The Sun Belt Conference men's basketball tournament has been played every year since the formation of the Sun Belt Conference prior to the 1976–77 American collegiate academic year. The winner of the tournament is guaranteed an automatic berth into the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.
History Format The size and format of the Sun Belt tournament has varied widely since its establishment in 1976. The size of the conference has ranged between a minimum of six teams and as many as thirteen.
Nonetheless, the tournament has consistently utilized a simple single-elimination style tournament. Through the 2018 edition of the tournament, with a few exceptions, all conference members were typically invited to each tournament. Depending on the total number of teams in the league during a particular year, higher-seeded teams have sometimes received byes into the quarterfinal or semifinal rounds. Teams have always been seeded based on regular season conference records, although some modifications were made when the league was split into divisions during the 2000s.
During the 2018 offseason, the conference announced radical changes to its basketball scheduling and tournament format. A year later, many of these changes were reevaluated and placed on hold; the ones listed here remained in place. Effective with the 2019 edition forward, only 10 of the conference's 12 teams qualified for the tournament. The format consisted of two stepladder-style brackets. The bottom four seeds played in the first round; the 5 and 6 seeds received byes into the second round; the 3 and 4 seeds began play in the quarterfinals, and the top two seeds received a triple bye into the semifinals. In 2019, the bottom four seeds played first-round games at campus sites, hosted by the higher seed. The winners then joined the top six teams at Lakefront Arena. Starting in 2020, all games prior to the semifinals will be at campus sites, again hosted by the higher seeds. The semifinals and finals remained in New Orleans, but moved to the Smoothie King Center.
On March 3, 2020, the conference announced that it had reached an agreement for Pensacola, Florida to host the men's and women's tournaments from 2021 to 2025. During that time, the tournament will completely abandon the use of campus sites and return to a format that features all conference members. First- and second-round games will be played simultaneously at Hartsell Arena on the campus of Pensacola State College and the Pensacola Bay Center, with semifinals and finals at the Bay Center.
Hosts With some exceptions, the tournament has historically been played at the home gym of one of the conference's members (e.g. Louisiana's Cajundome, North Texas' UNT Coliseum) or at a major arena in a nearby city (e.g. Mobile Civic Center near South Alabama).
Some of the more common host venues have included the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina (Charlotte), the venue now known as Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama (UAB), Barton Coliseum in Little Rock, Arkansas (Little Rock), and E.A. Diddle Arena in Bowling Green, Kentucky (Western Kentucky).
However, the tournament has been hosted at a neutral arena site each year since 2009 (Hot Springs, Arkansas, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Pensacola, Florida). Lakefront Arena in New Orleans had previously hosted the event in 2002 when UNO was still a Sun Belt member, but the Privateers have since departed the conference. The only other neutral sites to host a Sun Belt tournament were the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia (1985) and the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi (1992–1993).
NCAA performances The Sun Belt has a storied basketball history, sending multiple teams into the NCAA tournament in the 1980s and 1990s (most recently 1994), and then again in 2008 when both regular season champion South Alabama, and tournament winner Western Kentucky received bids, and in 2013 with Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee.
Charlotte, then known athletically as UNC Charlotte, reached the Final Four in 1977, and future Sun Belt member Western Kentucky reached the Final Four in 1971. Overall, past and present Sun Belt schools have posted 21 wins in the NCAA Tournament during the time they were conference members.
