Sun Belt Basketball Championships to Remain in Pensacola Through 2030
NEW ORLEANS — October 24, 2024 —The Sun Belt Conference announced Thursday that the city of Pensacola, Fla., has been selected to host the 2026-2030 Sun Belt Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships, as part of the league’s ongoing partnership with Pensacola Sports and Visit Pensacola.
The five-year extension builds on an initial five-year agreement that brought the Sun Belt Basketball Championships to Pensacola from 2021-2025. During that span, the Sun Belt has grown from 12 to 14 members and earned its first NCAA March Madness victory since 2016, when the No. 12-seeded James Madison men upset No. 5-seeded Wisconsin, 72-61, in 2024.
Over the past four seasons, the Sun Belt has also had teams advance to the championship game of the College Basketball Invitational (Coastal Carolina men in 2021) and The Basketball Classic (Coastal Carolina men in 2022) and the semifinals of the College Basketball Invitational (Arkansas State men in 2024) and Women’s National Invitation Tournament (Troy women in 2024) in postseason play.
“The Sun Belt Conference is excited to extend our partnership with Pensacola. There is no better place for our basketball championships to thrive and showcase the growth of the Sun Belt Conference,” said Sun Belt Conference Commissioner Keith Gill. “Our student-athletes, coaches and fans have established traditions around starting March Madness in Pensacola—a community that has embraced the rising brand of Sun Belt basketball.”
The landmark extension will make Pensacola, Fla., the longest-tenured (2021-2030) and most-frequent (10-time) host of the Sun Belt Basketball Championships all-time—surpassing the city of New Orleans, La., which has hosted the championships on eight occasions, including seven-straight years from 2014-2020.
“Pensacola Sports is thrilled to continue to host the Sun Belt Conference Basketball Championships for at least five more years and hopefully many more beyond that,” said Pensacola Sports President & CEO Ray Palmer. “The relationship between our community, the conference and most importantly the conference members grows stronger with each year. We look forward to working with all of our partners, the conference and the schools to make the Sun Belt Basketball Championships better every year."
"On behalf of Visit Pensacola, we share in the excitement to have Sun Belt Conference championship basketball played in Pensacola through 2030,” said Visit Pensacola President & CEO Darien Schaefer. “Our team looks forward to hosting the tournament for another five years and having the conference staff, teams, alums, families and friends experience all that Pensacola, Pensacola Beach and Perdido Key have to offer.”
“We are very excited and honored to welcome the Sun Belt Conference to Escambia County for another five years, along with the thousands of fans and visitors the conference brings to our community each year,” said Escambia County District 5 Commissioner and Chairman Steven Barry. “The economic impact to our area over the past five years has been monumental, with more than a $4.3 million economic impact in 2023 alone. I look forward to continuing this positive momentum and further establishing Escambia County and Pensacola as the home of the Sun Belt Conference for many years to come.”
The 2025 Sun Belt Basketball Championships will take place from March 4-10, 2025, with all tournament games being played at the Pensacola Bay Center. All tournament games will be broadcast nationwide on ESPN+, with the women’s championship game airing on ESPNU and the men’s championship game airing on ESPN2.
The James Madison men and Marshall women enter the 2024-25 season as the reigning tournament champions, after cutting down the nets in Pensacola following their first-ever Sun Belt Conference titles in 2024.
Ticket packages and single-game tickets for this year’s championships will go on sale at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. CT on Friday, Nov. 1.
Pensacola Sports is one of the oldest sports associations/commissions in the United States, beginning in 1955. Pensacola Sports manages or assists in numerous events a year throughout the Escambia, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa County areas, and is the lead sports tourism agency for Escambia County. Events include a high school all-star series, 5K-15K runs, marathons, triathlons, soccer and softball tournaments, collegiate national championships, fishing tournaments and scholarship banquets to name a few. Pensacola Sports is dedicated to building a better community through sports. Be Moved!
Visit Pensacola is the destination marketing organization for Escambia County, which includes Pensacola, Pensacola Beach and Perdido Key. With over 460 years of rich history and nearly 40 miles of sugar-white sand beaches bordered by the emerald-green waters of the Gulf of Mexico, visitors from all over the world are lured to our pristine shores every year. Visit Pensacola supports the community vision of tourism by serving as the central body responsible for building tourism as an economic engine for our community through leadership, connection, collaboration and communication.
Home to more than 300,000 residents, Escambia County is the westernmost and one of the oldest counties in Florida. The mission of Escambia County government is to provide efficient, responsive services that enhance our quality of life, meet common needs and promote a safe and healthy community. Escambia County is governed by the five-member Board of County Commissioners, which serves as the legislative and policy-setting body for the county. District 5 Commissioner Steven Barry currently serves as the Chairman of the BCC. To learn more about Escambia County government and the services we provide to our residents, visit MyEscambia.com.