The regular season has come to a close for the Sun Belt Conference but the fun isn’t over just yet. A new looking conference tournament will kick off for the Sun Belt March 4th but seeding the tournament was more precarious than usual this year.
Four teams finished the regular season with a 13-5 record in conference play, something that’s never happened in the Sun Belt. The SBC committee delved deep into the rulebooks and seeded the four top teams based on their records versus each other individually, then as group, then by committee opinion.
The decision was made on the last day of February and as follows…
- South Alabama(13-5)
- James Madison(13-5)
- Troy(13-5)
- Arkansas State(13-5)
- Marshall
- Appalachian State
- Texas State
- Georgia State
- Georgia Southern
- Old Dominion
- Louisiana
- Southern Miss
- Coastal Carolina
- Louisiana Monroe
Sun Belt Conference Seeding & Format
What made the seedings such a critical decision was the switch up of conference tournament format for the 2025 games. This year, the one and two seeds will get a by all the way to the semifinals, the three and four seed get a by to the quarterfinals and so on…. the 11-14 seeds will open up the conference tournament on March 4th.
Opposed to other conferences, the two best teams in the Sun Belt will have to win only two games to capture their ticket to March Madness.
So did the the Sun Bult Conference committee get the seeding right? According to DraftKings sports betting, the favorite to win the tournament is the four seed, Arkansas State at +200.
Number one Southern Alabama is +280, No. 3 Troy is +350 and No. 2 James Madison is +380 so the betting books aren’t aligned with the committee’s choices.
The Arkansas State Red Wolves, the SBC tournament favorite has the best record in the Sun Belt Conference at 22-9 but are -1-4 against the three other 13-5 teams, which explains their seeding.
The Red Wolves also have the only win versus a ranked opponent this season, defeating the No. 18 Memphis Tigers 85-72 back on December 8th, their highest ranked win in school history.
TeamRankings has the Sun Belt Conference ranked No. 17(out of 31) as far as conference power rankings goes so winning versus a nationally ranked opponent is a rare occurrence. The last time Arkansas State had beaten a ranked opponent was 1991.
New Format Prevents Cinderella Runs
The 11-14 seeds of the Sun Belt Conference will have to win seven straight games to win their conference’s championship and make the 2025 March Madness tournament. That makes the ultimate victory nearly impossible for the bottom feeder SBC teams, something that was put into place intentionally.
From the Sun Belt Conference’s point of view, they want to send their best team to March Madness so that they have their best chance of making it far into the NCAA tournament. It also prevents bad exposure on their conference. If a below .500 team from the Sun Belt made March Madness and then got blown out, it would undermine their conference competition and the SBC as a whole.
But bad exposure wasn’t the leading factor of changing the conference tournament format. According to Sun Belt Conference Commissioner Keith Gill the change was to “reward our top seeds for their accomplishments during the regular season, ensuring they receive the advantage they’ve earned for their on-court performance,” said Gill when making the announcement before the season started back in October 2024.
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