The AE announced today that UAlbany and SEFCU Arena will host the 2013 Men's and Women's Basketball Tournament. The event will be held from March 7-10, 2013 in the 4,000+ facility. SEFCU Arena hosted the 2009 America East Championship and received rave reviews by many in the conference. The tournament was hosted by Hartford last season.

While the tournament for next year is set, future tournaments could have a much different look. That is because the conference could be in line for major changes. Over the past week, many mid-major conferences have announced the movement of teams for the 2013-14 season. San Jose State and Utah St. are moving to the Mountain West, while North Texas, FIU and and Louisiana Tech are heading to Conference-USA. The biggest move comes from the Atlantic-10, as they have picked up Horizon League and national fan favorite Butler. While the Butler move is a basketball move, it seems many conference, especially in the Northeast, are preparing for some big moves. The biggest reason? As we have said a million times...Football.

The NY Post is reporting that a few Northeast schools are possibly looking to create a new conference for basketball. According to the NY Post:

Most of those programs are in the Colonial Athletic Association but there are others in the America East Conference that could be in play. The timetable could be decided somewhat by the decisions made by George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth, two NCAA Tournament-proven programs.

The decision seems to be based on the actions of George Mason and VCU. Both have been named prime candidates to join the Atlantic-10 as well. Based on the reports, it could mean an entire revamping of Northeast conferences. Delaware, UNH and Richmond could lead the push. All have FCS football programs. Add to the fact that Stony Brook, UAlbany and Maine all have maintaining and/or rising football programs, they could also play a factor.

While nothing is guaranteed, it throws the future of the AE and other mid-major conference in the Northeast up in the air. As more develops, UnrankedAE.com will be on top of it.

In the past we have written stories about the possible expansion of the AE and the threat of teams leaving because of conference expansion taking place across the nation. That threat grew as Temple announced they would be joining the Big East in 2012 for football, and all other sports in 2013. Recently, the Atlantic 10 announced that it was looking for at least two new teams to join the conference, with teams such as VCU, George Mason and Butler as possible new members.

It now seems that the Atlantic 10 has made a decision, and it will impact the AE. UnrankedAE.com has acquired documentation from a source close to the situation that shows that both Maine and Hartford are close to finishing paperwork with the AE and Atlantic 10 that will have the two teams switch conferences. While it is unclear of exact reasons, the source said academics, facilities and entering "new markets" are a big factor.

Now the questions remains, who will be replacing the two schools? While schools such as Central Connecticut State and Bryant have floated around in the past, the source says don't be surprised if NJIT and Colgate could be possible replacements. Colgate is a target because of football and, "it just seems like a good fit overall" said the source.

Obviously, there will be more on this breaking story to come. UnrankedAE.com will bring you all the information as it becomes available.

Now that the season is over, we can take a look back and remember the great moments of the 2011-12 season. We had low RPI's, last second victories and major upsets, Now we must watch the rest of the NCAA Tournament and only hope that Cinderella's slipper can fit the AE next year. Let's take a look back at the Top 5 AE Games of the Year and see what the readers think the best game was...

5) American East Championship - Vermont vs. Stony Brook - 3/10/12

It seemed like a perfect storm for the Seawolves. Championship Game on Long Island, and pumped up student body in attendance and the fact they had already defeated the Catamounts at home earlier in the season. However, the Catamounts went to Long Island and forced bad shots and shut down the Seawolves key players. The Catamounts scored only 5 points in the final nine minutes. In the end, John Becker made his foot print in the conference and Four McGlynn showed he was going to terrorize teams for the next few years. Vermont 51, Stony Brook 43.

4) NCAA Tournament "First Four" - Vermont vs. Lamar - 3/14/12

The game helped to trend the term "McGlynnsanity" on Twitter for AE fans and also led to a nice pay day for the conference. The Catamounts, especially Four McGlynn, showed off the conference on national T.V. (OK, it was TruTV, but it still counts). McGlynn scored 18 points off the bench as the Catamounts picked up their second ever NCAA Tournament victory. Vermont 71, Lamar 59.

Which games made the Top 3? Find out after the jump

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We have already witnessed 15 games of basketball in the 2012 America East Conference Championships. On the men's side, the Vermont Catamounts took down their fifth America East title earlier today, defeating the top seeded Stony Brook Seawolves.

Tonight, we see the fifth seeded UMBC Retrievers, fresh off of a semifinal upset of the top seeded Boston Terriers, taking on the second seeded UAlbany Great Danes at SEFCU Arena at 8 PM. Please join WCDB's Dan Snyder for a live chat on tonight's game, the final contest of the America East Championships!

