Most sports fans think that March Madness starts when the NCAA Tournament gets underway, how wrong they are. Starting this week conference tournaments get underway starting with the mid major conference tournaments. I will look at those conferences today. These conferences are the ones where everything is decided in the span of about 4 days of conference tournament play.

The darling tournament of mid major programs is probably the Missouri Valley Tournament in St. Louis. The Missouri Valley Conference has sent many teams into the big dance that have done damage to higher seeds there. The most recent example of this is Loyola of Chicago. Although they are not in this conference anymore, their run to the final four is one of the crowning achievements in Missouri Valley history. Other teams that have done damage from this conference include Drake and Wichita St. Despite losing a number of great programs to bigger conferences, the Missouri Valley remains must watch tournament action for college basketball fans. The SoCon tournament is also a tournament that has provided teams that can do damage in the NCAA tournament. Teams like Furman and UT Chattanooga have had upsets in recent NCAA tourney games. This conference is one that often features athletic teams that have potential defensively to cause match-up problems for bigger programs in March.

So, if you’re a fan of college basketball, the next two weeks of conference tournament games will provide as much drama as the NCAA Tournament. This week features teams that must win their conference tournament to make it to the big dance. Next week will feature a number of Power 6 conference bubble teams that need to win at least one or two conference tournament games to make it into the NCAA Tournament. Must watch college basketball starts now and then continues into the NCAA Tournament later this month. Enjoy the hoops!