Champions by year Year Champion Score Runner-up Tournament MVP Location1977UNC Charlotte71–70Cedric Maxwell, UNC CharlotteCampus Sites – First Round Charlotte Coliseum (Charlotte, NC) – Finals197822–20Nate Mills, New Orleans1979Jacksonville68–54James Ray, Jacksonville1980VCU105–88UABEd Sherod, VCU1981VCU62–61 UABKenny Stancil, VCUJacksonville Memorial Coliseum (Jacksonville, FL)1982UAB94–83VCUOliver Robinson, UABBJCC Coliseum (Birmingham, AL)1983UAB64–47Cliff Pruitt, UAB1984UAB62–60McKinley Singleton, UAB1985VCU87–82Old DominionMike Schlegel, VCUHampton Coliseum (Hampton, VA)1986Jacksonville70–69UABOtis Smith, JacksonvilleBJCC Coliseum (Birmingham, AL)1987UAB72–60Western KentuckyTracy Foster, UABE. A. Diddle Arena (Bowling Green, KY)1988UNC Charlotte81–79VCUByron Dinkins, UNC CharlotteRichmond Coliseum (Richmond, VA)1989South Alabama105–59Jeff Hodge, South AlabamaCharlotte Coliseum (Charlotte, NC)1990South Florida81–74Radenko Dobraš, South FloridaBJCC Coliseum (Birmingham, AL)1991South Alabama86–81Chris Gatling, Old DominionMobile Civic Center (Mobile, AL)1992Southwestern Louisiana75–71Todd Hill, Southwestern LouisianaMississippi Coast Coliseum (Biloxi, MS)1993Western Kentucky72–63New OrleansDarnell Mee, Western Kentucky1994Southwestern Louisiana78–72Western KentuckyMichael Allen, Southwestern LouisianaE. A. Diddle Arena (Bowling Green, KY)1995Western Kentucky82–79Chris Robinson, Western KentuckyBarton Coliseum (Little Rock, AR)1996New Orleans57–56Lewis Sims, New Orleans1997South Alabama44–43Rusty Yoder, South Alabama1998South Alabama62–59Toby Madison, South AlabamaCajundome (Lafayette, LA)1999Arkansas State65–48Chico Fletcher, Arkansas State2000Louisiana–Lafayette51–50Virgil Stanescu, South AlabamaAlltel Arena (North Little Rock, AR)2001Western Kentucky64–54Chris Marcus, Western KentuckyMitchell Center (Mobile, AL)2002Western Kentucky76–70Derek Robinson, Western KentuckyLakefront Arena (New Orleans, LA)2003Western Kentucky64–52Patrick Sparks, Western KentuckyE. A. Diddle Arena (Bowling Green, KY)2004Louisiana–Lafayette Vacated67–58Bo McCalebb, New Orleans2005Louisiana–Lafayette Vacated88–69DenverTiras Wade, Louisiana-LafayetteUNT Coliseum (Denton, TX)2006South Alabama95–70Western KentuckyChey Christie, South AlabamaMurphy Center (Murfreesboro, TN)2007North Texas83–75Calvin Watson, North TexasCampus Sites – First Round Cajundome (Lafayette, LA) – Finals2008Western Kentucky67–57Jeremy Evans, Western KentuckyCampus Sites – First Round Mitchell Center (Mobile, AL) – Finals2009Western Kentucky64–55A. J. Slaughter, Western KentuckySummit Arena (Hot Springs, AR)2010North Texas66–63Eric Tramiel, North Texas2011Arkansas–Little Rock64–63Solomon Bozeman, Arkansas-Little Rock2012Western Kentucky74–70North TexasGeorge Fant, Western Kentucky2013Western Kentucky65–63FIUT. J. Price, Western Kentucky2014Louisiana–Lafayette82–81 Georgia StateBryant Mbamalu, Louisiana-LafayetteLakefront Arena (New Orleans, LA)2015Georgia State38–36Georgia SouthernKevin Ware, Georgia State2016Little Rock70–50Louisiana–MonroeRoger Woods, Little Rock 2017Troy59–53Texas StateWesley Person Jr., Troy 2018Georgia State74–61Texas–ArlingtonD'Marcus Simonds, Georgia State 2019Georgia State73–64Texas–ArlingtonMalik Benlevi, Georgia StateCampus Sites – First Round Lakefront Arena (New Orleans, LA) 2020Cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic 2021Appalachian State80–73Georgia StateMichael Almonacy, Appalachian State Hartsell Arena – Select first-and second-round games Pensacola Bay Center – All remaining games (Pensacola, FL) 2022Georgia State 80–71LouisianaCorey Allen, Georgia StatePensacola Bay Center (Pensacola, FL) 2023Louisiana71–66 South Alabama Jordan Brown, Louisiana 2024James Madison 91–71 Arkansas State Noah Freidel, James Madison 2025Troy94–81 Arkansas State Tayton Conerway, Troy 2026Troy77–61 Georgia Southern Thomas Dowd, Troy
Notes The University of Louisiana at Lafayette was known as Southwestern Louisiana prior to the 1999–2000 season. The school now brands its athletic program solely as Louisiana, with no city identifier. The University of Arkansas at Little Rock changed its athletic branding to Little Rock starting with the 2015–16 school year.
Performance by school School Championships Championship Years Western Kentucky 1993, 1995, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013 South Alabama 1989, 1991, 1997, 1998, 2006 Louisiana 1992, 1994, 2000, 2014, 2023 UAB 1982, 1983, 1984, 1987 Georgia State 2015, 2018, 2019, 2022 VCU 1980, 1981, 1985 Troy 2017, 2025, 2026 Charlotte 1977, 1988 Jacksonville 1979, 1986 New Orleans 1978, 1996 North Texas 2007, 2010 Little Rock 2011, 2016 Appalachian State 2021 Arkansas State 1999 James Madison 2024 South Florida 1990
Teams in bold represent current Sun Belt Conference members.
Teams currently in Sun Belt with no championships: Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Louisiana-Monroe, Marshall, Old Dominion, Southern Miss, Texas State
Broadcasters Television Year Network Play-by-play Analyst 2024 ESPNMike MorganMark Wise 2023ESPN2 2022 2021 Doug Sherman Tim Welsh 2020 Kevin Fitzgerald Dane Bradshaw 2019 Rich Hollenberg Chris Spatola 2018 Mitch HolthusMark Adams 2017Rich Hollenberg 2016 2015 2014 2013 ESPN Mark Jones 2012ESPN2 Adam Amin 2011 Rob Stone 2010 Ron Franklin 2009 Dave Pasch Bob Valvano 2008 2007 Dave Barnett Jimmy Dykes
Radio Year Network Play-by-play Analyst 2017 TAG Sports GroupT. J. Rives Dineaux Hanson 2016College Sports NowMark Wise 2015 2012Westwood OneBrad Sham Bill Frieder 2011Dave Odom 2010
See also Sun Belt Conference women's basketball tournament
References