The College Basketball Crown announced its first 16 team brackets Monday morning.
Created by Fox and held entirely in Las Vegas in the last four weeks, the newly created Single Elimination Postseason Tournament brings together the fields of highly sovereign teams who did not compete in the NCAA tournament.
The college basketball crown is also the reason why NIT was essentially hit by a mid-sized tournament. Fox is about to compete head-on with ESPN for college basketball viewers during March.
So, what attention is this new corporate-driven postseason showcase worthy of? Is there an answer to this new event college basketball college football bowl season? Break the crown and find the place in the university hoop.
How did the fields come together?
The college basketball crown selection process included automatic bidding for the top two teams, Big Ten, Big East and Big 12, which did not take place an NCAA tournament. From there, the event was free to 10 large invitations.
The first field is configured ArizonaButler, Boise, Cincinnati, Colorado, DePaul, George Washington, Georgetown, Nebraska, Oregon,Tulane,UCF,USC,UTAH, Villanova and Washington State.
If you notice, in favor of the meetings Fox has on TV trading, the field lacks ACC and SEC representatives. That means 5 big 12 teams, 4 big East teams, 2 big ten teams, 10 Atlantic teams, AAC, Mountain West and WCC.
As Drew Lerner pointed out in a terrible announcementNIT's field of power conference teams has dropped to four this year, from 18 last year (15 teams were turned down before that). Three ACC teams (Georgia Institute of TechnologySMU and Stanford) and Big 12 Oklahoma are the only power conference team at the 2025 NIT Field.
Even in their first year, they feel that the impact of the college basketball crown on postseason basketball is important in terms of conference television partners. As the Crown is set to face off head-on against the NIT final round (more on this soon), this is clearly Fox's answer to more college basketball viewers during a period of growing interest in the sport.
Unique schedule for College Basketball Crown
One of the new developments in the College Basketball Crown is the decision to wait two weeks to start the event.
The college basketball crown, playing all the games in the week leading up to the Final Four, could potentially crave viewers a daytime basketball and primetime matchup after the first two weeks of the NCAA tournament.
This primarily represents the hardcore college hoop fans, gamblers and fans of the teams playing in the event. Fox appears to believe there is a market for playing this tournament at this time of year and airing so many games.
The Crown will face off head-on on TV in the NIT semi-finals and title game at Hinkle Field House. This makes an interesting amount of college hoops each night, all the way to the Final Four.
The NIT TV fight with the college basketball crown is the executive who is turning the concept of multimadness into a college football bowl season scenario, and advertisers develop enough followers to maintain, even though it's a month filled with endless college hoops that no one seems particularly craves.
Is anyone looking for Utah facing Butler? Or DePaul facing former congressional rival Cincinnati? That's not particularly true. But if it's the only college basketball that's played at 3pm on weekdays in late March, people will be watching.
Crown bracket
Crown Tournament Schedule
Monday, March 31st
Utah vs Butler, 3pm
George Washington vs. Boise State, 5:30pm
Nebraska vs. Arizona, 8:30pm
Georgetown vs Washington State, 11pm
Tuesday, April 1st
DePaul vs. Cincinnati, 3pm
Oregon vs UCF, 5:30pm
Colorado vs Villanova, 8:30pm
Tulane vs. USC, 11pm
Wednesday, April 2nd and Thursday, April 3rd
Quarterfinals at 7pm and 9:30pm
Saturday, April 5th
Semi-finals at 1:30pm and 4pm
Sunday, April 6th
Championship at 5:30pm
Is basketball something good?
This is the most important question surrounding the college basketball crown. Is basketball competitive and worth watching?
Crown Field was lucky enough to win Boise State after a strong season. The Broncos were one of the last four teams to emerge from a massive conversation in the NCAA Tournament.
However, many of the teams playing for the Crown have been below .500 on unwanted meeting records this season.
The college basketball crown uses NIL money to lure teams to Las Vegas. And especially with Villanova. The Wildcats fired manager Kyle Neptune last week. Villanova will still play for the crown as interim head coach Mike Nardi is at the helm.
Villanova's season was disappointing enough to guarantee a change in coaching, but enough to continue in Nil Money's postseason tournament. It is the type of mixed messages offered by modern college basketball programs as business interests become more clear.
The Men's College basketball transfer portal will officially begin a week before the crown begins. What does the event roster look like with players' movements still as well as well?
It is impossible to predict whether the Crown will play quality basketball during its first season. However, the spectacle made for television seems to remain here, attracting more major star power than the NIT. Whether that's a good thing for the expansion of the college basketball postseason remains to be seen.
