Cancún Challenge Explained

Cancun Challenge
Sport:	College Basketball
Location:	United States (campus sites) Mexico (Riviera Maya)
Month Played:	November
Established:	2005 (Women's) 2008 (Men's)
Teams:	10 (Women's) 8 (Men's)
Format:	MTE
Current Champion:	James Madison (Men's Riviera Division) Radford (Men's Mayan Division)

The Cancun Challenge (Spanish; Castilian: Desafío Cancún) is a college basketball tournament organized by Triple Crown Sports which currently features eight NCAA Division I men's basketball teams and ten women's basketball teams. The formats of the men's and women's tournaments have varied from year to year. The men's tournament currently splits the eight teams into two divisions of four and consists of games played in the United States at participants' campus sites followed by a bracketed tournament played in (or near) Cancún, Mexico. The women's tournament splits the ten teams into one division of six and one division of four and each features round-robin play in Cancún with no bracket, and therefore no champion. The two divisions in each tournament are the Riviera Division and the Mayan Division.

The Mexico portion of the event has been held at multiple venues in and around Cancún. The inaugural 2005 tournament was relocated from the Moon Palace Resort to the Aventura Spa Palace Resort in Playa del Carmen shortly before it was scheduled to occur due to damage sustained at the original location from Hurricane Wilma.^[1] The tournament was held at one of these two sites each year up until 2014, when it would be moved to the Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya, where it has been held since. CBS Sports Network televises the men's Riviera Division games. All Mexico games in the men's Mayan Division along with all women's games are streamed on FloHoops.

Previous men's champions include Vanderbilt (2008), Kentucky (2009), Missouri (2010), Illinois (2011), Wichita State (2012), Wisconsin (2013), Northern Iowa (2014), Maryland (2015), Purdue (2016), LA Tech (2017), Bradley (2018), West Virginia (2019), Clemson (2020), Saint Louis (2021) and Auburn (2022). Previous women's participating teams include marquee programs such as Arizona State, Baylor, Duke, Georgia Tech, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas State, Maryland, Oklahoma, Purdue, Seton Hall, Stanford, UCLA, and Washington, among others.

Brackets

* – Denotes overtime period

2023

Men's

Mayan Division

Women's

Riviera Division

Team	Record
Creighton	2–0
Georgia Tech	1–1
James Madison	1–1
Michigan State	1–1
Montana State	1–1
New Mexico	0–2

Mayan Division

Team	Record
Maryland	2–1
Washington State	2–1
Green Bay	1–2
UMass	0–3

2022

Men's

Mayan Division

2021

Men's

Mayan Division

Women's

^[2] All games streamed on FloHoops.com

Mayan Division

Team	Record
Baylor	2–0
	1–1
Arizona State	1–2
	1–2

Riviera Division

Team	Record
UCF	1–0
USC	1-1
Seton Hall	1–1
	1–1
	0–2
Iowa	0–0

2020 Space Coast Classic

Due to COVID-19 pandemic the 2020 Cancún Challenge was not held, instead a 4 team tournament was branded as the Space Coast Challenge,^[3] games were played at Titan Field House in Melbourne, FL.

2019

Men's

Mayan Division

Women's

Riviera Division

Team	Record
	2–0
North Carolina	2–0
New Mexico	1–1
West Virginia	1–1
Missouri	0–2
	0–2

Mayan Division

Team	Record
Florida Gulf Coast	3–0
South Dakota State	2–1
Notre Dame	1–2
South Florida	0–3

2018

^[4]

Men's

Mayan Division

Riviera Division

Team	Record
NC State	2–0
Georgia Tech	2–0
Idaho State	1–1
Michigan State	1–1
Kennesaw State	0–2
George Washington	0–2

Mayan Division

Team	Record
Syracuse	3–0
DePaul	2–1
Kansas State	1–2
Princeton	0–3

2017

^[5]

Men's

Mayan Division

Women's

Riviera Division

Team	Record
Tennessee	3–0
Indiana State	1–1
Marquette	1–1
Oklahoma State	1–1
	1–2
Montana	0–2

Mayan Division

Team	Record
Mississippi State	3–0
Green Bay	2–1
Arizona State	1–2
Columbia	0–3

2016

^[6]

Men's

Mayan Division

Women's

Riviera Division

Team	Record
UCLA	2–0
Idaho State	1–1
Iowa	1–1
James Madison	1–1
Toledo	1–1
Davidson	0–2

Mayan Division

Team	Record
Stanford	3–0
Purdue	2–1
Wichita State	1–2
Northeastern	0–3

2015

Men's

Mayan Division

Women's

Riviera Division

Team	Record
Seton Hall	2–0
Georgia Tech	1–1
NC State	1–1
Northern Iowa	1–1
UAB	1–1
	0–2

Mayan Division

Team	Record
Duke	3–0
Idaho	2–1
Iowa State	1–2
	0–3

2014

Men's

Mayan Division

Women's

Riviera Division

Team	Record
Washington	3–0
Florida State	2–1
	1–2
Hartford	0–3

Mayan Division

Team	Record
Princeton	3–0
Wake Forest	2–1
Montana	1–2
Charlotte	0–3

2013

Men's

Mayan Division

Women's

Riviera Division

Team	Record
Arizona State	3–0
North Carolina	2–1
Illinois	1–2
	0–3

Mayan Division

Team	Record
Iowa	3–0
USC	2–1
Boston College	1–2
UNC Wilmington	0–3

2012

Men's

Mayan Division

2011

Men's

Mayan Division

2010

Men's

Riviera Division

Mayan Division

2009

Men's

Mayan Division

2008

Men's

Riviera Division

External links

Official website

Notes and References

https://baylorbears.com/news/2005/11/14/Women_s_Hoops_Caribbean_Classic_to_Relocate.aspx Women's Hoops' Caribbean Classic to Relocate – Baylor University Athletics
Web site: Teams, schedules announced for 2021 Women's Cancun Challenge . Cancun Challenge . Triple Crown Sports . 17 June 2021.
Web site: Clemson claims Space Coast Challenge championship . Space Coast Challenge . Triple Crown Sports . 17 June 2021 . 26 November 2020.
Web site: Tourney officials announce eight-team field, matchups for 2018 Men's Cancun Challenge. Cancun Challenge. TripleCrownSports. 20 November 2018.
Web site: Field and Schedule Secured for Cancun Challenge. Cancun Challenge. TripleCrownSports. 25 July 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20161220075003/http://www.cancunchallenge.net/blog/field-and-schedule-secured-for-cancun-challenge. 20 December 2016. dead.
Web site: Field and Schedule Secured for Cancun Challenge. Cancun Challenge. TripleCrownSports. 23 June 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160627144656/http://www.cancunchallenge.net/blog/field-and-schedule-secured-for-cancun-challenge. 27 June 2016. dead.