It’s time for you to care about mid-major college basketball conferences for the next week-and-a-half.

The first automatic bid to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament goes out on Saturday night and then there are multiple conference tournament title games on Sunday and Monday. It’s good way to kick off the March basketball betting frenzy on NJ betting apps and PA sports betting apps.

Here’s a very brief primer with some looks into long-shot picks for the early conference tournaments.

Ohio Valley (Title Game: Saturday) 

The OVC’s claim to fame during Championship Week is that it is the first conference to hand out an automatic bid.


The top four teams won anywhere from 12-15 games in the regular season.

Southeast Missouri State is the favorite and No. 1 seed. The top two seeds got automatic byes into the semifinals.

SIU Edwardsville, Tennessee State and Little Rock are the other top-four seeds.

Southeast Missouri State is 10-1 in its last 11 games, while the other three top teams suffered multiple losses in the last six games. This one seems pretty straightforward.

 

Big South (Title Game: Sunday)

High Point is -250 to win the Big South tournament and has the nation’s second-longest winning streak of 11 games.

Chalk will most likely hold, but if you want a longshot, take No. 2 seed UNC Asheville, who was one of two teams to beat High Point in Big South regular-season play.

 

Missouri Valley (Title Game: Sunday) 

Arch Madness is where all the drama lies between Saturday and Monday.

Drake is unquestionably one of the top 68 teams in the country, but as is the case every year with successful mid-majors, if it loses in its conference tournament, it might not get into the field of 68.

But there’s a reason why Drake is only a -110 favorite to win Arch Madness.

The Bulldogs were pushed into overtime in two of their last three games and suffered a defeat on February 16th to No. 2 seed Bradley.

Bradley/Northern Iowa in the MVC semifinals could be one of the best mid-major tournament games, as will Drake against either the No. 2 or No. 3 seed.

I’d look into either Bradley or UNI to win the MVC tournament because if a team beats Drake in the semifinals, that team will be emotionally drained and runs the risk of being blown out the next day in the final.

 

Atlantic Sun (Title Game: Sunday) 

The Atlantic Sun is already down to four teams: Lipscomb, Queens, North Alabama, and Jacksonville.

Small rant: Play your conference tournament in consecutive days, not with three-day gaps in between games.

Anyway, this is likely coming down to Lipscomb and North Alabama. Lipscomb is -200 to win the A-Sun because Queens, its semifinal opponent is the No. 6 seed here. North Alabama split the regular-season series with Lipscomb, so if you want to snag the Lions at +250, that’s the best value here.

 

Summit League (Title Game: Sunday) 

The Summit League tournament has either been won by North Dakota State, South Dakota State, or Oral Roberts in every year since 2012.

Well, that might change in 2025 because Omaha enters the postseason as the No. 1 seed. St. Thomas is the No. 2 seed.

Despite being the top seed, Omaha is fourth on the betting board to win the Summit League tournament at +450.

Look, none of us are diving into the advanced analytics of the Summit League to explain that, but it’s worth noting St. Thomas and No. 3 seed South Dakota State each went 1-1 against Omaha in the regular season.

 

SoCon (Title Game: Monday) 

Chattanooga won the SoCon regular-season title, but six teams had at least 11 conference wins.

Feels wide open, doesn’t it?

Five different teams have won the SoCon tournament in the last five years.

Samford, last year’s winner, is the highest-ranked team in the SoCon on KenPom.

If there’s a long shot here, it’s East Tennessee State at +600. ETSU comes in with a 7-2 record in its last nine games.

 

Sun Belt (Title Game: Monday)

Just look at this monstrosity of a bracket.

It’s beautiful, it’s dumb, it’s a way for the Sun Belt to ensure its best team gets into the NCAA tournament.

South Alabama and James Madison don’t even have to show up until half the conference is eliminated! What a concept!

On a serious note, the top four teams all went 13-5 in conference play. JMU has the worst odds of the quartet at +390, but only has to win twice to get in, plus the Dukes won the damn thing last year in a regular bracket.