The 2026 season is more than halfway home. Here’s where things sit in the American Conference Women’s Basketball standings with roughly half the league games in the books.
One of the two teams in the American Conference Basketball standings at the midpoint of conference play had at least one first place vote in the preseason poll: Rice. The other, East Carolina, was tabbed to finish seventh. The Pirates, along with Tulsa (which was picked to finish eighth) have surprised this season while projected frontrunners South Florida and UTSA have stumbled.
The Standings
Early Player of the Year pick
It’s a right race this year with no clear frontrunner thus far. Rice has largely won by committee with none of their players in the top 10 in the league in scoring, a testament to their depth and versatility. Temple’s Kaylah Turner leads the league in points per game (17.8), but East Carolina’s Kennedy Fauntleroy might have an equally compelling case when it comes to her importance to her own team.
Panic buttons
UTSA received one first place vote in the preseason poll and has instead hovered around .500 for much of the year. Arguably no team has fallen further from preseason expectations, especially considering this team went 17-1 in league play last year only to fall to Rice in the conference tournament.
February game to watch
Going undefeated is really, really hard to do. Just as UTSA was tripped up once last year, the odds suggest even currently-undefeated Rice will stumble at least once. If the Owls are to run the table, their toughest game ahead will be on the road against East Carolina on February 21. The programs haven’t met so far this year and should the Pirates pull off the upset, they’d have a shot to nab the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, too.
Bracketology
The American Conference Basketball contingent in March is projected to consist of just one team in the the latest Bracketology. Charlie Creme has current frontrunner Rice as a 11-seed in the Fort Worth region, squaring off against NC State in the first round. Whether it’s Rice or someone else, the odds off the American being anything more than a single-bid, double-digit seed seems decidedly unlikely at this juncture.