American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament
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 (14 as of the 2023–24 season). 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.
| AAC men's basketball tournament | |
|---|---|
| Conference basketball championship | |
| Sport | College basketball |
| Conference | American Athletic Conference |
| Number of teams | 14 |
| Format | Single-elimination tournament |
| Current stadium | Dickies Arena |
| Current location | Fort Worth, TX |
| Played | 2014–present |
| Last contest | 2024 AAC tournament |
| Current champion | UAB |
| Most championships | Cincinnati, Houston, SMU (2) |
| TV partner(s) | CBS/ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU/ESPNews |
| Official website | TheAmerican.org Men's Basketball |
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.