2025 March Madness: Michigan, Florida among conference tournament winners to punch final tickets to Big Dance

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The hours leading up to Sunday’s NCAA Tournament selection show on CBS were packed with drama and intrigue as the final conference tournament champions were crowned in the build-up to the 68-team bracket reveal.

Memphis and Michigan claimed the final titles of conference championship week in college basketball on Sunday in the hour leading up to the NCAA Tournament selection show on CBS. The top-seeded Tigers took down No. 3 seed UAB 84-72 in the AAC Tournament title game to prevent the Blazers from becoming a bid thief. Michigan rallied from an 11-point deficit to edge Wisconsin 59-53 in the Big Ten Tournament final. While that game will no have implications for who makes the field of 68, it will send the Wolverines into the Big Dance with momentum under first-year coach Dusty May.

Florida took control against Tennessee and won the SEC Tournament. The Gators are one of the hottest teams in college basketball entering the NCAA Tournament and may have done enough to lock up a No. 1 seed.

VCU took fate into its own hands on Sunday by defeating George Mason 68-63 in the Atlantic 10 Tournament title game. The top-seeded Rams would have faced an uncomfortable Sunday afternoon had they lost amid life on the wrong side of the bubble in Jerry Palm’s Bracketology. But coach Ryan Odom’s club is now guaranteed a spot in the Big Dance after improving to 2-0 against George Mason on the season.

Yale is headed back to the NCAA Tournament for the second season in a row and for the fifth time in the past nine seasons under coach James Jones. The top-seeded Bulldogs defeated No. 2 seed Cornell 90-84 in the Ivy League final. A year after upsetting No. 4 seed Auburn in the first round of the Big Dance, the Bulldogs will be a team no one wants to see in the first round.

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