The 2026 Mid-American Conference men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball tournament for the Mid-American Conference (MAC) held March 12âÂÂ14, 2026. The tournament was played at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. The tournament winner, Akron, received the conference's automatic invitation to the 2026 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament.
Top seeded Miami entered the tournament undefeated at 31âÂÂ0 and they were also ranked #20 in the AP poll. They suffered their first loss of the season when eighth seeded UMass upset them in the first round. Second seeded Akron defeated Buffalo, Kent State, and Toledo to win their third straight MAC tournament title to advance to the 2026 NCAA tournament. Tavari Johnson of Akron was named tournament MVP.
As with all MAC tournaments that have done since 2021, only the top eight teams qualified. The winner of the tournament received the MAC's automatic bid to the 2026 NCAA tournament.
The 2026 MAC tournament was held at Rocket Arena for the 27th consecutive season. The venue, located in downtown Cleveland at One Center Court, is the home of the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and has a seating capacity for basketball of 19,432.
The top eight out of the thirteen MAC teams qualified for the tournament. Teams will be seeded by record within the conference, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records.
Source:
<nowiki>MVP</nowiki> denotes Most Valuable Player
Source: