The 2010-11 College Basketball regular season is now over and conference tournaments are now upon us. Several of the minor conference tournaments have already begun, some of them will have even concluded by the time you read this. However, starting on Wednesday, March 9th, the major conferences will commence postseason play with the Big East, Big XII, Mountain West and Pac 10 Tournaments all getting underway. The SEC, Big 10 and ACC all get their Tournaments underway on Thursday.

The Big East is going to be the most popular tournament for College Basketball bettors. It gets underway on Tuesday with four first round matchups. The Big East Tournament is uniquely structured in that the top four seeds (Pitt, Notre Dame, Louisville and Syracuse) all get double-byes to the quarterfinal round. The next four seeds (St. John’s, UConn, West Virginia and Georgetown) all get a bye into the second round and will still have to win four times to gain the Big East’s automatic bid. The teams that open the tournament on Tuesday will have to win an amazing five times to win the Tournament.

Last season saw some interesting results in the Big East Tournament as three of the four teams receiving the double-bye lost their first game. Keep that in mind when choosing your sides in this year’s bracket! Also, keep in mind that the Big East is expected to place 11 teams in the field of 68. That means when we get to the 2nd round, it is virtually a battle of NCAA Tournament teams in every game.

The Big XII Tournament features two teams fighting for high seeds in the NCAA Tournament, Kansas and Texas. The former will lock up a #1 overall seed in the field of 68 by winning the tournament, possibly by just making the finals. Texas probably is out of luck at earning a #1 overall seed, but who knows? There are five other teams – Kansas State, Texas A&M, Missouri, Baylor and Colorado – who need a good showing to get off the bubble. Some are considered safer than others, but none will want to lose its first game.

The Pac 10 is up a little bit from last year’s historically bad season. Three teams are considered locks for the NCAA Tournament and they are Arizona, UCLA and Washington. Can anyone else steal a bid?

The Big 10 Tournament has three very good teams, one of them (Ohio State) looking to earn the #1 overall seed in the Big Dance. Purdue and Wisconsin will be a 2 or 3 seed based on how they perform in the conference tourney. There are several teams on the bubble here – Illinois, Michigan and Michigan State – and again none of the teams in the triumvirate can afford a ‘one and done’ performance.

The SEC is very weak this year. Florida and Kentucky both look like they will be no worse than a 5-seed in the Big Dance while other than Vandy, no one is assured of anything.

Finally, we have the ACC where college basketball bettors will be anticipating a rubber match between the top two seeds – Duke and North Carolina – in the Tournament Final. Florida State is probably also safely “in” the Big Dance. Other than that is anybody’s guess with Boston College, Clemson and Virginia Tech all firmly on the bubble.

Get every College Basketball pick and prediction from Lenny Del Genio at Vegas Experts.