The Atlantic 10 announced Thursday it was swapping the dates of its men’s and women’s conference tournaments to afford more time for any COVID-19 interruptions and issues.
The men’s tournament is moving up one week, and the majority of the event will now be held March 3-6 at VCU and Richmond. The championship game is still scheduled for March 14, hosted at the University of Dayton, with the winner able to go directly to Indianapolis for the NCAA tournament.
The women’s tournament is being pushed back a week to March 10-14. The entire tournament is being held in Richmond, Virginia.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the Atlantic 10 to be creative in scheduling and rescheduling throughout the regular season,” commissioner Bernadette V. McGlade said in a statement. “Altering our championship dates provides additional time for our student-athletes, coaches, support staff and institutions to adjust to additional COVID-19 protocols in preparation for the A-10 championships and postseason play.”
The league also announced its seeding policy. Teams that play above 60% of the median number of conference games played by all 14 games will be seeded by conference winning percentage, with the rest being seeded using the NCAA’s Net Evaluation Tool ranking.
VCU currently sits atop the men’s conference standings at 9-2 after beating Richmond on Wednesday night, while Dayton leads the women at 11-0.