Main Event (college basketball)
The Continental Tire Main Event (formerly known as the MGM Grand Main Event, Men Who Speak Up Main Event, MGM Resorts Main Event, Roman Main Event, Men's Vegas Bubble[1]) is a 4 team college basketball tournament held during Monday and Wednesday of Thanksgiving week of NCAA Division I men's basketball season, with the inaugural tournament beginning in 2014.
Formerly | MGM Grand Main Event (2014) Men Who Speak Up Main Event (2015-2016) MGM Resorts Main Event (2017-2019) Men's Vegas Bubble (2020) Roman Main Event (2021) |
---|---|
Sport | College Basketball |
Founded | 2014 |
Owner(s) | bdG Sports |
No. of teams | 4 |
Country | United States |
Venue(s) | Heavyweight Bracket T-Mobile Arena (2017-present) MGM Grand Garden Arena (2014-2016) Middleweight Bracket Ed W. Clark High School (2019) Cox Pavilion (2018) T-Mobile Arena (2017) MGM Grand Garden Arena (2014-2016) |
Most recent champion(s) | Virginia |
TV partner(s) | ESPN (2021-2022) ESPN2, ESPNU (2014-2019, 2021-present) FloHoops (2020) ESPN+ (2023-present) |
Sponsor(s) | Continental Tire |
Related competitions | Ball Dawgs Classic |
Official website | Continental Tire Main Event |
Tournament Format
The tournament originally featured two four-team brackets (labeled Heavyweight and Middleweight) with each team playing two games in Las Vegas. Members of the Heavyweight bracket each host at least one member of the Middleweight bracket on campus before the tournament. Since the Middleweight bracket's dissolution in 2021, the tournament continues to find opponents for members of the formerly named Heavyweight bracket to host on campus that would have played in the Middleweight bracket.
While the Heavyweight bracket pool always features four teams, the Middleweight bracket pool's size is variable, ranging from as little as two teams to as many as five. Despite this, only up to four teams in the Middleweight bracket pool played in Las Vegas. Since 2021, two teams that would have played in the Middleweight bracket each play two Heavyweight opponents before facing each other on campus.
Tournament champions
Year | Team | Bracket |
---|---|---|
2014 | Oklahoma State | Heavyweight |
Round Robin - No Winner | Middleweight | |
2015 | Creighton | Heavyweight |
Howard | Middleweight | |
2016 | Valparaiso | Heavyweight |
Round Robin - No Winner | Middleweight | |
2017 | UNLV | Heavyweight |
Prairie View A&M | Middleweight | |
2018 | Arizona State | Heavyweight |
Utah Valley | Middleweight | |
2019 | Colorado | Heavyweight |
Round Robin - No Winner | Middleweight | |
2020 | Baylor | - |
2021 | Arizona | − |
2022 | Virginia | − |
2023 | − |
Brackets
* – Denotes overtime period
2023 - Continental Tire Main Event[2]
First Round November 17 ESPN+/ESPN2 | Championship November 19 ESPN2 | |||||||
Saint Mary's | ||||||||
San Diego State | ||||||||
Washington | ||||||||
Xavier | ||||||||
Consolation November 19 ESPN+ | ||||||||
2022 - Continental Tire Main Event
First Round November 18 ESPN2/ESPNU | Championship November 20 ESPN | |||||||
5 | Baylor | 79 | ||||||
16 | Virginia | 86 | ||||||
16 | Virginia | 70 | ||||||
19 | Illinois | 61 | ||||||
19 | Illinois | 79 | ||||||
8 | UCLA | 70 | ||||||
Consolation November 20 ESPN | ||||||||
5 | Baylor | 80 | ||||||
8 | UCLA | 75 | ||||||
Campus Game Contender(s): Norfolk State beat Monmouth 64-59
2021 - Roman Main Event
First Round November 19 ESPNU/ESPN2 | Championship November 21 ESPN | |||||||
Arizona | 82* | |||||||
Wichita State | 78 | |||||||
Arizona | 80 | |||||||
4 | Michigan | 62 | ||||||
4 | Michigan | 74 | ||||||
UNLV | 61 | |||||||
Consolation November 21 ESPN2 | ||||||||
Wichita State | 74 | |||||||
UNLV | 73 | |||||||
Campus Game Contender(s): North Dakota State beat Tarleton State 54-53
2020 - Men's Vegas Bubble
The event had a unique format due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. It also adopted the temporary name "Men's Vegas Bubble" and aired on FloHoops. Despite including Baylor as the 2020 champion, no other records from this year are included in the tournament's History and Records page.[3]
Schedule
Date | Time | Winner | Loser | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|
November 28 | 1 PM | Air Force | CSUN | 66-61 |
5 PM | Baylor | Louisiana | 112-82 | |
November 29 | 12 PM | Seattle | Air Force | 63-45 |
3 PM | Baylor | Washington | 86-52 | |
November 30 | 2 PM | CSUN | Seattle | 76-65 |
December 1 | 1 PM | Cal Riverside | Washington | 57-42 |
WINNERS ARE IN BOLD. Game Time in Pacific Time. |
Heavyweight Bracket
Middleweight Bracket
Detroit Mercy | UC Irvine | Louisiana | |
---|---|---|---|
Detroit Mercy | — | 86–74 | 62–81 |
UC Irvine | 74–86 | — | 92–67 |
Louisiana | 81–62 | 67–92 | — |
Heavyweight Bracket
First Round November 19 ESPNU/ESPN3 | Championship November 21 ESPNU | ||||||||
Arizona State | 72 | ||||||||
15 | Mississippi State | 67 | |||||||
Arizona State | 87 | ||||||||
Utah State | 82 | ||||||||
Saint Mary's | 63 | ||||||||
Utah State | 80 | Consolation November 21 BD Global | |||||||
15 | Mississippi State | 61 | |||||||
Saint Mary's | 57 |
Middleweight Bracket
First Round November 19 | Championship November 21 | ||||||||
Utah Valley | 72 | ||||||||
Hartford | 65 | ||||||||
Utah Valley | 87 | ||||||||
Long Beach State | 72 | ||||||||
Iona | 85 | ||||||||
Long Beach State | 86 | Consolation November 21 | |||||||
Hartford | 75 | ||||||||
Iona | 80 |
Campus Game Contender(s): McNeese State (Iona did not play any Campus Games.)
