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The Big West conference tournament tips off Wednesday and will continue with the eight-team format the league had last season. Hawai'i did not qualify, so this year's conference tournament will exclusively feature California schools. Last year's champion, Long Beach State, also did not qualify. The top two seeds automatically advance to the semifinal round in this tournament. According to Jerry Palm's latest bracketology update on CBS Sports, the Big West is a one-bid league. Here's how the bracket sets up for this conference tournament.

Big West Conference Tournament Schedule

First Round

No. 5 UC Santa Barbara vs. No. 8 Cal State Bakersfield
No. 6 UC Davis vs. No. 7 Cal Poly

Quarterfinals

QF1 - No. 4 Cal State Northridge vs. No. 5 UCSB/No. 8 Cal State Bakersfield
QF2 - No. 3 UC Riverside vs. No. 6 UC Davis/No. 7 Cal Poly

Semifinals

SF1 - No. 1 UC San Diego vs. Winner of QF1
SF2 - No. 2 UC Irvine vs. Winner of QF2

Final

Winner of SF1 vs. Winner of SF2 

UC San Diego (-160 to win the conference tournament at DraftKings) rolled through conference play. The Tritons won 18 league games, including their final 13 of the regular season. They did lose to UC Irvine (+170) and UC Riverside (+1400) but would only face one of those teams in a potential final given how the bracket worked out. UC San Diego is first in the conference in scoring defense and turnovers forced. The Tritons are balanced offensively, with four players averaging double figures highlighted by Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones (19.7 ppg). They are the clear favorites to win this bracket.

UC Irvine has a similar profile to UC San Diego. The Anteaters are second in scoring defense, but first in opponent field-goal percentage and second in opponent 3-point percentage. They enter this tournament on a five-game winning streak, and have a win over UC San Diego in the regular season. They also have four players who average double figures, led by center Bent Leuchten (15.4 ppg).

This league is filled with high-scoring teams, making some of the lower seeds in the tournament intriguing longshots. Cal Poly (+8000) makes the most 3-pointers per game and has a four-guard rotation with each player scoring double figures, led by Owen Koonce (17.2 ppg). UC Santa Barbara (+4000) also has four players averaging double figures and is the most efficient offensive team in the league. The Gauchos make 10.1 triples per game at a 39.4% clip. If either of these teams get hot from behind the arc, they could make a run similar to Long Beach State last year.

SportsLine expert Thomas Casale is picking UC San Diego to win the Big West conference tournament. But which teams are experts backing in the other conference tournaments? You can get the best bets for every conference tournament at SportsLine. You can also find the SportsLine Projection Model's simulations for every game.