Sport College basketball | Number of teams 11 | |
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Conference American Athletic Conference Format Single-elimination tournament Current stadium Rotates (Amway Center, 2016) Current location Rotates (Orlando, Florida, 2016) | ||
The American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Tournament (sometimes known simply as The American Championship) is the conference tournament in basketball for the American Athletic Conference. It is a single-elimination tournament that involves all league schools (currently 11). Its seeding is based on regular season records. The winner receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA men's basketball tournament, however the official conference championship is awarded to the team or teams with the best regular season record.
The creation of the conference tournament was a product of the split of the original Big East Conference. While The American is the legal successor to the old Big East, it gave up the rights to the long-standing conference tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York City to the new Big East. As a result, the 2014 tournament was numbered as the first tournament for the conference.