Get to Know a College Basketball Mid-Major: Atlantic Sun

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 Atlantic Sun. The Atlantic Sun formed in 1978, and was originally known as the Trans America Athletic Conference — it also used to encompass a larger geographic range of the country than it does now, when it is more centrally located in the southeast and mid-Atlantic. In 2001, it was renamed to better reflect its current geography. It might need another update at some point, however, as the conference is dropping from its current 12 teams to just seven for the 2026-2027 academic year. All 12 teams made it into the Atlantic Sun conference tournament, which began on March 4. The top four teams earned byes into the quarterfinals, where they will face the winners of the first-round games. Simple, to the point. Also simple and to the point: the automatic bid is the only way for an Atlantic Sun squad to make it to March Madness, whether men’s or women’s basketball. That has been the case for each of the last three years, and none of the teams are close enough to the bubble to force the issue this time around. Atlantic Sun — Men’s College Basketball Leaders: Central Arkansas and Austin Peay tied atop the conference at 15-3, but it was the former that won the tiebreaker thanks to a head-to-head W. Next up is 13-5 Queens and 12-6 Lipscomb; after that, every team in the Atlantic Sun is under .500. Florida Gulf Coast and West Georgia finished 8-10. Eastern Kentucky, Bellarmine and Stetson are all 7-11. North Florida (5-13) and North Alabama (4-14) bring up the rear. Austin Peay might be the second seed, but it’s the top ASUN team in the NCAA Evaluation Tool, at 154. Central Arkansas isn’t far behind (164), with Lipscomb close by (174) as well. After that there is a bit more of a gap, with Queens (201) the only other team to not be in the bottom-100 or so — the "or so" is because FGC just avoids that fate at 262 of 365. Bellarmine (8-seed) defeated Jacksonville (9) in the opening game of the ASUN tournament on March 4, 82-79. FGC (5) faces North Alabama (12), Eastern Kentucky (7) goes up against Stetson (10) and West Georgia (6) takes on North Florida (11) to determine which teams move on to the quarterfinals to matchup with the top four seeds on March 6. Austin Peay is intriguing, as it is by no means dominant even within the conference, but it does a whole lot of things pretty well, and that has all added up. It averaged the second-most points of any ASUN team during conference play, at 83.6, which it combined with the fourth-fewest allowed, 76.0. The only categories it ranks first in are free throws and free-throw attempts, but it’s above-average or even second in pretty much everything else. To reinforce how close Austin Peay and Central Arkansas have been this year, the two are actually tied in points per game in ASUN play, but the Bears have had the better defense, at 74.6 points allowed. Central Arkansas is first in steals and forced turnovers and a bit better at rebounds than Austin Peay, but not markedly so. The two match up fairly well, and compared to their conference competition don’t make a ton of exploitable mistakes. That being said, the gap between the points the two score and those they allow is not that large. This is a conference that gives up quite a few points, and these two just give up fewer: Central Arkansas’ defense, for instance, ranks 204th in points per game nationally even as it’s second in ASUN. Atlantic Sun - Women’s College Basketball Leaders: Eastern Kentucky won the top seed outright, going 15-3. Jacksonville (2-seed) and Central Arkansas (3-seed) were next, at 13-5, with the former getting the head-to-head tiebreaker. Stetson finished 12-6, while FGC and North Alabama were 11-7. West Georgia is the last team over .500, at 10-8, with Austin Peay (8-10), Lipscomb (7-11), North Florida (4-14) and Queens (4-14) following. Last is Bellarmine, which did not win a single conference game — it’s 0-18. The women’s tournament already had its first day, with Austin Peay advancing over Lipscomb (63-56), Florida Gulf Coast defeating Bellarmine (94-28), West Georgia downing North Florida in overtime and North Alabama sneaking by Queens, 57-55. The top seed one in every instance: on Thursday, the quarterfinals begin with Eastern Kentucky vs. Austin Peay, Stetson against FGC, Jacksonville taking on West Georgia and Central Arkansas matching up with North Alabama. Central Arkansas is the top team in the conference by NET, at 103, followed closely by Eastern Kentucky at 109. Jacksonville is 144th and FGC 150th, while Austin Peay and Stetson make up the last of the top-200 squads. West Georgia is 234th, and North Alabama right behind it at 236. There is some clustering going on, but it won’t feel quite as close unless the few teams in the 200s get knocked out in the next round. What’s odd about West Georgia’s placement is that it has the top player in the conference by Player Efficiency Rating in sophomore forward Destiny Jones. Jones is not just the leading rebounder for the conference, but she is the rebounder on West Georgia, picking up a full 20% of the team’s total — that also leads ASUN, as does her offensive rebound percentage. West Georgia scores the third-most points in the Atlantic Sun despite being as far back in NET as it is, but that’s because it struggles on defense: out of the conference’s 12 teams, it ranks 11th. Please remember that one of these teams lost all 18 conference games. Eastern Kentucky is far more balanced, with the second-most points scored and third-fewest allowed; Jacksonville is also unbalanced, leading in scoring but allowing nearly 66 per game, eighth in ASUN. Central Arkansas has the opposite problem, in that it’s the best defense in the conference, allowing just 56.1 points per game, but scoring 67.7 — that can work with that level of defense, but like with Jacksonville and West Georgia, it leaves little room for error. The defense has been truly working, however: Central Arkansas ranks 25th in the nation in points allowed per game, and 84th in adjusted Defensive Rating.