Conference Tournament Predictions 2015: March 9

March 9, 2015 - by Aaron Barzilai

Two conferences kick off their tournaments today: the MEAC (Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) and MAC (Mid-American Conference).

Before we dive into the results of predicting those tournaments, though, let’s talk about the three conferences handing out their automatic bids tonight.

March 9th Conference Championship Finals

CAA Tournament

One of the games of the year was Sunday afternoon in the CAA semifinal. William & Mary beat Hofstra (our slight favorite for the Colonial at the start of the tournament) 92-91 in double overtime behind 37 points from Marcus Thornton (no not that Marcus Thornton) and 33 from Omar Prewitt.

At the time of this writing we give William & Mary a 62% chance to earn their first trip in history to the Big Dance. You can watch at 7PM Eastern on NBCSN.

MAAC Tournament

Number 1 seed Iona faces 3 seed Manhattan in the MAAC championship at 9PM Eastern on ESPN2.

The only close game either has played was Iona’s 74-71 victory against 8 seed Siena in the quarterfinals. We give Iona a 72% chance to get back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2013.

Southern Tournament

In the Southern conference, Wofford was a strong favorite at the start of the tournament. Now that the Terriers are facing 10 seed (of 10) Furman in the championship, Wofford has a 90% chance to earn the automatic qualifier bid.

Of course, Furman just beat the 2 and 3 seeds with only a 20% chance to win, so we’ll see if they can continue their run.

MAC Conference Tournament Predictions 2015

Our 2015 MAC conference tournament bracket prediction favors Buffalo, despite them having the 2 seed behind 1 seed Central Michigan. Both teams will receive a bye until the conference semi-finals.

Buffalo is considered a strong favorite by our models, and is projected to win the tournament 42% of the time to Central Michigan’s 23%. Number 4 seed Toledo is not far behind.

If Buffalo does win the tournament, our Buffalo bracketology projection indicates that they would most likely be a 12 seed in the 2015 NCAA tourney. We also currently believe there is a small (19%) chance they’d qualify for an at-large bid if they do lose.

MEAC Conference Tournament Predictions 2015

Our 2015 MEAC conference tournament bracket prediction strongly favors 1 seed North Carolina Central to cut down the nets on Saturday March 14th. According to our models, NC Central has a 61% chance to win, more than three times that of 2 seed Norfolk State.

Our NC Central bracketology projection indicates that they would most likely be a 16 seed in the NCAA tourney if they succeed in winning the conference tournament.