IRVING, Texas – The American Conference has announced its men’s basketball conference schedule for the 2026-27 season.
 
Each team in the American will play 18 league games, including six of its 12 conference opponents twice and the other six once - three at home and three on the road.
 
The conference slate begins Dec. 30 with four matchups, including Tulane at UAB, East Carolina at Memphis, Temple at Rice and defending American champion South Florida traveling to Tulsa. Conference action concludes March 7, 2027.
 
The American Men’s Basketball Championship is set for March 10-14 at the Yuengling Center in Tampa, Florida. It will feature the top 10 teams in a five-day bracket format. The Nos. 1 and 2 seeds will advance directly to the semifinals, while the Nos. 3 and 4 seeds will receive byes to the quarterfinals. The Nos. 5 and 6 seeds will receive byes to the second round.
 
The 2026-27 season will be the American’s seventh under its media rights extension with ESPN, which will allow for a minimum of 56 conference-controlled games to be televised on either ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU. A minimum of 23 of those contests will be on either ABC, ESPN or ESPN2.
 
The remaining conference-controlled games will stream on ESPN+ on the recently enhanced ESPN App, the preeminent digital sports destination. ESPN+ is available via ESPN’s two direct-to-consumer plans or certain Pay TV providers. Sign up or authenticate at stream.espn.com.
 
All games that are televised on an ESPN network or service are available on the ESPN App, either through ESPN DTC or authentication via Pay TV credentials.
 
South Florida represented the American in the NCAA tournament a season ago, while Wichita State and Tulsa competed in the NIT. The Golden Hurricane reached the championship game, falling to Auburn in overtime.
 
Tip times and television designations will be announced at a later date.