Today marks the start of Championship Week as the first SIX conference tournaments tip-off with opening round and/or Quarterfinal action!
Our Favorite Games for Today
#5 Olivet Nazarene (IL)
#4 Indiana South Bend (IN)
#5 Indiana Wesleyan
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#4 Spring Arbor (Mich.)
#6 Saint Francis (IN)
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#3 Huntington (IN)
#5 New College of Florida
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#4 Southeastern (Fla.)
#7 Multnomah
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at #2 Oregon Tech
CASCADE
The Cascade Regular Season Champ, College of Idaho, most likely is your newest #1 team in the NAIA tomorrow. The Yotes are the favorites to win the tournament as well. However, Oregon Tech did beat them last year in the title game on the Yotes home floor. Speaking of Oregon Tech. The Owls, alongside of LC State are both sitting comfortable for at-large selections if they can’t lock up the last auto-bid. While College of Idaho will be the favorites, we will see if a team like Multnomah, who shut down athletics after this year, has a magical run left in them. They really closed out the season well and should be a tough out. Southern Oregon sits on the bubble at the moment. They could really benefit from a deep run here!
7pm MST
#8 Bushnell (OR)
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#1 College of Idaho
7PM PST
#7 Multnomah
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at #2 Oregon Tech
#6 Corban
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#3 Lewis-Clark State (Idaho)
#5 Eastern Oregon
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#4 Southern Oregon
CCAC
The CCAC Tournament is WIDE open! As good of regular seasons as St. Francis and IU Northwest had, this is one of the leagues where you won’t be shocked to see some upsets! Calumet and Olivet Nazarene closed the regular season strong and even their losses were good games for most part. IUSB is talented and very capable of winning another CCAC Tournament Title. They are always in the mix in the end it seems. Saint Xavier has shown they can beat anyone in the league and are coming off a win at St. Francis to end regular season. The CCAC may not get talked as much as other leagues, but this still should be a really fun tournament!
6:00 PM CST
#5 Olivet Nazarene (IL)
#4 Indiana South Bend (IN)
7:00 PM CST
#8 St. Ambrose (IA)
#1 St. Francis (IL)
#7 Governors State
at #2 Indiana Northwest
#6 Calumet (IN)
#3 Saint Xavier (IL)
CROSSROADS LEAGUE
Crossroads League Quarterfinals | Highest Seed Hosts
The Crossroads League, once again, was one of the best leagues in the country. They will get 6-teams into the NAIA National Championships. Now the question is can Taylor or MVNU make it a 7th? The game of the opening round is that 4-5 matchup with Spring Arbor and IWU. Two teams who closed out the regular season HOT! The winner has to face off against Grace, who is the favorite. The Lancers have played great basketball down the stretch and have a path to a 1-seed in the NAIA Tourney. Bethel and Huntington are also teams who you won’t be shocked to see win the CL Tourney Title. Overall, when you have this many National Tourney teams, in one bracket, you know there will be some great games throughout, so sit back and watch some great basketball!
7:00 PM EST
#8 Mount Vernon Nazarene (OH)
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#1 Grace (Ind.)
#7 Taylor (IN)
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#2 Bethel (IN)
#6 Saint Francis (IN)
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#3 Huntington (IN)
#5 Indiana Wesleyan
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#4 Spring Arbor (Mich.)
HBCUAC
HBCUAC Opening Round | Played at Stillman College
The HBCUAC gets Championship Week started with two games! This is a league that had a 3-way tie for 1st place, with Stillman winning the tiebreakers and earning the 1st auto-bid! The 2nd auto-bid will go to the Tournament champion and with a 13-team bracket, if someone outside of the Top 3 are going to win it, they are going to have to do it by winning 4 straight games. I do think this league comes down to one of the Top 5-seeds. The top of the HBCUAC has been tough all year and they certainly have all looked like the top teams. However, almost everyone has had an upset along the way as well and at this time of the year, ANYTHING can happen!
2:00 PM CST
#13 Oakwood (AL)
vs #4 Talladega (AL)
6:00 PM CST
#12 Voorhees University %
vs #5 Philander Smith (AR)
SUN
Sun Conference Tournament Quarterfinals
The 6-team SUN Conference Tournament begins tonight with what should be two really fun games! Last year, we saw a 1vs2 matchup in the title game, but in the past few years we have seen the 3-4-5 seeds all do well in this format. Keiser won the regular season title and Ave Maria and Florida Memorial are a lock into the National tourney as well. I won’t be shocked if someone outside of the “Big 3” gets hot and steals a bid here, however, safe money is on those Top 3 teams!
7:00 PM EST
#5 New College of Florida
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#4 Southeastern (Fla.)
#6 St. Thomas
@ #3 Florida Memorial
WHAC
The WHAC opening round tips off tonight with two games. Indiana Tech won the regular season title and auto-bid. They will be a tough out both in the WHAC tournament and the NAIA tournament. Behind them, Cornerstone and Lourdes should be in as well. Although a loss in the quarterfinals and some bid-stealers winning conference tournaments could make for a nervous selection show. Madonna made a late charge before losing a game to a Lawrence Tech team who has some good league wins under their belt. LTU may be the underdog to watch out for here. Although, Madonna also qualifies here as the underdog. Those two just had a great matchup this past Saturday and that should be another great one. This time, with the winner taking over the ARC spot most likely. Rochester Christian was playing good ball early in the season. They certainly can make a run as well!
7:00 PM EST
#10 Michigan-Dearborn %
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#7 Northwestern Ohio
