The MAC Tournament is finally upon us as 11 teams vie for a berth in March Madness. Action begins on Monday night with three first round games, hosted on the campus of the higher-seeded team. The second round games will be played on Wednesday, again, on the campus of the higher-seeded team. The focus will then shift to Cleveland, where the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals will be held Thursday-Saturday.

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The MAC regular season will reach its conclusion on Saturday night as the buzzer sounds signaling the end of the Miami of Ohio-Ohio game. Sixteen conference games will have been completed by each team and then the focus will shift to next week’s MAC Tournament to see who will represent the conference in the field of 68.

With one game to go, the standings look like this: Akron holds the first overall seed, followed by Ohio, Western Michigan and Kent State. The Zips and Bobcats will get a bye to the semifinal round, while the Broncos and Golden Flashes are guaranteed a bye to the quarterfinal round in Cleveland. There is a three-way tie for the fifth seed between Eastern Michigan, Buffalo, and Ball State. Eastern Michigan currently holds the tiebreaker with a 2-1 head-to-head record. Buffalo is 1-1 and Ball State is 1-2 in head-to-head matchups. The team who secures fifth place will get a bye into the second round.

The sixth, seventh, and eighth seeds will host first round games, which will be played on Monday. Bowling Green is currently in eighth place, one game behind those tied for fifth. Central Michigan holds sole possession of ninth place, with Northern Illinois and Miami of Ohio rounding out the bottom.

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For the last time this season, all 12 teams in the MAC will take the floor on the same night. The only thing decided in the MAC thus far is that Akron and Ohio will be the top two seeds. Beyond that, both division titles and playoff seeding will be up for grabs during the final week of the regular season.

The 19-game winning streak for the Akron Zips came to a screeching halt on Saturday with an 81-68 loss at Buffalo. The Zips probably could have snagged an at-large berth for March Madness had they made it to the MAC Championship Game and lost, but now, it would appear that their only ticket to the field of 68 is by winning the automatic bid. The other big upset on Saturday was Eastern Michigan’s 50-49 overtime win against Western Michigan. The loss kept Western Michigan from clinching the MAC West Division as Toledo also lost, 86-72, to Ball State. Ohio beat Bowling Green 78-65, Kent State drilled Miami of Ohio by 20, and Central Michigan snapped a lengthy losing streak with a 69-50 win over Northern Illinois.

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The Akron Zips and Ohio Bobcats certainly didn’t disappoint on the big stage on Wednesday night with a thrilling, back-and-forth game that ended in Akron extending the nation’s longest winning streak to 19 with an 88-81 overtime victory. With just three conference games left on the regular season schedule, the Zips are in a great position to claim the outright MAC East Division title and secure the top seed for the MAC Tournament.

Saturday’s schedule does not include a marquee matchup like Wednesday night’s games, with a focus on seeding for the teams in the middle of the pack. All 12 MAC teams will be in action on Saturday and then have a quicker turnaround than usual, with all 12 teams again taking the court on Tuesday, as opposed to Wednesday. The race is on to secure the fifth seed, because the fifth seed will not have to play the early rounds of the tournament because Toledo is ineligible. The bottom six teams will all have to play to gain a berth in Cleveland.

On Wednesday, as mentioned above, Akron erased an 11-point halftime deficit to defeat Ohio 88-81 in overtime in Athens. Western Michigan put themselves in the driver’s seat with a 65-62 win at Toledo to take a one-game lead in the MAC West Division standings and can lock up the MAC West Division outright championship with a win at Eastern Michigan on Saturday. Kent State erased a nine-point halftime deficit at home to down the Buffalo Bulls 83-81 in overtime. Ball State and Central Michigan must have been playing 3-on-3 because they combined for 185 points in the Cardinals’ 95-90 win. Bowling Green held Miami to just 13 second half points in a 52-44 victory. Eastern Michigan snagged a road win, downing Northern Illinois 53-41.

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