Get To Know a College Basketball Mid-Major: Southland

You know all about the Power 5 conferences in college basketball. You hear about those more than any other, and those groups often dominate the March Madness conversation. There are 26 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 Southland Conference. The Southland Conference was founded back in 1963, and while it used to have members in more states than it does now, at present, all of its 12 schools are located in Texas and Louisiana. Back in 2021, it lost five member schools, with the Western Athletic Conference welcoming four of them and the Atlantic Sun Conference another, but as of 2026 two of those WAC members already returned to Southland, with other new schools besides. While there are 12 schools, the Southland only allows the top eight teams to participate in the conference tournament. The bottom four teams face off in a first round, then the winners of those games take on the third- and fourth-ranked teams in the quarterfinals while the top two wait the winners of that round in the semifinals. It’s a difficult road for any of the Southland teams to not finish in those top two spots in the regular season, and since the conference traditionally sends just its automatic bid winner to March Madness, that regular-season record and seeding is that much more important if any Southland teams want to keep playing beyond the conference tourney. Southland — Men’s College Basketball Leaders: Nothing is locked in through Feb. 25, in terms of which seeds are which in the Southland Conference tournament. Stephen F. Austin is first in the standings at 18-2, but McNeese is right behind it at 17-3. UTRGC is 12-8, tied with New Orleans — while SFA and McNeese haven’t clinched a specific seed yet, the two are clearly the ones getting byes all the way to the semifinals, at least. A&M-Corpus Christi and Nicholls are both 11-9, which means the Vaqueros and Privateers have not secured the third or fourth seeds, and might have to play more of the conference tourney if they slip behind either of this pair. The final two spots in the Southland tournament are also up for grabs: Northwestern State is 8-12, with 7-13 Lamar next, then Incarnate Word (UIW) and East Texas A&M are both 6-14. Southeastern Louisiana (SLU) isn’t that far back despite being in last place, at 5-15. This will all be decided soon enough, however, as there are just two games left on the schedule, and many of these teams are in a situation where they have to win out to even have a chance at the conference tournament or a bye. McNeese is a team on the bubble, top in the conference in both the NCAA Evaluation Tool (59th) and Wins Above Bubble (58, with a score of -0.94). SFA is 88th in NET and 62nd in WAB, though, it would take a serious run to close the season to get to the point where the Selection Committee considered the Lumberjacks for an at-large bid should it not make the tournament. In fact, getting a bye to the semifinals would actually harm SFA’s case there, since fewer games means fewer wins and fewer opportunities to boost a WAB score of -1.49. No, it’s going to be just the one team from Southland in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, and chances are good it will be either McNeese or SFA just because of how the tournament itself works, with the top two seeds thrust one step before the finals. Looking at past results doesn’t shed much light on which it will be: McNeese won the Jan. 5 matchup, 66-64, but SFA took the rematch, 67-60. McNeese also lost to UTRGV, but then took down the Vaqueros 75-68 the next time. SFA has been mostly rolling along, but just lost to New Orleans on Feb. 23, so the Cowboys aren’t the only team that can defeat the Lumberjacks. Sophomore guard Larry Johnson has been the star of the conference, as he has scored 16.9 points per game for McNeese with 5.2 rebounds while shooting just under 60% from 2-point range. Johnson leads the conference in Player Efficiency Rating (PER) at 29.3, the only player in Southland over 25, and he’s done this by being the top player by Offensive Rating and ninth-best in Defensive Rating. Thanks to the play of Johnson, among others, McNeese is second in the conference in points per game during Southland play, and has allowed the fewest points per game while ranking 22nd in Division I in the latter overall, at 66.4. Again, this is a genuine bubble team, and the most dangerous one in the conference. Southland – Women’s College Basketball Leaders: McNeese is basically unchallenged on the women’s side, at least in terms of the conference standings: the Cowgirls are 18-1 in Southland play, with SFA and Lamar 14-5 and UTRGV 14-6, all vying for the second bye to the semifinals. Northwestern State is 12-8, Incarnate Word and 11-8, then East Texas A&M and Nicholls are both 8-11 and the likely last two teams in the conference tournament. Houston Christian is 6-13, A&M-Corpus Christi 4-15, and both New Orleans and SLU are 3-16. The gap between McNeese and the next team in NET is severe: the Cowgirls rank 90th, then next up are SFA (179) and Lamar (182). UTRGV are 197th, with the rest of the bunch in the bottom 120 teams or so. McNeese is also 59th in WAB, with a score of -1.21: given the Cowgirls are limited in how many games they have left to play with the bye to the semis in tow, they won’t be pushing that to actual bubble territory. If they win the Southland championship outright, though, then there won’t be a need for the Selection Committee to get involved anyway. SFA, by the way, is the next-best team by WAB, all the way at 146 with a score of -6.91. McNeese has five of the top 20 players in the conference by PER, and, more accurately, it’s five of the top 16. Freshman forward Dakota Howard has been a revelation, averaging 12.7 points per game with 6.1 rebounds while leading the conference in PER at 32.2; she’s the lone player over 30, and also leads Southland in Plus/Minus and Defensive Rating while sitting fourth in Offensive Rating. The other four players at the top of the PER rankings are senior guard Jen Pierre (3rd, 25.5), senior forward Lexi Alexander (8th, 21.6), sophomore guard Tyreona Sibley (9th, 21.6) and senior guard Arianna Patton (16th, 18.9). SFA also has four top-20 players, but they rank from 14th through 20th. Charlotte O’Keefe of UGRTV is second in Southland in PER, and also second in all of D-I women’s basketball in rebounds per game at 13.9. She’s the top player by Offensive Rating (113.6), is grabbing over a quarter of the Vaqueros’ defensive rebounds by herself and also led Southland in rebounding last season. The 6-foot-3 senior forward is a gamechanger, but she also has to be since UGRTV doesn’t have the depth of the teams in front of it in the standings.