In a move set to shake up the landscape of postseason college basketball, Fox Sports and AEG have announced plans for the introduction of the College Basketball Crown, a new 16-team tournament slated to debut in Las Vegas in 2025. The tournament, which has been in active development for several months, aims to provide an opportunity for teams that do not qualify for March Madness to compete on a national stage. It will feature guaranteed slots for member schools from the Big Ten, Big 12, and Big East conferences, with additional at-large participants filling out the bracket.
Scheduled to take place between March 31 and April 6 next year, the games will be held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and T-Mobile Arena, and they will be exclusively televised on Fox and FS1. The timing of the tournament falls between the Elite Eight and the championship game of the men’s March Madness.
Fox Sports has positioned the College Basketball Crown as a move to “evolve and elevate the sport,” building upon its existing partnerships with the Big Ten, Big 12, and Big East conferences.
However, the introduction of the new tournament presents a challenge to the longstanding National Invitation Tournament (NIT), which is owned and operated by the NCAA and aired by ESPN. The NIT has faced declining interest in recent years, with a reported 17 schools declining invitations to the event for various reasons.
