The tournament was held March 12–15 in the FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee and decided a champion of the 2013–14 American Athletic Conference men's basketball season (like most NCAA conferences, The American recognizes both regular-season and tournament champions; Cincinnati and Louisville shared the regular-season title).

(Cincinnati, Connecticut, and South Florida) had been full members of the original Big East.

One (Temple) had been a football-only Big East member before entering into full membership in The American.

The remaining four schools (Houston, Memphis, SMU, and UCF) had previously been members of Conference USA.

Since the Cardinals and Bearcats had split their meetings during the regular season, a coin toss was held to determine the #1 seed in the tournament, which was won by Cincinnati.