The Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament, otherwise known as the Pac-12 tournament, is the annual concluding tournament for the NCAA college basketball in the Pac-12, taking place in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena. The first tournament was held in 1987 for the Pac-10 conference. It ended after four seasons. The conference did not have a conference tournament until it was started again in 2002.
For a time, the future of the Pac-12 Conference itself as with the tournament after the 2024 tournament was uncertain, since the conference only had two remaining members at the start of the 2024–25 academic year. Both the remaining Pac-12 schools joined the West Coast Conference as non-football affiliated members for all sports with the exception of baseball for at least the 2024–25 academic year and beyond. However, in a span of less than three weeks in September 2024, the Pac-12 added six new members effective in 2026–27—Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Gonzaga, San Diego State, and Utah State. Texas State was later added, also effective in 2026–27. With nine confirmed members, the conference tournament is planned to resume in Las Vegas in 2027.patton, Andy - Pac-12’s Las Vegas tournament plan could be big news for Gonzaga. Sports Illustrated, February 10, 2026
History The predecessor conference of the Pac-12, the Pacific Coast Conference, began playing basketball in the 1915–16 season. The PCC was split into North and South Divisions for basketball beginning with the 1922–23 season. The winners of the two divisions would play a best of three series of games to determine the PCC basketball champion. If two division teams tied, they would have a one-game playoff to produce the division representative. Starting with the first edition of the event now known as the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in 1939, the winner of the PCC divisional playoff was given the automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. Oregon, the 1939 PCC champion, won the championship game in the 1939 NCAA basketball tournament.
The last divisional playoff was in the 1954–55 season. After that, there was no divisional play and all teams played each other in a round robin competition. From the 1955–56 season through the 1985–86 season, the regular season conference champion was awarded the NCAA tournament berth from the PCC, later AAWU, Pac-8 and Pac-10.
Beginning with the 1975 NCAA tournament, the league (known as the Pac-8 until becoming the Pac-10 with the 1978 arrival of Arizona and Arizona State) would usually place at least one other at-large team in the tournament. Following the end of UCLA's dominance in the 1970s, the Pac-10 would struggle to get out of the early rounds of the NCAA tournament.
By the 1985–86 season, the Pac-10 was one of three remaining conferences that gave their automatic NCAA tournament bid to the regular season round-robin champion. The other two conferences were the Ivy League and the Big Ten Conference.
1987–1990
The modern tournament format began in 1987 as the Pacific-10 Men's basketball Tournament.Bonk, Thomas - Pacific 10 Basketball Tournament : UCLA Seems to Have It All Going for First Time. Los Angeles Times, March 6, 1987 The first incarnation of the tournament ran from 1987 to 1990, hosted at different school sites. UCLA was awarded the inaugural tournament, which was won by the Bruins. The Arizona Wildcats hosted the 1988 tournament and won. The Wildcats also won the 1989 and 1990 tournaments. Citing academic concerns, it was dropped after 1990 upon opposition from coaches, poor revenue, and poor attendance.Matt Duffy – Vote Today On Pac-10 Tournament . Daily Californian. Monday, October 23, 2000 The Pac-10 went back to having the regular season champion get awarded the automatic NCAA tournament bid for the 1990–2001 seasons. The Pac-10 also was viewed as weaker than East coast conferences that placed many teams in the NCAA tournament.Peters, Nick - Pac-10 Tournament: Why Bother? Los Angeles Times, March 11, 1990 The tournament was seen as more damaging to the conference than helpful. The NCAA selection show occurred during or immediately following the Sunday final.McGrath, John - Pac-10 Needs Tourney To Restore Hope. Spokesman Review, original in the Tacoma News Tribune. March 1, 1995 This meant the selection committee had to make a decision to have a placeholder for a potential team that depended upon the final result.
