The Mid-American Conference women's basketball tournament is the postseason

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for the

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Division I

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...

(MAC). The winner of the tournament receives the MAC's automatic bid to the

NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, sometimes referred to as Women's March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 women's college basketball teams from the Div ...

. As of the next MAC tournament in 2021, the top eight teams in conference play will qualify for the tournament. The tournament final (among other rounds) has been held in

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since 2000, starting with Public Hall before moving to Rocket Arena in 2001 to match the men's basketball tournament, where it has been since.

Format

On May 12, 2020, the MAC announced a series of changes to its competitive format in multiple sports in response to fallout from the

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; these changes took effect in the 2020–21 school year and will remain in place through at least 2023–24. With respect to men's and women's basketball, the MAC abandoned its divisional format for a single league table, increased the conference schedule from 18 to 20 games, and reduced the conference tournament field to 8. All qualifying teams will continue to play at Rocket Arena in

, and the men's and women's tournaments will continue to run concurrently. Through the 2020 edition, canceled in progress due to COVID-19, the tournament involved all 12 conference members. In 2019 and 2020, the top four seeds received byes into the quarterfinals; all other teams started play in the first round at campus sites. The survivors of these games joined the top four seeds in Cleveland for the remainder of the tournament. This structure was used in the MAC men's tournament from

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. From 2012 to 2018, the No. 1 and 2 seeds earned a "double-bye" to the semifinals, with the No. 3 and 4 seeds beginning tournament play in the quarterfinals. Teams seeded 5–12 had to play an additional two rounds, beginning with campus-site games in the first round. All other games were at the venue now known as Rocket Arena, which has served as the regular host for the men's tournament since 2000. When the MAC adopted this format, it abandoned a former practice of awarding the top two seeds to its divisional winners. Teams were (and still are) seeded based on conference record, regardless of their place in their division — though no division champion was seeded lower than fourth. In the previous tournament format, teams were seeded per division by conference record using a series of specified tiebreakers when necessary. The top two seeds in each division received byes into the quarterfinals. Starting in 2021 only the top eight teams qualify and the entire tournament has been played in Cleveland.

Yearly results

From 2006 to 2009, the tournament was seeded per division (West, East) by conference record.

Performance by school

Northern Illinois never has won the MAC Tournament.

References

{{NCAA women's college basketball tournament navbox

Format

Yearly results

Performance by school

See also

References