Fox Sports is in negotiations with several power conferences to hold a postseason men’s basketball tournament in Las Vegas featuring teams that did not qualify for the NCAA tournament, multiple sources told The Messenger.
Discussions are ongoing, but the current vision is for the event to include 16 teams that would play at T-Mobile Arena during the final week of March following the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight games. If the tournament happens, Fox plans to encourage its corporate partners to set up Name, Image and Likeness deals for players who are competing; the network will not be able to pay players directly due to NCAA rules.
Under terms of the proposed arrangement, the top 16 teams in the Big 12, Big East and Big Ten that did not qualify for the NCAA tournament — as ranked by the NET — would be required to play in the Fox event even if they are invited to the NIT. Those three leagues have rights deals with Fox. The network also has a rights agreement with the Pac-12, but it is unclear whether that league would be added due to complications arising from the Pac-12’s impending realignment defections.
Discussions about this new postseason tournament began during the 2022-23 season and have been led by Fox Sports’ executive vice president Jordan Bazant, who joined the network in early 2022 after spending the previous six years as the co-head of WME Sports. Bazant hosted a Zoom call over the summer with power conference commissioners and staff members, including those from the ACC and SEC, but sources said those efforts stalled when newly hired NCAA president Charlie Baker asked the commissioners to back away from Fox’s proposal. The idea was revived in the last few weeks around Bazant’s refashioned proposal to create an event that includes only teams from the Big 12, Big East and Big Ten.
One of the appeals of the Fox tournament is that it would take place in one city. Under the current NIT format, all games are played at campus sites until the semifinals and final, which were held last season in Las Vegas for the first time. “We like the idea of it, although there are some details that need to be ironed out,” one league source told The Messenger. “This would create more postseason opportunities in men’s basketball, and it would also open up more spots for mid-major schools to play in the NIT.”
The Fox tournament will not compete directly with NCAA tournament games, but it could pose a significant challenge to the NIT. The NCAA purchased that event in 2005, and protecting that tournament was the reason Baker encouraged conferences not to play in a competing event. The NIT has been in existence since 1938 and has traditionally held its final at Madison Square Garden. Other than 2021, when the NIT was played in a controlled environment in Texas because of the pandemic, the 2023 NIT was the first time the tournament was decided outside of New York City. The 2024 NIT will culminate at Butler University’s Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Should the Fox tournament move forward, the possibility of NIL money for players will be critical, because it would otherwise be a challenge for schools to keep their rosters intact that long. College football bowl games have been facing a similar challenge in recent years. Basketball players who enter the transfer portal and/or the NBA draft tend to do so as soon as their seasons end. It would take a meaningful incentive to convince players to stick around for three more weeks.
Despite those obstacles, a source told The Messenger that Bazant and his colleagues at Fox are “steadfast in trying to make it happen.” With the season set to tip off on Nov. 6, a decision must be made in the coming days. “I would guess they would have to make an announcement very soon if it’s going to happen,” a source said.
