It had previously been announced that Creighton would be playing in a holiday tournament in Florida next season, but thanks to a press release put out on Thursday, we now know the rest of the details. The event is called the “Emerald Coast Classic”, and will be held November 28-29 at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville, Florida. A quick Google search reveals that Niceville is a city of just under 12,000, located in the panhandle of Florida near Destin and Eglin Air Force Base, or about an hour from Pensacola.
The field of eight teams consists of Creighton, Cincinnati, Mississippi, Middle Tennessee State, North Carolina Central, Eastern Illinois, Northern Arizona and Southern. That’s a better field than it appears at first glance — Cincinnati, Creighton and North Carolina Central all played in the 2014 NCAA Basketball Tournament, while Middle Tennessee State and Southern either won outright or earned a share of their respective conference regular season titles.
The tournament is split into two groups — a group of four teams that will host campus-site games prior to the Florida portion of the tourney, and a group of four teams that will play road games at the other four schools. All eight teams will make the trip to Florida, but they’ll be in separate brackets with separate champions.
Creighton is part of the “Host Teams” side of the bracket, and will play two games in Omaha between November 20 and November 25 against either North Carolina Central, Eastern Illinois, Northern Arizona or Southern. Their opponents for those two games, and the dates of the two games, will be announced at a later date.
Once they get to Florida, the semifinal and final will take place Friday, November 28 (the day after Thanksgiving) and Saturday, November 29. According to an article in the Cincinnati Enquirer last November, the Bearcats will play Middle Tennessee State in one semifinal, so by process of elimination that means that Creighton will play Ole Miss in the other. That makes sense, as Ole Miss and Middle Tennessee State have played each of the past three years, so saving a potential rematch for the title game would be ideal.
Since this is the inaugural year of this tourney, no television deal has been announced, though it’s a good bet it will wind up somewhere on the cable dial.
The event is organized by Global Sports, which has produced 25 multi-team college basketball tournaments in the past seven years, including the two recent events in Des Moines that Creighton participated in (Global Sports Hy-Vee Challenge in 2010, Dale Howard Classic in 2011). Let’s hope for everyone’s sake that regardless of whether or not the games are televised, there’s a courtside monitor to review any potential “buzzer beaters.”