College Basketball Crown

College basketball tournament

College Basketball CrownCurrent season, competition or edition:
2025 College Basketball Crown

Tournament logo

Sport| College basketball
Founded| 2024
Founder| Fox Sports
Anschutz Entertainment Group
First season| 2025
No. of teams| 16
Country| United States
Venue(s)| MGM Grand Garden Arena
T-Mobile Arena
TV partner(s)| Fox, FS1
Related
competitions| NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
National Invitation Tournament

The College Basketball Crown is an American men's college basketball tournament promoted by Fox Sports and Anschutz Entertainment Group. The inaugural tournament will be held in 2025, on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada.[1]

## Selection process

[edit]

Two automatic qualifiers from each of the Big East, Big Ten and Big 12 conferences as well as ten at-large teams will be selected from the pool of teams that did not qualify for the NCAA tournament.[1] Although the official announcement of the launching of the tournament provided no details regarding selection criteria,[2] a September 2023 proposal for the tournament indicated that NET rankings would be used to select teams, which, at the time, were expected to include only Big East, Big Ten and Big 12 squads. Further, the proposal indicated that teams selected from those three conferences would be required to participate in the College Basketball Crown, which would make it impossible for them to also participate in the National Invitation Tournament, should they be selected or receive an automatic bid.[3]

The NCAA does not allow schools invited to an NCAA championship tournament to decline and then compete in another postseason event. However, this rule does not apply to the NIT, a secondary post-season competition administered by the NCAA. In response to attempts to launch the College Basketball Crown during the 2024 season, the NCAA changed the NIT selection process, introducing automatic bids for teams from high-major conferences while eliminating the automatic bids formerly reserved for teams who won their conference's regular-season title but lost their conference tournament (usually mid-major teams). These changes were criticized by many, including mid-major schools,[4] with the NCAA calling them "a preemptive attempt to keep the NIT viable long-term."[5] Ahead of the 2025 NIT, the two automatic bids previously given to the Big 12, Big East and Big Ten conferences, i.e. the conferences committed to participate in the CBC, were revoked, leaving two automatic bids only for the Atlantic Coast (ACC) and Southeastern (SEC) conferences. The NIT also guarantees one bid to each of the 12 conferences other than the ACC and SEC that have the highest Kenpom rating. Finally, regular-season conference champions not in the NCAA tournament qualify for an automatic bid to the NIT, if their average ranking using seven diffferent metrics is 125 or better.[6]

If the top two non-NCAA tournament teams from each of the Big 12, Big East and Big Ten are all committed to play in the CBC, and those three conferences all rank in the top 12 conferences (other than the ACC and SEC), the NIT would be unable to get a team better than the third best non-NCAA tournament team from each of those three leagues. Since the CBC has 10 at-large bids, it may extend some of those to ACC and SEC teams, which could further dilute the quality of teams participating in the NIT, if those teams accept a CBC bid.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "Fox Sports & AEG Launch the College Basketball Crown: A Reimagined Postseason College Hoops Tournament". Fox Sports. April 3, 2024. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
2. ^ Clinkscales, Jason (3 April 2024). "Fox Sports, AEG Launching 'College Basketball Crown' Tournament". Sportico. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
3. ^ Davis, Seth (September 11, 2023). "Fox Sports in Negotiations to Hold a New Men's College Basketball Tournament in Las Vegas in Late March (Exclusive)". The Messenger. Archived from the original on October 12, 2023. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
4. ^ Miller, Andrew (2023-10-31). "NIT decision 'takes away' from mid-major schools, CofC AD says". Post and Courier. Retrieved 2023-11-12.
5. ^ "Gavitt: NIT tweaks made to combat new tourney". ESPN.com. 2023-11-01. Retrieved 2023-11-12.
6. ^ "NIT Announces New Team Selection Protocol and New Committee Members". NCAA.com. October 22, 2024. Retrieved February 27, 2025.

