March Madness Auto Bids and Schedule: LIU Brooklyn, Valpo and SDSU Punch Tickets
On Tuesday night, LIU Brooklyn, Valparaiso, and South Dakota State punched their tickets to the big dance with wins in their conference championship games.
The Blackbirds of LIU beat Mt. St. Mary's 91-70 to win the Northeast Conference.
Valparaiso rallied to triumph over Wright State 62-64 to win the Horizon League and South Dakota State beat their rivals from North Dakota State 73-67 to take home the Summit League crown. (I predicted two out of three, with pretty good guesses on the scores, to boot.)
The NCAA Tournament has 31 automatic bids that are awarded to conference champions. Those champions are decided by 30 conference basketball tournaments (The Ivy League has no tournament, the regular season champ is given the automatic bid). The other 37 bids are at-large and awarded by the selection committee on March 17.
The lead up to Selection Sunday is one of the most exciting weeks of basketball. Check out a list of all the conference tournament championship games, along with what channel they will be available for viewing.
For the tournaments that have crowned a champion, the winner of the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament is listed in bold.
No Tournament
Ivy League Conference, season ends March 12, HARVARD
March 9
Atlantic Sun Conference, Noon, ESPN2 FLORIDA GULF COAST
Ohio Valley Conference, 7 p.m., ESPN2 BELMONT
March 10
Big South Conference, Noon, ESPN2 LIBERTY
Missouri Valley Conference, 2:35 p.m., CBS CREIGHTON
March 11
Colonial Athletic Association, 7 p.m., NBC Sports Network JAMES MADISON
Southern Conference, 7 p.m., ESPN2 DAVIDSON
Sun Belt Conference, 7 p.m., ESPN WESTERN KENTUCKY
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, 9 p.m., ESPN2 IONA
West Coast Conference, 9 p.m., ESPN GONZAGA
March 12
Northeast Conference, 7 p.m., ESPN2 LIU BUTLER
Horizon League, 9 p.m., ESPN VALPARAISO
Summit League, 9 p.m., ESPN2 SOUTH DAKOTA STATE
March 13
Patriot League, 7:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network
March 16
America East Conference, 11:30 a.m., ESPN2
Conference USA, 11:30 a.m., CBS
Southwestern Athletic Conference, 4:30 p.m., ESPN2
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, 5 p.m., ESPNU
Big 12 Conference, 6 p.m., ESPN
Mountain West Conference, 6 p.m., CBS
Mid American Conference, 6:30 p.m., ESPN2
Big East Conference, 8:30 p.m. ESPN
Southland Conference, 8:30 p.m., ESPN2
Big Sky Conference, 9 p.m., ESPNU
Big West Conference, 10:30 p.m., ESPN2
Pac-12 Conference, 11 p.m., ESPN
Western Athletic Conference, 11 p.m., ESPNU
March 17
Atlantic Coast Conference, 1 p.m., ESPN
Atlantic 10 Conference, 1 p.m., CBS
Southeastern Conference, 1 p.m. ABC
Big Ten Conference, 3:30 p.m., CBS
