FOX Sports and AEG Announce Official Dates for the 2026 College Basketball Crown With Elite Eight-Team Field

Business Wire

5 days ago

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Following a hugely successful inaugural tournament, FOX Sports and AEG today announced the official dates for the 2026 College Basketball Crown. The elite post-season college hoops tournament delivered compelling matchups, impressive viewership and a captivating championship run by Nebraska – becoming a must-see competition showcasing elite programs that narrowly miss NCAA Tournament selection.
In 2026, the College Basketball Crown will take place April 1–5 at both the MGM Grand Garden Arena as well as T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and air on FOX and FS1. Year two features a newly streamlined eight-team field and continued support from its first-year brand partners.
The 2026 field will feature the top two teams from the Big Ten, Big 12, and BIG EAST conferences that do not receive NCAA Tournament bids, plus two wild card teams selected by committee. The 2026 College Basketball Crown quarterfinals will take place Wednesday, April 1 and Thursday, April 2 at MGM Grand Garden Arena, with T-Mobile Arena hosting the semifinals Saturday, April 4 and the championship matchup Sunday, April 5.
'We launched the College Basketball Crown to create more opportunities for elite competition during the thrilling college basketball post-season – and we saw an incredible response from fans, conferences, and players for the inaugural tournament,' said Jordan Bazant, Executive Vice President, FOX Sports, and board member of the College Basketball Crown. 'We look forward to building on that momentum this spring by delivering high stakes matchups between top teams throughout the competition on FOX and FS1.'
The new eight-team format reflects a strategic refinement, designed to deliver stronger matchups, enhanced fan experiences, and continued commercial success across every stage of the tournament.
'The College Basketball Crown has already proven to be a premium, athlete-first post-season platform that delivers for schools, our brand partners, and fans,' said Nick Baker, President and COO of AEG Global Partnerships and board member of the College Basketball Crown. 'We're proud to continue this tournament alongside FOX Sports and our partners and we look forward to raising the bar once again in 2026 with top-tier talent, world-class venues, and continued innovation.'
Additionally, inaugural-year partners are continuing their support for the 2026 tournament, including:
Vivid Seats – Official Ticketing Provider
GHOST® – Founding Partner and Official Energy Drink and Hydration Partner
JSX – Founding Partner and Official Air Carrier
Circa Resort & Casino – Founding Partner and Official Host Hotel
MGM Resorts International – Official Partner
The College Basketball Crown also continues to drive innovation in name, image, and likeness (NIL) opportunities for student-athletes, with new enhancements expected to be announced in the lead-up to next year's tournament.
Additional announcements regarding ticket sales, broadcast talent, new partners, team selection and more will follow in the coming months.
For more information on the College Basketball Crown, visit: https://collegebasketballcrown.com.
ABOUT THE COLLEGE BASKETBALL CROWN
Launched by FOX Sports and AEG, the College Basketball Crown is a premier post-season college basketball tournament that debuted in March 2025 in Las Vegas at MGM Grand Garden Arena and T-Mobile Arena. Featuring elite teams from the Big Ten, Big 12, BIG EAST, and additional at-large participants, the tournament offers a new and highly competitive post-season opportunity for student-athletes and fans alike.
Key partners of the inaugural College Basketball Crown include:
Vivid Seats – Official Ticketing Provider
GHOST® – Founding Partner; Official Energy Drink and Hydration Partner
JSX – Founding Partner; Official Air Carrier
Circa Resort & Casino – Founding Partner; Official Host Hotel
MGM Resorts International – Official Partner
For more information on the College Basketball Crown, visit: https://collegebasketballcrown.com.
About AEG
Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, AEG is the world's leading sports and live entertainment company. The company operates in the following business segments:
Music through AEG Presents, which is dedicated to all aspects of live contemporary music performances, including the production and promotion of global and regional concert tours, an extensive portfolio of clubs, theaters and other music venues, concerts and special events and world-renowned festivals such as the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival;
Venues and Real Estate, which develops, owns and operates world-class venues, as well as major sports and entertainment districts like Crypto.com Arena and L.A. LIVE, Uber Platz in Berlin and The O2 in London;
Sports, as the world's largest operator of high-profile sporting events and sports franchises including the LA Kings, LA Galaxy and Eisbären Berlin;
Global Partnerships, which oversees worldwide sales and servicing of sponsorships including naming rights, premium seating, and other strategic partnerships.
And Ticketing, through its AXS.com ticketing platform, which provides more than 400 clients worldwide with ticketing services that cover the gamut of entertainments, including sporting events, arena tours, music clubs, festivals, rodeos and family events.
Through its worldwide network of venues, portfolio of powerful sports and music brands and its integrated entertainment districts, AEG entertains more than 90 million guests annually. More information about AEG can be found at www.aegworldwide.com.
About FOX Sports
FOX Sports is the umbrella entity representing Fox Corporation's wide array of multi-platform US-based sports assets. Built with brands capable of reaching more than 100 million viewers in a single weekend, the business has ownership and interests in linear television networks, digital and mobile programming, broadband platforms, multiple web sites, joint-venture businesses and several licensing relationships. FOX Sports includes the sports television arm of the FOX Network; FS1, FS2, FOX Soccer Plus and FOX Deportes. FOX Sports' digital properties include FOXSports.com and the FOX Sports App, which provides live streaming video of FOX Sports content, instant scores, stats and alerts to iOS and Android devices. Also included in FOX Sports' portfolio are FOX's interests in joint-venture businesses Big Ten Network and the UFL and a licensing agreement that established the FOX Sports Radio Network.
T-Mobile Arena
T-Mobile Arena, the 20,000-seat venue located on the Las Vegas Strip between Park MGM and New York-New York, opened April 6, 2016. The arena hosts more than 100 events annually including major headline entertainment, awards shows, UFC, boxing, basketball and other sporting events, family shows and special events. T-Mobile Arena also is the home of the Vegas Golden Knights, a National Hockey League expansion team and the city's first professional sports team, as well as UFC's exclusive Las Vegas arena destination. The venue, named the No. 1 venue on Billboard Magazine 's 2018 Arena Power List as well as the 'Best New Major Concert Venue' by Pollstar Magazine in 2016, features 50 luxury suites, more than two dozen private loge boxes, complete broadcast facilities, and other specially designed exclusive hospitality offerings and fan amenities destined to create a guest experience second to none. Toshiba Plaza, an adjacent two-acre outdoor entertainment space, features performance stages, a variety of video screens and other interactive content and display areas. Designed and built to prioritize environmental sustainability, T-Mobile Arena was awarded Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design® (LEED) Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council in 2016. T-Mobile Arena is a privately funded joint venture between AEG and MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM). For more information, visit T-MobileArena.com or follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
About MGM Grand Garden Arena
The MGM Grand Garden Arena is home to concerts, championship boxing and premier sporting and special events. The Arena offers comfortable seating for as many as 16,800 with excellent sightlines and state-of-the-art acoustics, lighting and sound. Prominent events to date have included world championship fights between Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson as well as Floyd Mayweather vs. Canelo Alvarez as well as Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao; and concerts by The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Bette Midler, George Strait, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, U2, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Coldplay, Alicia Keys, Jimmy Buffett and the Barbra Streisand Millennium Concert. The MGM Grand Garden Arena also has been home to annual events including the Academy of Country Music Awards, the Billboard Music Awards, the Latin GRAMMY Awards, iHeartRadio Music Festival, Pac-12 Men's Basketball Championship and Frozen Fury NHL pre-season games hosted by the Los Angeles Kings.