Heavyweight Bracket
First Round November 20 AT&T Sportsnet Rocky Mountain AT&T Sportsnet | Championship November 22 ESPN2 | ||||||||
UNLV | 95 | ||||||||
Rice | 68 | ||||||||
UNLV | 85 | ||||||||
Utah | 58 | ||||||||
Utah | 83 | ||||||||
Ole Miss | 74 | Consolation November 22 ESPNU | |||||||
Rice | 62 | ||||||||
Ole Miss | 79 |
Middleweight Bracket
First Round November 20 Flohoops.com | Championship November 22 Flohoops.com | ||||||||
Prairie View A&M | 80 | ||||||||
Eastern Kentucky | 70 | ||||||||
Prairie View A&M | 71 | ||||||||
Georgia State | 56 | ||||||||
Georgia State | 68 | ||||||||
Eastern Washington | 50 | Consolation November 22 Flohoops.com | |||||||
Eastern Kentucky | 62 | ||||||||
Eastern Washington | 83 |
Heavyweight Bracket
First Round November 21 YouTube | Championship November 23 ESPN2 | ||||||||
Saint Louis | 62 | ||||||||
BYU | 92 | ||||||||
BYU | 89 | ||||||||
Valparaiso | 92 | ||||||||
Alabama | 60 | ||||||||
Valparaiso | 68 | Consolation November 23 YouTube | |||||||
Saint Louis | 57 | ||||||||
Alabama | 62 |
Middleweight Bracket
Ball State | Coppin State | Coastal Carolina | Southern Utah | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ball State | — | 79-77 | — | 94-83 |
Coppin State | 77-79 | — | 59-89 | — |
Coastal Carolina | — | 89-59 | — | 83-68 |
Southern Utah | 94-83 | — | 68-83 | — |
Heavyweight Bracket
First Round November 23 YouTube | Championship November 25 ESPN2 | ||||||||
Clemson | 65 | ||||||||
UMass | 82 | ||||||||
UMass | 76 | ||||||||
Creighton | 97 | ||||||||
Creighton | 85 | ||||||||
Rutgers | 75 | Consolation November 25 ESPN2 | |||||||
Clemson | 76 | ||||||||
Rutgers | 58 |
Middleweight Bracket
First Round November 23 | Championship November 25 | ||||||||
UTSA | 84 | ||||||||
Central Arkansas | 98 | ||||||||
Central Arkansas | 54 | ||||||||
Howard | 73 | ||||||||
Texas Southern | 81 | ||||||||
Howard | 87 | Consolation November 25 | |||||||
UTSA | 80 | ||||||||
Texas Southern | 91 |
Heavyweight Bracket
First Round November 24 ESPN3/ESPNU | Championship November 26 ESPN2 | ||||||||
Oregon State | 53 | ||||||||
Oklahoma State | 66 | ||||||||
Oklahoma State | 73 | ||||||||
Tulsa | 58 | ||||||||
Auburn | 35 | ||||||||
Tulsa | 53 | Consolation November 26 ESPN3 | |||||||
Oregon State | 69 | ||||||||
Auburn | 71 |
Middleweight Bracket
On October 6, 2014, the Middleweight Bracket was revised to a Round robin format.[8]
Milwaukee | Louisiana–Lafayette | Oral Roberts | |
---|---|---|---|
Milwaukee | — | 56–52 | 66–69 |
Louisiana–Lafayette | 52–56 | — | 76–52 |
Oral Roberts | 69–66 | 52–76 | — |
References
- "Men's Vegas Bubble".
- "San Diego State, Xavier, Washington & Saint Mary's headed to Vegas for Continental Tire Main Event".
- "HISTORY & RECORDS".
- "2017 Main Event schedule & brackets announced". bdGlobal. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
- "2016 Main Event schedule & brackets announced". bdGlobal. 15 August 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
- "2015 Main Event schedule & brackets announced". bdGlobal. Archived from the original on 23 June 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
- "bd Global announces 2014 MGM Grand Showcase & Main Event". bd global. 23 July 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
- "Revised Middleweight Bracket schedule announced". Retrieved 21 November 2014.