March Madness Begins Now!

March Madness officially begins today, as three (possibly four) teams will qualify for the "Big Dance" tonight, while bubble teams across the country will decide their fate in the final weekend of the regular season.

• Coastal Carolina (28-4) will host UNC-Asheville (18-13) with the Big South Championship on the line at 4pm on ESPN2.
• Belmont (29-4) and North Florida (15-18) meet in Macon, Georgia for the Atlantic Sun Championship at 6pm on ESPN2.
• Potential first round draft pick Kenneth Faried [pictured right] leads Morehead State (23-9) against Tennessee Tech (20-11) in the Ohio Valley Conference Championship at 8pm on ESPN2.   
• The Ivy League does not play a conference tournament, but the league's two best teams meet tonight. Harvard (22-5) hosts Princeton (23-5) at 7pm on ESPN3. Princeton will win the Ivy with a win, but a loss will most likely lead to an Ivy League Championship tie-breaker game between the same two teams.

Here's a quick preview of what lies ahead in each conference between now and next Sunday when the NCAA Bracket will be announced. 

• The ACC Tournament will be held in Greensboro, NC March 10-13. Look forward to seeing a third meeting between Duke and North Carolina. The two teams are clearly the class of the conference during this down year.
• The America East Tournament is already underway in Hartford with one team having already advanced to the semifinals (Stony Brook). Vermont is the tourney's top seed, but the second seeded Boston is the popular pick to win the bid.
• The Atlantic 10 Tournament will be March 8-13 in Atlantic City. Temple seems to win this tournament every year, and they are the strong favorites yet again. They will probably see a very talented Xavier squad in the finals.
• The Big 12 Tournament will be March 9-12 at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. Texas and Kansas seem to be on a collision course for the finals, but the league's bubble teams could steal the show (and maybe even steal the tourney) with a few upsets. Nebraska, Colorado, Baylor, and Oklahoma St will all be trying to play their way in to the NCAA Tournament next weekend. The dance may not have enough invites for all of them.
• The most famous conference tournament of them all, the Big East Tournament, will be March 8-12 at Madison Square Garden. Pitt, Notre Dame, Syracuse (barring a loss to DePaul), and Louisville have the coveted double byes in the 16 team mega tournament. St. John's is the sleeper as a likely five seed playing on their home court.
• One of the smallest conference tournaments is held in Ogden, Utah. Only six teams make the trip for the Big Sky Tournament. Northern Colorado and Montana are the likely championship game participants. Northern Colorado is the top seed, but Montana already has a win against UCLA under their belt.
• The Big Ten Tournament will take place March 10-13 at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Ohio St. is an obvious favorite, but Wisconsin and Purdue will be strong contenders as well. Those two teams combined to give the Buckeyes their only two losses of the year.
• The Big West Tournament is March 10-12 at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Long Beach State, led by former Gonzaga and Minnesota coach Dan Monson, has dominated the league all year. I don't expect to see anything different in the conference tournament. 
• The CAA Tournament is going on as I type. George Mason is already in the semis, and they will meet the winner of the VCU/Drexel game that is being played now. Mason is the top seed, and one of the hottest teams in the country, but the CAA often produces one of the more surprising and entertaining conference tournaments in the country. The conference's top five teams all have a legitimate shot to win the tournament. 
• The Conference USA Tournament will be March 9-12 on campus at UTEP, and it is expected to be absolute bedlam. After a stretch of squandered opportunities by bubble teams, the C-USA is probably a one bid league, as all of the conference's bubble teams are projecting to be left out of the at-large conversation. UAB, UTEP, Memphis, UCF, and Southern Miss all played their way out of the tournament. Now they all have one last shot to get in. The one thing that is certain is that the NIT will have several representatives from this league.
• The top four seeds have advanced in the Horizon League Tournament. The semifinals will be played later this evening. Butler and Cleveland State will take the floor first in the more anticipated of the two games. The second semifinal between Milwaukee and Valparaiso will be televised on ESPNU at 8:30pm. The championship game will be March 8th.
