including Florida Atlantic — a Final Four team last season — and defending NIT champion North Texas.
South Florida won the conference after being picked to finish ninth by the media in the preseason. It is the program’s first regular-season conference title in its 51-year history, and the Bulls are looking to solidify their first NCAA Tournament berth since 2012.
Meanwhile, Florida Atlantic will claim the No.2 seed, and Charlotte, picked to finish 13th in the preseason, will be the No.3 seed.
North Texas and SMU will represent the DFW area as the No.7 and No.6 seeds, respectively. Both had some good wins this season but have not made a strong enough case for the NCAA Tournament.
UNT lost three of its last five games to finish the regular season 17-13, while SMU (20-11) won 20 games just a year after a 10-22 season.
Here is the complete AAC Tournament schedule:
Wednesday, March 13
Game 1 – No.13 Rice vs. No.12 Wichita State at 12 p.m. CT on ESPN+
Game 2 – No.14 UTSA vs. No.11 Temple at 2 p.m. CT on ESPN+
Thursday, March 14
Game 3 – No.9 Tulsa vs. No.8 East Carolina at 11:30 a.m. CT on ESPNU
Game 4 – Game 1 winner vs. No.5 Memphis at 1:30 p.m. CT on ESPNU
Game 5 – No.10 Tulane vs. No.7 North Texas at 6 p.m. CT on ESPNU
Game 6 – Game 2 winner vs. No.6 SMU at 8 p.m. CT on ESPNU
Friday, March 15
Game 7 – Game 3 winner vs. No.1 South Florida at 12 p.m. CT on ESPN2
Game 8 – Game 4 winner vs. No.4 UAB at 2 p.m. CT on ESPN2
Game 9 – Game 5 winner vs. No.2 Florida Atlantic at 6 p.m. CT on ESPNU
Game 10 – Game 6 winner vs. No.3 Charlotte at 8 p.m. CT on ESPNU
Saturday, March 16
Game 11 – Semifinal 1, Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner at 2 p.m. CT on ESPN2
Game 12 – Semifinal 2, Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner at 4 p.m. CT on ESPN2
Sunday, March 17
Game 13 – Championship, Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner at 2:15 p.m. CT on ESPN
