Reports: MAC to grant semifinal BYEs to top two seeds in basketball postseason tournament
CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein reported the shift on Wednesday afternoon.
UPDATED at 11:33 a.m. to include the Mid-American Conference's confirmation of earlier reporting.
The Mid-American Conference, fresh off announcing changes to the men's basketball slate, is also changing their postseason format.
CBS Sports Network's Jon Rothstein reported Wednesday the MAC is set to grant automatic BYEs to the semifinals for the #1 and #2 seeds, while the #3 and #4 seed will receive automatic BYEs to the quarterfinals. The conference confirmed the reporting on Thursday morning via social media.
The change will affect both the men's and women's brackets, with the quarterfinals now consisting of games between the lower four seeds. In the new set-up, team #5 will face team #8 and team #6 will play team #7 on the first day of action.
The winner of the 5/8 game will go on to play the #4 seed the following day, while the winner of the 6/7 game will face the #3 seed.
"The revised structure places greater value on regular-season performance and the final conference standings," the conference said via press release. "By providing additional advancement opportunities to the highest-seeded teams, the format rewards programs for their complete body of work throughout the regular season."
The changes come after nationally-ranked and undefeated Miami, the #1 seed of the 2026 tournament, was felled by #8 UMass in the first round of action in Cleveland back in March. Miami went on to be selected as an at-large to the NCAA Tournament, but had to sweat it out.
#2 seed Akron later earned a third-straight NCAA Tournament bid after beating #4 Toledo to earn the league's automatic spot.
The 2027 edition of the MAC Basketball Championship Tournament is scheduled for March 10th-13th at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.
