ESPN Events Invitational

ESPN Events Invitational
Sport	College Basketball (men's)
Founded	2006
No. of teams	8 (2006–2023); 4 (2024); 16 (2025);
Most recent; champion(s)	Florida
Most titles	Gonzaga (3)

The ESPN Events Invitational (previously the Orlando Invitational, Orlando Classic, Old Spice Classic, and Advocare Invitational) is an annual college basketball tournament played over Thanksgiving weekend—Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. The inaugural tournament was held November 23, 24, and 26, 2006. The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference serves as the host for the tournament. The tournament is played at the State Farm Field House at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida.

Quick Facts Sport, Founded ...

From 2006 through 2023, the tournament consisted of eight teams from separate conferences. All eight teams were guaranteed three games. Teams who lost in the first round moved to the consolation bracket and could finish no better than fifth, while the worst a team could finish that won in the first round was fourth. The final ranking of the teams was determined by separate games for first, third, fifth, and seventh places. The 2020 tournament was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.^[1]

In 2024, the tournament had only four teams, with winners in the first (semifinal) round advancing to the championship game. The two teams that lost in the semifinals played in a third-place game.

In 2025, the tournament will include 16 teams, last five days, and consist of 20 games played in three separate brackets. The tournament will open with the eight-team Adventure Bracket played during its first three days. During the final two days, eight other teams will play in two separate four-team brackets, the Magic Bracket and the Imagination Bracket.^[2]

[1]

[2]

Year	First	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	Sixth	Seventh	Eighth
2006	Arkansas	West Virginia	Marist	Western Michigan	Southern Illinois	Virginia Tech	Montana	Minnesota
2007	NC State	Villanova	George Mason	Kansas State	South Carolina	Rider	UCF	Penn State
2008	Gonzaga	Tennessee	Georgetown	Maryland	Michigan State	Wichita State	Oklahoma State	Siena
2009	Florida State	Marquette	Alabama	Michigan	Baylor	Xavier	Iona	Creighton
2010	Notre Dame	Wisconsin	Boston College	California	Texas A&M	Temple	Georgia	Manhattan
2011	Dayton	Minnesota	Indiana State	Fairfield	DePaul	Arizona State	Wake Forest	Texas Tech
2012	Gonzaga	Davidson	Oklahoma	West Virginia	Clemson	Marist	Vanderbilt	UTEP
2013	Memphis	Oklahoma State	LSU	Butler	Saint Joseph's	Washington State	Purdue	Siena
2014	Kansas	Michigan State	Marquette	Tennessee	Georgia Tech	Rhode Island	Santa Clara	Rider
2015	Xavier	Dayton	Monmouth	USC	Alabama	Notre Dame	Iowa	Wichita State
2016	Gonzaga	Iowa State	Florida	Miami	Stanford	Seton Hall	Quinnipiac	Indiana State
2017	West Virginia	Missouri	St. John's	UCF	Nebraska	Long Beach State	Oregon State	Marist
2018	Villanova	Florida State	Oklahoma State	LSU	College of Charleston	Memphis	UAB	Canisius
2019	Maryland	Marquette	USC	Harvard	Temple	Davidson	Fairfield	Texas A&M
2020	No tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic.^[1]
2021	Dayton	Belmont	Kansas	Iona	Alabama	Miami (FL)	North Texas	Drake
2022	Oklahoma	Ole Miss	Siena	Seton Hall	Memphis	Stanford	Nebraska	Florida State
2023	Florida Atlantic	Virginia Tech	Texas A&M	Iowa State	Butler	Boise State	VCU	Penn State
2024	Florida	Wichita State	Wake Forest	Minnesota	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A


Consolation November 29 ESPN2		Semifinals November 28 ESPN/ESPN2			Championship November 29 ESPN



		Minnesota		66

		Wichita State		68*
Minnesota	51					Wichita State	51

Wake Forest	57				18	Florida	88
		18	Florida	75

			Wake Forest	58


5th-Place Game Sunday, November 26		Consolation 2nd Round Friday, November 24		First Round Thursday, November 23			Semifinals Friday, November 24			Championship Sunday, November 26



					Penn State	77

				12	Texas A&M	89

		Penn State	78				12	Texas A&M	89

		Butler	88				19	Florida Atlantic	96

				19	Florida Atlantic	91

					Butler	86

Butler	70									19	Florida Atlantic	84

Boise State	56										Virginia Tech	50

				Iowa State		68

				VCU		64

7th-Place Game		VCU	61				Iowa State		62	3rd-Place Game

		Boise State	65				Virginia Tech		71

Penn State	74			Boise State		75				12	Texas A&M	73

VCU	86			Virginia Tech		82					Iowa State	69


5th-Place Game Sunday, November 27		Consolation 2nd Round Friday, November 25		First Round Thursday, November 24		Semifinals Friday, November 25		Championship Sunday, November 27



				Florida State	63

				Siena	80

		Florida State	60			Siena	62

		Stanford	70			Ole Miss	74

				Ole Miss	72

				Stanford	68

Stanford	48							Ole Miss	55

Memphis	56							Oklahoma	59

				Oklahoma	69

				Nebraska	56

7th-Place Game		Nebraska	61			Oklahoma	77	3rd-Place Game

		Memphis	73			Seton Hall	64

Florida State	58			Memphis	69			Siena	60

Nebraska	75			Seton Hall	70			Seton Hall	55


5th-Place Game Sunday, November 28			Consolation 2nd Round Friday, November 26			First Round Thursday, November 25			Semifinals Friday, November 26			Championship Sunday, November 28



						Dayton		76

						Miami (FL)		60

			Miami (FL)		69					Dayton	74

			North Texas		63				4	Kansas	73

							North Texas	59

						4	Kansas	71

	Miami (FL)	64										Dayton		63

10	Alabama	96										Belmont		61

						10	Alabama	68

							Iona	72

7th-Place Game			10	Alabama	80				Iona		65	3rd-Place Game

				Drake	71				Belmont		72

North Texas		57				Belmont		74				4	Kansas	96

Drake		54				Drake		69					Iona	83

ESPN Events Invitational

Standings history

Brackets

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

Future Fields

2025

References

External links

Wikiwand - on