PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The American Athletic Conference has announced the 2015-16 men's basketball conference pairings and the dates for the 2016 championship. The 2016 championship will be played March 10-13, 2016 (Thursday to Sunday) at Amway Center in Orlando, as previously announced.
 
The league's 11 members will play an 18-game schedule. Each team will play eight of its 10 opponents twice, and the other two opponents once each – one at home and one away.
 
The 2016 American Men's Basketball Championship includes all 11 teams and will be seeded 1-11. The tournament begins Thursday, March 10 with matchups between the No. 9 and No. 8 seeds, No. 10 and No. 7 seeds and No. 11 and No. 6 seeds. The winners will advance to meet the first, second and third seeds, respectively, on Friday. Also playing on Friday will be the No. 5 and No. 4 seeds. The top five seeds in the championship will receive byes into Friday's quarterfinal round. The entire American Men’s Basketball Championship will be available across ESPN’s national outlets.

The American closed out the 2015 regular season with five teams selected for postseason play. SMU, which finished with a top-25 national ranking in the Associated Press poll, won the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament after claiming The American’s championship title. Additionally, Cincinnati made its fifth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance while Temple was selected as the No. 1 overall seed in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT). Tulsa and UConn, the American Athletic Conference Championship runner-up, also received postseason NIT bids.