The Impact of Conference Tournaments on March Madness Seeding

March Madness is almost here once again! Teams look to perform their best in their conference tournaments before the big event to get better seeding. Of the 68 teams competing in the 2025 NCAA tournament, 31 will automatically qualify through conference tournaments.

These tournaments have a massive effect on some team’s performances in March Madness, which is why in this article, we’ll outline the main impact of conference tournament performance on March Madness seeding, including how they get their seeding and how well they perform in the tournament after getting a seeding.

Conference Tournaments Timeline

Plenty of conference tournaments occur before the main Naismith March tourney, most stream on CBS, ESPN or FOX around the March 8 – March 15th window. Some of these include but aren’t limited to, the Big 12, the ACC, the Big Ten, the Ivy League, the Northeast, the Mountain West, the SEC, the Patriot League and nearly 20 more. Top leagues like the Big Ten have many high-quality teams looking to claim their spot in the prestigious March Madness tournament. 

A higher seeding in the tournament means you will most likely face a worse-off team or a team that hasn’t managed to perform as well under similar circumstances as the higher seed. This inherently gives an advantage to the higher-seeded team, so performing well in conference tournaments is a must. So, conferences like the Big Ten, which have teams like Ohio State, Oregon State, Michigan State and UCLA, will play a first round on day one with a second round following the next day. Quarters and semis proceed in the next two days, determining a champion in the finals who will take the highest seeding.

How Does Seeding Affect Team Performance?

Out of the remaining teams that need to qualify, only 37 will be selected by a board of NCAA members-at-large. It is well known that higher seeds tend to perform statistically better compared to their lower-seeded opponents and are much more likely to progress to the next round. For the 1st round of the tournament especially, higher seed teams need to come out victorious. This is why, in most cases throughout March Madness history, we don’t see the lowest 16th seed team overcome a 1st seed, although upsets are bound to happen in this hectic tournament.

When it comes down to it, teams will want to perform as best as they can before the March Madness tournament even tips off for multiple reasons. The first is that placing in a higher seed from finishing well in a conference tournament means you will be playing a team with a worse record and worse statistics on paper.

Teams from smaller conferences will inevitably run into teams from larger conferences later in the tournament, so the game plan for smaller teams is to place high in seeding to do well in the tournament early on without having to face giant big-name universities in the opening round. This allows for high-tension games between closely seeding teams to truly determine which team is better (like a #3 seed vs #5 seed) later on in the tournament, where the weakest teams have most likely been weeded out already, regardless of their seeding. 

Is it Possible to Lose Your Conference Tournament and Win March Madness?

Yes, of course it is. However, since 1998, 14 teams have won their conference tournament and went on to win March Madness. So, while it’s possible to bow out of your conference tournament and go on to win March Madness (46.1% of teams have accomplished this feat), the numbers say you’re more likely to cut down the nets in both your conference tournament AND March Madness.