Escambia County Welcomes Sun Belt Basketball Championships Through 2030

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.

Escambia County is proud to provide the county-owned Pensacola Bay Center to host the Sun Belt Basketball Championships, keeping the tournament in Pensacola for another five years. The Escambia County Board of County Commissioners approved a letter of agreement in support of the Sun Belt Basketball Championships at the Thursday, Oct. 17 BCC Meeting.

"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."

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."

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.