The Southland Conference's Men's Basketball Tournament began in 1981, with the winner of the tournament receiving the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. From 1981 to 2001, the first round of the tournament took place at the higher seed, with the remaining rounds at a set location. In 2002, the Southland changed the format to play games at the campus of sites of each higher seed, during every round of the tournament. This was changed again in 2007, the first year that the conference selected a neutral site for all rounds of the tournament.