In-Game chat after the jump

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We are LIVE from Stony Brook University on Long Island for the America East Championship. The #1 seed Stony Brook Seawolves hosts the #2 seed Vermont Catamounts. Stony Brook is looking for its first ever trip to the NCAA Tournament. UnrankedAE's coverage will begin at 10:30 a.m. LIVE from press-row.

In-Game chat after the jump

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The second semifinal features two teams that played to the polar opposite of their expectations in the quarterfinal round.

Vermont was expected to crush Maine, who were without their top scorer in senior Gerald McLemore (illness, what a horrible way to end a college career). However, they came out and scored fourteen points in the first half. Trailing by eight upon entering the locker room, Vermont managed to turn it around and win in a dominant defensive performance. But an offensive game like that may lead them to the exits in the semis.

Hartford on the other hand had very low expectations coming into their matchup with the third seeded Boston Terriers, but the hosts of the tournament kept it close throughout and made clutch plays that one would have assumed BU stars DJ Irving, and so-called "Player of the Year" Darryl Partin, would have made late in the game. Huge threes from Nate Sikma, combined with clutch plays from Andres Torres, and Player of the Game Mark Nwakamma (A FRESHMAN!) all played a Partin Hartford pulling the upset.

It will be interesting to see if Vermont is still willing to chuck up the three, after an abysmal shooting night against the Black Bears. I will also have my eye on how the home crowd will affect things. I think Vermont should consider moving the ball inside more. It is easy to fall in love with the three, but posting up will put them in a position to succeed. You're not going to win a three point shootout against Nate Sikma.

In addition, the Catamounts need to use the athleticism of Luke Apfeld to their advantage, as they did last night when Apfeld threw down a couple of vicious dunks, turning Burlington into BurLOBton.

Hartford is playing with house money in this one. The crowd will be behind them. Nobody thought that they had a chance to advance in the first place, and everyone who is not a Vermont fan will be rooting for the Hawks, especially those rooting for the teams on the opposite side of the bracket.

Enjoy the final game of the weekend. What an event it has been.

WCDB live chat after the jump.

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We have survived bizarre quarterfinal Saturday, a day that saw Bingo give Stony Brook all it could handle (only to see the Seawolves advance), UAlbany play defense, Vermont struggle against a McLemore-less Maine squad, and Hartford embarrass "Player of the Year" Darryl Partin en route to the eighth win by a 6 seed in the last 9 AE Tournaments.

Today we start with Albany and Stony Brook. The Seawolves were good for two of the six losses UAlbany suffered against the top three teams in the conference this season, including one at SEFCU Arena during UAlbany's Big Purple Growl. I think that it is safe to say that the Seawolves are in the Great Danes' head.

We have learned that Logan Aronhalt, after pulling himself out of yesterday's game against New Hampshire, has told the team that he isn't good to go for the game. Certainly that was a tough thing to admit, but that is a great job on his part to put the team first. He just isn't physically able to help them right now.

Luke Devlin should play for the Great Danes in some capacity. Coach Brown also said that he is looking to get Puk some minutes alongside Metcalf to try to counter the size of the Seawolves.

Gerardo Suero had an off day for the Great Danes in their quarterfinal win over UNH, but his off day still consisted of 24 points. He will need to get to the basket and get the SBU bigs in foul trouble for the Danes to have a shot.

For Stony Brook, their size is their primary advantage. Joyner, Brenton, and Rapier are just destructive in the paint. Also, look for Bryan Dougher to take advantage of the fact that the Great Danes sport the worst three point defense in the AE. He ripped off four threes in the opening minutes of their AE Tournament win over the Danes last year in the quarters. If the Danes don't learn from their mistakes, we could see a repeat performance.

WCDB live chat after the jump.

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On Friday, we saw two lower seeds advance in the AE Women's Tournament. The UMBC Retrievers defeated the New Hampshire Wildcats with two Michelle Kurowski free throws with 1.3 seconds to play to seal their win in the 4/5 game, and the Binghamton Bearcats upset the host Hartford Hawks in the 3/6 matchup.

We also saw the top two seeds advance, as Boston U. and UAlbany defeated Maine and Vermont, respectively.

In the semifinal round, Boston U. takes on UMBC and UAlbany takes on Bingo. Both the Retrievers and Bearcats will have upsets on the brain coming in, but the top seeds will be a tough out as their size (Agboola/Stewart for BU, and Forster/Craig for UA) and excellent guard play (POY Alford/Moran for BU, Henry/Callaway for UA) have been beaten only three times combined by AE foes this season.

WCDB live chat after the jump

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