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 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, sometimes referred to as Women's March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 women's college basketball teams from the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), to determine the national championship.
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 Empire Classic, formerly known as the 2K Sports Classic, is an annual college basketball event played in November at the beginning of the season and televised by ESPN. Originally known as the Atlantic City Shootout and produced by the Gazelle Group, Inc., the event was first played in 1995. The following year, it became the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic as a collaboration between the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the American Cancer Society in an effort to raise funds for cancer research. In 2012, the tournament beneficiary became Wounded Warrior Project, resulting in the tournament being renamed the 2K Sports Classic. A new annual college basketball tournament benefiting cancer research, also called the Coaches Vs. Cancer Classic and hosted by the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, was held from 2012 to 2014. In 2019, the event was renamed the 2K Empire Classic Benefiting Wounded Warrior Project, commonly referred to as the "Empire Classic."
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.
The Paycom Wooden Legacy is an annual early-season men's college basketball competition that began in 2013. It is named in honor of basketball coach John Wooden, whose UCLA Bruins teams won 10 national championships over the 12 seasons from 1964 to 1975.
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 2012 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament began March 17 and concluded April 3, 2012. The Final Four was played at Pepsi Center in Denver. For only the second time in history, and the first time since 1989, all four of the number one seeds made it to the Final Four. Baylor won its second national championship, defeating Notre Dame 80–61 in the championship game. They were the only team to win 40 straight games in a season until Connecticut matched it in 2014.
The Coaches vs. Cancer Classic was an annual college basketball tournament event benefiting cancer research held from 2012 to 2014. The event was held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, and televised by truTV. The tournament replaced the previous Coaches vs. Cancer Classic tournament of 1995–2011, which was renamed the 2K Sports Classic in 2012 when it became a charitable event for the Wounded Warrior Project.
The 2013–14 Pittsburgh Panthers men's basketball team represented the University of Pittsburgh during the 2013–14 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team played its home games at the Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This was Pittsburgh's inaugural season in the Atlantic Coast Conference, having moved from the Big East Conference. Pitt had been in the Big East since 1982. They finished the season 26–10, 11–7 in ACC play to finish in fifth place. They advanced to the semifinals of the ACC tournament where they lost to Virginia. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament where they defeated Colorado in the second round before losing in the third round to Florida.
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 2015–16 Tennessee Volunteers basketball team represented the University of Tennessee in the 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Volunteers were led by first-year head coach Rick Barnes. The team played its home games at Thompson–Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee, as a member of the Southeastern Conference. They finished the season 15–19, 6–12 in SEC play to finish in 12th place. They defeated Auburn and Vanderbilt to advance to the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament where they lost to LSU.
The 2018 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament began on March 16, 2018, and concluded with the national championship game on Sunday, April 1. The Final Four was played at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. This is the third time that the women's Final Four was played in Ohio after previously being held in Cincinnati in 1997 and Cleveland in 2007 and the first time that the women's Final Four was played in Columbus. For only the fourth time in the tournament’s 37-year history, all four of the number one seeds made it to the Final Four.
The Phil Knight Invitational is a college basketball event held in Portland, Oregon to celebrate Nike co-founder Phil Knight. There have been three different events held, most recently in November 2022. The event has been held at the Moda Center and Veterans Memorial Coliseum in the Rose Quarter.
The 2019 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 64 teams to determine the national champion for the 2018–19 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The 38th annual edition of the tournament began on March 22, and concluded with the championship game on April 7 at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, with the University of South Florida serving as host. The tournament field was announced on March 18.
The 2020 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament was a planned single-elimination tournament of 68 teams to determine the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's college basketball national champion for the 2019–20 season. The 82nd edition of the tournament would have begun on March 17, 2020, and concluded with the championship game on April 6 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.
The 2022 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 68 teams to determine the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college basketball national champion for the 2021–22 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The 40th edition of the tournament began on March 16, 2022, and concluded with the championship game on April 3 at Target Center in Minneapolis, where the South Carolina Gamecocks defeated the UConn Huskies 64–49 to win their second NCAA title.
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 2021 NIRSA national soccer championship was the 27th NIRSA National Soccer Championships, the annual national championships for United States-based, collegiate club soccer teams organized by NIRSA. It took place at the Foley Sports Tourism Complex in Foley, Alabama from Thursday, November 18 to Saturday, November 20, 2021. This was the third time the event was held here, the last being in 2018.