• The MAAC Tournament is also underway currently in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Fairfield and Rider are the favorites to meet in the finals. Iona will also provide strong competition behind their star player, Mike Glover.
• The MAC Tournament will take place March 8-12 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. Fittingly, the tournament seems to belong to two Ohio teams for the taking. Kent State and Akron seem to be the league's two strongest teams. Ball State, has a player in forward Jarrod Jones that is talented enough to take them on a long run.
• The MEAC Tournament will be March 7-12 in Winston Salem. Bethune-Cookman is the top seed, but Hampton is the tourney favorite as the two seed.
• "Arch Madness", the nickname for the Missouri Valley Tournament is well underway in St. Louis. Semifinal action is being played now. Missouri State and Wichita State expect to meet in the finals, but Creighton is an experienced team that could knock off Missouri St. in the semis.
• The Mountain West Tournament will be March 8-12 at UNLV. Don't be too quick to pencil in BYU and San Diego St. into the Championship game. UNLV, New Mexico, and Colorado State are all very talented teams. Plus, BYU has yet to prove that they can win a game without the inside presence of Brandon Davies. San Diego St. has also struggled against the conference's second tier.
• The NEC Tournament continues tomorrow. Top-seeded Long Island looks to continue its dream season and coast into the NCAA Tournament.
• The Pac-10 Tournament hits Hollywood March 9-12 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The mediocrity of the conference gives the tournament a special caveat. Anyone from top to bottom could win the tournament. Bubble teams will be keeping an eye on the Pac-10 to make sure a talented team like USC or Washington State doesn't come out of nowhere to steal a bid.
• Bucknell and American University seem destined to meet in the Patriot League Tournament final on March 11th. Both teams must get past one more opponent before they can set their sights on each other.
• The SEC Tournament is known for its funky seeding system and unpredictable outcomes. The only certainty is that the Georgia Dome will be rocking March 10-13. Kentucky and Tennessee both have the depth to be considered favorites in this event. Florida is also capable of beating anyone, but the health of their star player, Chandler Parsons, is uncertain.
• With perennial champion Davidson suffering through a down year, the Southern Conference Tournament is as wide open as it has ever been. The College of Charleston is the clear cut favorite. They feature the league's best coach (Bobby Cremins) and the league's best player in senior guard Andrew Goudelock. Still, up to four other teams have a realistic chance to win the SoCon tourney this year, especially last year's champs from Wofford. 
• The Southland Conference Tournament is one of the hardest tournaments to forecast every year. It is rare that the conference's best team emerges victorious, and upsets are so frequent that it's hard to even label them as such. The Southland is always one of the most evenly matched tournaments from top to bottom, and I wouldn't expect this year to be different. McNeese State looks to be the conference's best team, let's see if they make it to The Dance. I doubt they will.
• The SWAC Conference Tournament will be delivering another play-in game participant as usual. The tournament's final will be on March 12.
• The Summit League Tournament is Oakland's to lose. The Golden Grizzlies rolled through the Summit this year, and even beat Tennessee on the road earlier this season. If the Grizzlies take care of business starting today through Tuesday in Sioux Falls, the Grizzlies will be a scary first round opponent for one of the tournaments top 30 teams.Oakland has a legit NBA prospect in center Keith Benson, and one of the best coaches in America (Greg Kampe).
• The Sun Belt Tournament starts today in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The field is wide open as conference power Western Kentucky has gone through a rebuilding year. Former St. John's coach Mike Jarvis has built Florida Atlantic into a winner, and they will be expected to contend for the Belt's automatic bid.
• The WCC and WAC conference tournaments have the exact same storyline. Bubble teams will fall to their knees every night before bed, praying that either St. Mary's or Gonzaga wins the WCC and that Utah State wins the WAC. These are the two most obvious bid stealing situations coming into Championship Week. San Francisco and Santa Clara in the WCC, along with Boise State and Hawaii in the WAC, could leave a few bubble teams crying on Selection Sunday.

Enjoy Championship Week, it is truly one of the best weeks on the college sports calender.