College basketball conference tournaments 2026: 11 automatic bids to NCAA Tournament to be awarded Saturday
Eleven conference tournaments will be awarded on Saturday
By
Cameron Salerno
Mar 13, 2026
at
8:01 pm ET
•
2 min read
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No automatic bids will be handed out on Friday, but the finish line toward Selection Sunday and figuring out who the 31 conference champions will be is near. There will be several semifinal games played that will set the stage for one of the busiest days on the college basketball calendar on Saturday, when 11 automatic bids to the Big Dance are awarded.
Of course, three high-major conference championship games in the ACC, Big 12 and Big East will take place on Saturday. There will be semifinal matchups in the Big Ten and SEC on the same day as those conference title games, which will set the stage for some of the final automatic bids to be awarded.
In the Big 12, college basketball fans will get two incredible semifinal matchups. Iowa State faces Arizona in the first game of the evening, followed shortly after by a matchup between Houston and Kansas. In the ACC, Duke will look to hold on to the No. 1 overall seed when it faces Clemson. The winner of that game will play either Miami or Virginia for the ACC crown.
Georgetown is coming off upset wins over Villanova and DePaul to advance to the Big East Tournament semifinals for the first time since 2021. The Hoyas will face UConn with a trip to the Big East title game on the line. The winner of that game will face Seton Hall or St. John’s.
On Saturday, conference championship games will also take place in the American East, MEEAC, Mountain West, SWAC, MAC, CUSA, Big West and WAC. There have been 15 automatic bids already handed out throughout the last week.
