Get To Know a College Basketball Mid-Major: America East

You know all about the Power 6 conferences in college basketball. You hear about those more than any other, and those groups often dominate the March Madness conversation. There are 31 other conferences out there, however, and our goal is to get you up to speed on the teams, players and fights in the standings to know before the conference tournaments, Selection Sunday and the official start of March Madness. It’s time for you to get to know a mid-major: this time, it’s the America East Conference. America East is not a large conference, by multiple definitions. For one, it has just nine teams in it, which puts it on the smaller side — only one more team than the Ivy League has, for instance —  but also the way its conference tournament works is another tell. Rather than being played at a neutral site, the conference tourney games are instead hosted at the campus of the higher seed in each matchup. Most of the schools are packed together in the northeast, split between various New England states and New York, but then there’s UMBC praying every year that it doesn’t end up with a tournament game all the way up in Orono, ME. Also fun: the last two years the men’s and women’s tournaments have been sponsored by sandwich shop Jersey Mike’s, so the official name of last year’s women’s tourney, for instance, was the 2025 Jersey Mike’s America East Women’s Basketball Playoffs. Eight of America East’s nine teams qualify for the conference tournament each season, a change that was implemented in 2018 when UMass Lowell jumped from Division II to Division I and joined America East. It makes for a lonely March, sure, but someone has to come in last. There are no byes in the America East basketball playoffs, but seeding does allow for theoretically easier matchups for the top teams with a one-seed vs. an eight-seed in the quarterfinals, a two against a seven, scheduling of that nature. America East — Men’s College Basketball Leaders: America East’s men are having one of those seasons where you could name just about anyone as possible conference champion and have a shot at being correct. Besides last-place Binghamton, 1-10 in conference and also 362nd in the NCAA Evaluation Tool, or NET, out of 365 teams. Technically the Bearcats aren’t out of it yet, but there are signs. To emphasize just how wide-open things are, consider that last year’s top seed and eventual America East champion, Bryant, is in eighth place in the conference with a 3-6 record. Maine, which lost in the finals after going 10-6 in regular season conference games, is 4-5 this year… which puts it in a three-way tie for fifth with UMass Lowell and University at Albany. University of Maryland, Baltimore County — UMBC — is in first at 7-2, tied with New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJIT. Vermont is next up, at 6-3, with New Hampshire 4-4. There is no further clarity to be found in NET. Vermont is the top-ranked team there, but at 223rd. UMBC is 261st. NJIT is 305th, New Hampshire 321st, Albany 325th, followed by UMass Lowell at 334th and Maine 340th. Bryant — again, last year’s champion of both the regular season and tournament and a participant in March Madness — is 347th. America East men’s basketball this season is the meme of the sad guy and the happy guy riding a bus while both of them think, “What a mess.” Rest assured, this is a pro-mess feature. The Black Bears and Bulldogs aren’t what they were a year ago. Vermont is the top team by NET and KenPom, but not a powerhouse by any means. So what? This is a conference where the automatic bid is the only way in, both historically and in 2026, and everyone within is playing like it. Embrace that — it means anything is possible. Did you know that Maine has never once made it to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in any of its 78 seasons? That 2025 was the first time the Black Bears even made it to the America East final? Cooper Flagg could have made some history at his home state’s flagship school, but hey, now that same history is a possibility for his twin brother Ace Flagg. Or maybe it will be recent Division II team UMass Lowell getting the bid, or Bryant somehow as an eight-seed, or… you get the picture. America East — Women’s College Basketball Leaders: America East’s women are in a much different situation. While it’s still a single-bid conference with the tournament champion the only one getting into the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, the overall quality of the teams is much different. Binghamton is in first at 8-1, with Vermont right behind it at 8-2, then Maine is 7-3. All three of those teams are top-150 ones by NET, with Vermont in the lead at 91st, then Maine at 140th and Binghamton at 147th. Bryant, next up in the standings at 6-4 and in a tie with UMBC, is 150th in NET, as well. UMBC is 205th in NET, coming in a bit after University at Albany, which is faring much better in NET (173rd) than in the standings, where it’s in eighth at 2-8. NJIT is in fifth, at 5-5 and sits right ahead of UMBC at 200th in NET. New Hampshire is 274th and 2-7, while UMass Lowell is in last place and winless in conference play, as well as 349th in NET. Vermont is the best team of the bunch and by a significant amount whether you go by NET or Net Rating, where it comes in at 116th while next-up Maine is 168th. The difference between it and other America East teams is the offense: the Catamounts are 94th in Offensive Rating thanks to an adjusted 97.49 points per 100 possessions. Defensively, though, they leave something to be desired, as the Catamounts have just the third-best Defensive Rating in the conference, behind Bryant and Maine. Vermont’s offense features senior center Nikola Priede, who is leading the team in both points per game (17.3) and rebounds (8.1), as well as senior guards Keira Hanson (14.2 points per game) and Jadyn Weltz (11.7 points, team-leading 4.4 assists). That’s a tough group to come up against, but other teams do have a shot still. For instance, Maine has the conference’s leader in points, rebounds and assists per game — Adrianna Smith. On Feb. 5, Smith and the Black Bears defeated Vermont, 55-46, just a few weeks after losing to the Catamounts 64-53 and shortly after losing to Binghamton 62-57. Like with the men’s tourney, which team will ultimately win and get the automatic bid is unclear, but the band does seem a little narrower here as it’s easier to pick potential favorites. If Smith goes off against Vermont, Maine probably wins. If Priede has a dominant day on the glass, Vermont can take down anyone. If Binghamton’s Kendell Bennett is shooting with the conference-leading efficiency she’s known for, its opponent is probably in trouble regardless of who that is. These top teams all have a player who can put the rest of their teammates on their back and carry them to a W. And that will make for some exciting, unpredictable March basketball, especially given the stakes.