Pixels: | 200px |
Sport: | College Basketball |
Founded: | 2014 |
Sponsor: | Continental Tire |
Teams: | 4 |
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) |
Owner: | bdG Sports |
Country: | United States |
Venue: | 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) |
Champion: | San Diego State |
Website: | Continental Tire Main Event |
Tv: | ESPN (2021-2022) ESPN2, ESPNU (2014-2019, 2021-present) FloHoops (2020) ESPN+ (2023-present) |
Related Comps: | Ball Dawgs Classic |
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.
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.
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 | San Diego State | − |
* – Denotes overtime period
Campus Game Contender(s): Norfolk State beat Monmouth 64-59
Campus Game Contender(s): North Dakota State beat Tarleton State 54-53
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]
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. |
Detroit Mercy | UC Irvine | Louisiana | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Detroit Mercy | - | 86–74 | 62–81 | |
UC Irvine | 74–86 | - | 92–67 | |
Louisiana | 81–62 | 67–92 | - | |
Campus Game Contender(s): McNeese State (Iona did not play any Campus Games.)
Ball State | Coppin State | Coastal Carolina | Southern Utah | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ball State | - | 79-77 | - | 94-83 | |
Coppin State | 77-79 | - | 59-89 | - | |
Coastal Carolina | - | - | 83-68 | ||
Southern Utah | 94-83 | - | 68-83 | - |
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 | - | |