The Southland Conference this season is one of the more enticing conferences because of one simple fact: their defending champion left.

Abilene Christian won the Southland Conference last season and also won a tournament game against Texas before losing in round two. After their fun run the Wildcats decided to move to a tougher conference, the Big West. 

The last conference champion to still be in the conference is New Orleans, who last won back in 2017.

That leaves the Southland up for grabs, and boy is it ever.

This conference has also one of the more unique looking brackets out of all the tournaments. The number one and two seed are given double byes to the semi-finals, giving them a massive advantage.

That means Nicholls and Southeastern (Louisiana) are already placed in the semi-finals, giving them a massive opportunity to make the NCAA Tournament. Nicholls hasn’t made it since 1998 and Southeastern has only made it once,  all the way back in2005.

Nicholls is the favorite, and for good reason; a 21-10 record led by star man Ty Gordon, averaging 21.6 points per game. Devante Carter and Latrell Jones offer solid second options to Gordon and this is a squad that can get it done.

Southeastern is 18-13, 10-4 in conference play. A team with almost no tournament success, they will be hungry to get this title and punch their auto-bid ticket. Southeastern plays with a more balanced scoring approach, having four players that average double digit scoring.

New Orleans and Texas A&M Corpus Christi also offer legitimate threats to take home the crown. Both squads come into the tournament with good records, and have had very respectable seasons. 

After these four, there is a huge drop off. The 5-8 seeds in the tournament are all at least seven games below .500. One of the top four seeds will win this tournament.

THE PICK: Nicholls State.