The Champions Classic – a neutral site doubleheader featuring Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and Michigan State – has been renewed for three years. The early-season event, that matches four of the winningest college basketball programs against each other began in 2011. The doubleheader will be played in Indianapolis (2014), Chicago (2015) and New York City (2016) with venues to be determined. The marquee matchups will continue to be the culminating games of ESPN’s College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon that provides more than 24 hours of consecutive basketball coverage to mark the start of the college basketball.
The third installment – on Tuesday, Nov. 12, from the United Center in Chicago (ESPN College Gameday will be there)– will showcase four of the top five teams in the nation: No. 2 Michigan State vs. No. 1 Kentucky (8:30 p.m.) and No. 5 Kansas vs. No. 4 Duke (8:30 p.m.). The inaugural game was held at Madison Square Garden in 2011 followed by the Georgia Dome in 2012.
Future Champions Classic Matchups
Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2014 (Indianapolis)
· Kansas vs. Kentucky
· Michigan State vs. Duke
Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015 (Chicago)
· Kansas vs. Michigan State
· Kentucky vs. Duke
Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016 (New York City)
· Kentucky vs. Michigan State
· Duke vs. Kansas
John Calipari, Kentucky head coach. “The Champions Classic does a couple of things for our schedule. One, it allows us to play an early-season marquee game at a neutral site, which is important for our team to play in before the NCAA Tournament. Secondly, when you talk about Duke, Kansas, Michigan State and Kentucky, you’re talking about four of the best programs in our sport. So it’s a great event for our fans. We’re happy we could renew it for three more years.”
Records of the teams participating in the Champions Classic: Duke 2-0; Kentucky 1-1; Michigan State 1-1 and Kansas 0-2.
· Three of the top four all-time winningest men’s college basketball programs: Kentucky (first – 2,111), Kansas (second – 2,101) and Duke (fourth – 2,001).
· A combined 17 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship (since 1939): Kentucky (eight), Duke (four), Kansas (three) and Michigan State (two).
· A total of 24 NCAA Final Four appearances in the past 21 years: Duke (seven), Michigan State (six), Kansas (six) and Kentucky (five).
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the world; with regular weekly segments on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and RSS