Eight of the conference's nine schools will participate in the tournament, which uses a "ladder" format. The top two seeds receive two byes into the semifinals and the third and fourth seeds earn one bye into the quarterfinals. The last four seed play in two first-round games.

All-session passes for all 14 games - including the women's tournament, which will be played on the same dates as the men's event - are available for as low as $50. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Big West Conference office at 949-261-2525 or the box offices of the individual schools.

Cal State Northridge is the defending champion, defeating Pacific, 71-66, in overtime last year's final to win its first Big West championship. Nevada-Las Vegas, formerly coached by Jerry Tarkanian, leads the way with seven Big West tournament titles. Utah State is next with six crowns, followed by Long Beach State and Pacific with four apiece. http://www.bigwest.org/<ref>

The 35th annual Big West tournament will take place March 10-13 at the Anaheim Convention Center, which has hosted the event since 2001. The first round is set for March 10, followed by the quarterfinals on March 11 and the semifinals on March 12. The championship game will be televised by ESPN2 at 8 p.m. Pacific Coast time on March 13. The first round and quarterfinal doubleheaders starts at 6 p.m while the semifinal session gets under way at 6:30 p.m.

UC Santa Barbara and Pacific shared the regular-season title with 12-4 conference marks, but Santa Barbara earned the top seed for the Big West tournament based on its season sweep of Pacific. As the top two seeds, each received a bye into the semifinals. In first-round matchups, No. 5 seed Cal State Fullerton takes on No. 8 Cal State Northridge and No. 6 Cal Poly meets UC Irvine. No. 3 Long Beach State and No. 4 UC Davis earned byes into the quarterfinals.

The 2008-09 will be the 40th year for the Big West Conference. The Cal State Fullerton won the tournament over UC Irvine, 81-66. The team made second NCAA Tournament appearance first since to Elite Eight in 1978 and won the second conference tournament championship.

After 30 years Cal State Fullerton Titans returned to the NCAA bracket in the Midwest Region. Since then Cal State had made into the conference tournament finals only two times in 1982 and 1985 losing to Fresno State and to UNLV.

In this season the Fullerton has won 20 games back to back and the team posted four consecutive winning season for the first time since George McQuann's teams in 1981-82, thru 1984-1985. The Titans broke the school single season records for points 2,700, steals 296 and 3 point field goals.

• 2009: Cal State Northridge Matadors
• 2008: Cal State Fullerton Official site: Big West Tournament Champions
• 2007: Long Beach State Official site: Big West Tournament Champions
• 2006: Pacific Official site: Big West Tournament Champions
• 2005: Utah State Official site: Big West Tournament Champions
• 2004: Pacific Official site: Big West Tournament Champions
• 2003: Utah State Official site: Big West Tournament Champions
• 2002: UC Santa Barbara Official site: Big West Tournament Champions
• 2001: Utah State Official site: Big West Tournament Champions
• 2000: Utah State Official site: Big West Tournament Champions
• 1999: New Mexico State Official site: Big West Tournament Champions
• 1998: Utah State Official site: Big West Tournament Champions
• 1997: Pacific Official site: Big West Tournament Champions
• 1996: San Jose State Official site: Big West Tournament Champions
• 1995: Long Beach State Official site: Big West Tournament Champions
• 1994: New Mexico State Official site: Big West Tournament Champions
• 1993: Long Beach State Official site: Big West Tournament Champions
• 1992: New Mexico State Official site: Big West Tournament Champions
• 1991: UNLV Official site: Big West Tournament Champions
• 1990: UNLV Official site: Big West Tournament Champions
• 1989: UNLV Official site: Big West Tournament Champions