## External Links

[edit]

College Basketball Crown website

* v
* t
* e

NCAA men's college basketball tournaments

Division I|

| Early season|

* Acrisure Classic
* Acrisure Holiday Invitational
* Acrisure Invitational
* Arizona Tip-Off
* Bahamas Championship
* Battle 4 Atlantis
* Big 5 Classic
* Boardwalk Battle
* Cancún Challenge
* Cayman Islands Classic
* Charleston Classic
* Diamond Head Classic
* Empire Classic
* Emerald Coast Classic
* ESPN Events Invitational
* Fort Myers Tip-Off
* Greenbrier Tip-Off
* Gulf Coast Showcase
* Hall of Fame Tip-Off
* Jacksonville Classic
* Legends Classic
* Maui Invitational
* Myrtle Beach Invitational
* Nassau Championship
* NIT Season Tip-Off
* Paradise Jam
* Phil Knight Invitational
* Players Era Festival
* Rady Children's Invitational
* Sunshine Slam
* Vegas Showdown

|

Defunct
Early season|

* All-College Basketball Classic
* Asheville Championship
* Belfast Classic
* Coaches vs. Cancer Classic
* Continental Tire Main Event
* Corpus Christi Coastal Classic
* Crossover Classic
* DirecTV Classic
* Great Alaska Shootout
* Global Sports Classic
* Jamaica Classic
* Las Vegas Classic
* Las Vegas Invitational
* Northern Classic
* Puerto Rico Tip-Off
* Savannah Invitational
* SoCal Challenge
* Southland Basketball Tip-Off
* Vancouver Showcase

Conference
postseason|

* ACC
* America East
* The American
* ASUN
* Atlantic 10
* Big 12
* Big East
* Big Sky
* Big South
* Big Ten
* Big West
* CAA
* Conference USA
* Horizon
* Ivy League
* MAAC
* MEAC
* Mid-American
* Missouri Valley
* Mountain West
* Northeast
* Ohio Valley
* Pac-12 (on hiatus until 2027)
* Patriot
* SEC
* Southern
* Southland
* SWAC
* Sun Belt
* Summit
* WAC
* West Coast

Defunct
Conference
postseason|

* American South
* American West
* Big Eight
* East Coast
* Great Midwest
* Great West
* Metro
* Southwest

Postseason|

* NCAA Division I Tournament
* National Invitation Tournament
* College Basketball Invitational
* CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament
* College Basketball Crown (starting in 2025)

Defunct
Postseason|

* The Basketball Classic
* Vegas 16
* National Commissioners Invitational Tournament
* National Intercollegiate Basketball Tournament

Division II|

| Conference
postseason|

* CCAA
* CACC
* Carolinas
* East Coast
* Great American
* GLIAC
* GLVC
* G-MAC
* Great Northwest
* Gulf South
* Lone Star
* Mountain East
* Northeast-10
* Northern Sun
* Pacific West
* Peach Belt
* PSAC
* RMAC
* South Atlantic
* SIAC
* Sunshine State

|

Defunct
Conference
postseason|

* Heartland

Postseason|

* NCAA Division II Tournament

Division III|

| Conference
postseason|

* Allegheny Mountain
* American Rivers
* American Southwest
* Atlantic East
* C2C
* Centennial
* CUNYAC
* CCIW
* CCS
* Commonwealth Coast
* Empire 8
* Great Northeast
* HCAC
* Landmark
* Liberty
* Little East
* MASCAC
* Michigan
* Middle Atlantic (MAC Commonwealth and MAC Freedom)
* Midwest
* Minnesota
* NESCAC
* NEWMAC
* New Jersey
* North Atlantic
* NACC
* NCAC
* Northwest
* Ohio
* Old Dominion
* Presidents'
* SAA
* SCIAC
* SLIAC
* Skyline
* SCAC
* SUNYAC
* United East
* Upper Midwest
* USA South
* Wisconsin

|

Defunct
Conference
postseason|

* ACAA
* Colonial States
* NECC

Postseason|

* NCAA Division III Tournament
* ECAC Tournaments

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template