The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ten states, three additional public land-grant universities, and one private research university. The conference is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. The SEC participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I in sports competitions; for football it is part of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A.
The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I for most sports; in football, it participates in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly referred to as Division I-AA.
American football is one of the many traditions in American culture that is associated with Thanksgiving Day. Virtually every level of football, from amateur and high school to college and the NFL, plays football on Thanksgiving Day (Thursday) or the immediately following holiday weekend.
The NIT Season Tip-Off is an annual college basketball tournament that takes place in November of each year, toward the beginning of the season. The first two rounds are held at campus sites, while the semifinals and the finals are held during the week of Thanksgiving in Brooklyn, NY. 2020's tournament was to be held at Amway Center in Orlando, FL, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused the NCAA to cancel it. The tournament, which is a part of the regular season for all participating colleges, began in 1985 as the Preseason NIT, so-called in order to distinguish it from the post-season NIT. In 2005, the NCAA purchased the Men's Preseason and Postseason NIT and renamed the November tournament the NIT Season Tip-Off. The tournament remains one of the most well-known preseason tournaments in NCAA Division I men's basketball, along with the Maui Invitational.
The LSU Tigers men's basketball team represents Louisiana State University in NCAA Division I men's college basketball. The Tigers are currently coached by Matt McMahon, after previous coach Will Wade was dismissed on March 12, 2022. They play their home games in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center located on the LSU campus in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The team participates in the Southeastern Conference.
New Orleans is home to a wide variety of sporting events. Most notable are the home games of the New Orleans Saints (NFL) and the New Orleans Pelicans (NBA), the annual Sugar Bowl, the annual Zurich Classic and horse racing at the Fair Grounds Race Course. New Orleans has also occasionally hosted the Super Bowl, College Football Playoff semifinal game and the NCAA college basketball Final Four.
Cliff Ellis is an American former college basketball coach, who finished his career as the head coach at Coastal Carolina University. Ellis finished his career as the ninth winningest coach in NCAA Division I history.
The U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam is a NCAA college basketball tournament that takes place annually in late November. The men's tournament typically takes place the week before Thanksgiving, with the women's tournament occurring during Thanksgiving week. It is held in St. Thomas at the Sports and Fitness Center on the campus of the University of the Virgin Islands. Colorado State is the defending men's champion. Texas A&M and Arizona are the defending women's champions in the Reef and Island divisions, respectively.
College Basketball on NBC Sports is the de facto branding used for broadcasts of NCAA Division I men's college basketball games produced by NBC Sports, the sports division of the NBC television network in the United States. The NBC network broadcast college basketball games in some shape or form between 1969 and 1998. From 1969 to 1981, NBC covered the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. It became the first major network to broadcast the championship game, at a cost of more than US$500,000 in 1969.
College Basketball on CBS Sports is the branding used for broadcasts of men's NCAA Division I basketball games that are produced by CBS Sports, for CBS, CBSSN, and Facebook.
ESPN College Basketball is a blanket title used for presentations of college basketball on ESPN and its family of networks. Its coverage focuses primarily on competition in NCAA Division I, holding broadcast rights to games from each major conference, and a number of mid-major conferences.
The Las Vegas Invitational is an 8 team college basketball tournament held during Thanksgiving of NCAA Division I men's college basketball season annually since 2003. The Tournament was originally held in the gymnasium of Valley High School, until moving to the new Orleans Arena in 2006.
The Cancun Challenge is a college basketball tournament organized by Triple Crown Sports which currently features eight NCAA Division I men's basketball teams and ten women's basketball teams. The formats of the men's and women's tournaments have varied from year to year. The men's tournament currently splits the eight teams into two divisions of four and consists of games played in the United States at participants' campus sites followed by a bracketed tournament played in Cancún, Mexico. The women's tournament splits the ten teams into one division of six and one division of four and each features round-robin play in Cancún with no bracket, and therefore no champion. The two divisions in each tournament are the Riviera Division and the Mayan Division.
The Legends Classic is an annual, early-season, college basketball tournament which started in 2007 and takes place at the beginning of the college basketball season in November. Four teams compete in the Legends Classic. The tournament has been held at various venues in the New York metropolitan area, primarily the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The LSU–Texas A&M football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the LSU Tigers and Texas A&M Aggies.
The Barclays Center Classic is an annual early season college basketball tournament that was inaugurated in 2012. Each of the eight schools plays four games, with the bracketed portion of the tournament concluding at the tournament's namesake Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The Jamaica Classic is an early-season college basketball tournament that takes place in November of each year at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Each year, Jamaica Classic participants play games at campus sites in the United States, some before and some after the Montego Bay games. At Montego Bay, those which host the campus-site games play in the "Montego Bay Division" of the Classic, while those which visit the hosts for campus-site games play separately in the "Rose Hall Division." A separate championship is awarded for each division, and a most valuable player is selected in each division.
The Jersey Mike’s Classic is a three-day round-robin men's college basketball tournament held the weekend prior to Thanksgiving at the McArthur Center on the campus of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. The tournament focuses strictly on mid-major National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball programs, giving them an opportunity for good-quality non-conference match-ups on a neutral floor in a prime location.
The 2023 Florida Gators baseball team represents the University of Florida in the sport of baseball during the 2023 college baseball season. Florida competes in the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Home games will be played at Condron Ballpark on the university's Gainesville, Florida, campus, in the third season at the ballpark. The team is coached by Kevin O'Sullivan in his sixteenth season as Florida's head coach. The Gators enter the season looking to return to the College World Series after a home regional final loss in the 2022 NCAA tournament.
The 2022–23 Detroit Mercy Titans men's basketball team represented the University of Detroit Mercy in the 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Titans, led by fifth-year head coach Mike Davis, played their home games at Calihan Hall in Detroit, Michigan, as members of the Horizon League. They finished the season 13–18, 9–11 in Horizon League play to tie for eighth place. They defeated Purdue Fort Wayne in the first round of the Horizon League Tournament before losing to Youngstown State in the quarterfinals.