2002 to 2024 In 1998, the Big Ten began to hold a conference tournament, leaving the Pac-10 and Ivy League the lone conferences without postseason tournaments. (The Ivy League would not begin holding its tournament until 2017.) The Pac-10 tournament was restarted by an 8–2 vote of the athletic directors of the conference in 2000 after determining that a tournament would help increase exposure of the conference and help the seeding of the schools in the NCAA tournament.Pac-10 News: PAC-10 APPROVES POST-SEASON BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTS YEAR-AROUND TRAINING TABLE ALSO APPROVED . Monday, October 23, 2000 Stanford University and the University of Arizona opposed the tournament, while UCLA's and USC's votes, considered the deciding votes, were swayed by permanently hosting the tournament at Staples Center.Keith Carmona – Pac-10 votes to revive basketball tournament; Olson, men against tourney; Bonvicini happy for publicity. Arizona Daily Wildcat. Tuesday October 24, 2000Dufresne, Chris - Pac-10 Votes to Reinstate Tournament Los Angeles Times (latimes.com), October 24, 2000 Los Angeles is the second largest media market in the United States. The championship game has been broadcast nationally by CBS Sports. The championship game was scheduled for Saturday before selection Sunday, as opposed to the previous iteration of the tournament holding the championship on Sunday after the selection committee had completed their work.
With the 2011 championship game attracting only 12,074 paid attendees, less than two-thirds the capacity of Staples Center, commissioner Larry Scott reopened bids from other cities to host the Pac-12 Tournament. Other models including a round-robin model and hosting the tournament at conference sites have also been considered. Ultimately, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, and Seattle submitted bids for consideration.
On March 13, 2012, the Pac-12 Tournament was officially moved to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, for a three-year term. The tournament moved to T-Mobile Arena once it opened during the 2016–17 basketball season; the hosting contract between the Pac-12 and the arena ran through 2020. In October 2019, the contract was extended through 2021-2022.Pascoe, Bruce - Pac-12 extends men's and women's basketball tournaments in Las Vegas through 2021-22 - Arizona Daily Star. October 7, 2019
The 2020 tournament began on March 11, and teams played the first round. It was cancelled on March 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with no further games played. The 2021 tournament was played, but with only family of student-athletes & members of the individual athletic departments as spectators in attendance.Newman, Josh - The Pac-12 is pushing ahead with its conference basketball tournaments. Is this a good idea?. Salt Lake Tribune. February 8, 2021Pac-12 update on attendance policy for 2021 Men's & Women's Basketball Tournaments. Pac-12 Conference, February 24, 2021 The 2024 tournament was the final one with Pac-12 teams before realignment. With only Washington State and Oregon State as members, there was no tournament in the 2024-25 or 2025-26 basketball seasons.
Television coverage Effective with the 2012–13 season, as part of the new television contract signed with Fox Sports and ESPN, one quarterfinal game, one semifinal game, and the championship game will rotate between Fox Sports and ESPN, with ESPN obtaining odd year tournaments and Fox Sports even numbered tournaments. All other games are broadcast on the Pac-12 Network. On September 29, 2021, the Conference announced the Pac-12 Network, FOX & FS1 would be the telecast providers for the 2022 Pac-12 tournament. Eight games would be featured on the Pac-12 Network, two games would be featured on FS1 & the Pac-12 Tournament Title game would be featured on FOX.
Format From 1987 to 1990 and 2006 to 2011, all ten teams participated in the tournament, with the top six teams receiving a bye in the opening round. Between 2002 and 2005, only the top eight teams in the conference participated in the tournament. Of the Pac-12 schools, only Washington State has never played in the championship game. In 2010 with USC on probation, only nine teams participated. Since 2012, all 12 teams have participated with the top four teams getting byes into the quarterfinals.
Results Year (Seed) Champion (Title #) Score (Seed) Runner-up Tournament MVP Location Total Attendance1987(1) #18 UCLA (1st)76–64(3) WashingtonReggie Miller, UCLAPauley Pavilion (Los Angeles, California)37,6631988(1) #3 Arizona (1st)93–67(2) Oregon StateSean Elliott, ArizonaMcKale Center (Tucson, Arizona)66,4771989(1) #1 Arizona (2nd)73–51(2) #12 StanfordSean Elliott, ArizonaGreat Western Forum (Inglewood, California)41,9941990(2) #15 Arizona (3rd)94–78(4) UCLAJud Buechler & Matt Muehlebach, ArizonaUniversity Activity Center (Tempe, Arizona)36,0522002(2) #15 Arizona (4th)81–71(4) #22 USCLuke Walton, ArizonaStaples Center (Los Angeles, California)67,8192003(5) Oregon (1st)74–66(7) USCLuke Ridnour, Oregon63,6632004(1) #2 Stanford (1st)77–66(2) WashingtonJosh Childress, Stanford60,1262005(2) #14 Washington (1st)81–72(1) #8 ArizonaSalim Stoudamire, Arizona62,1472006(1) #13 UCLA (2nd)71–52(3) CaliforniaLeon Powe, California74,8012007(4) #16 Oregon (2nd)81–57(3) USCTajuan Porter, Oregon84,4772008(1) #3 UCLA (3rd)67–64(2) #11 StanfordDarren Collison, UCLA81,8092009(6) USC (1st)66–63(4) #23 Arizona StateDeMar DeRozan, USC77,4522010(3) Washington (2nd) 79–75(1) CaliforniaIsaiah Thomas, Washington62,2922011(3) Washington (3rd) 77–75 OT(1) #16 ArizonaIsaiah Thomas, Washington56,0512012(6) Colorado (1st)53–51(4) ArizonaCarlon Brown, Colorado63,4142013(3) Oregon (3rd)78–69(1) #21 UCLAJohnathan Loyd, OregonMGM Grand Garden Arena (Paradise, Nevada)63,7502014(2) UCLA (4th)75–71(1) #4 ArizonaKyle Anderson, UCLA69,4452015(1) #5 Arizona (5th)80–52(2) OregonBrandon Ashley, Arizona70,5632016(1) #5 Oregon (4th)88–57(2) #12 UtahElgin Cook, Oregon77,4962017(2) #7 Arizona† (6th)83–80(1) #5 OregonAllonzo Trier, ArizonaT-Mobile Arena (Paradise, Nevada)87,9102018(1) #15 Arizona† (7th)75–61(2) USCDeandre Ayton, Arizona80,5502019(6) Oregon (5th)68–48(1) WashingtonPayton Pritchard, Oregon69,0242020Cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic2021(5) Oregon State (1st)70–68(3) #23 ColoradoWarith Alatishe, Oregon StateT-Mobile Arena (Paradise, Nevada)N/A^2022(1) #2 Arizona (8th)84–76(2) #13 UCLABennedict Mathurin, Arizona66,2012023 (2) #8 Arizona (9th) 61–59 (1) #2 UCLA Ąžuolas Tubelis, Arizona 65,7212024(4) Oregon (6th) 75–68(3) ColoradoN'Faly Dante, Oregon 76,101 2025 On hiatus 2026 2027 MGM Grand Garden Arena (Paradise, Nevada) notes: † Arizona vacated 2017, 2018 titles due to NCAA penalty ^According to the Pac-12, family members were allowed to attend, but the general public was not allowed. As a result, the Pac-12 has not released official attendance numbers.
Venues
VenueCityStateAppearancesLastYearsNotesT-Mobile ArenaParadiseNevada820242017–2024 MGM Grand Garden Arena420162013–2016, 2027 Staples CenterLos AngelesCalifornia1120122002–2012Pauley Pavilion119871987McKale CenterTucsonArizona119881988 Great Western ForumInglewoodCalifornia119891989University Activity CenterTempeArizona119901990
School records
through March 16, 2024