A new basketball tournament that will feature participants from the four major HBCU conferences is coming in 2025.
The inaugural Black College Invitational Championship will be played at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, from March 20-23, 2025.
About 16 Division I and Division II men’s and women’s teams from the MEAC, SWAC, SIAC and CIAA will compete to be crowned the HBCU champion.
“This may sound weird to some of you, but I had a dream in November,” Wes Bellamy, creator of the BCIC, told The Charlotte Observer. “And I could see it, as clear as day: Us having this basketball tournament here in Charlotte. I called my best friend, Russell Stewart. I said, ‘Russ. I know this is gonna sound wild, but I had a dream about this basketball tournament. We have to do this here.’ And he told me: ‘Nothing you do is ever wild, because what you always put your mind to, you do.’”
Bellamy said schools that win their conference championships will qualify for the tournament.
Teams that win the conference championships from the SWAC, MEAC, CIAA, and SIAC will be selected to participate in the tournament.
An HBCU basketball tournament has not been held in Charlotte since the CIAA tournament left the city for Baltimore after the 2019-20 season.
The BCIC, which aims to shine a spotlight on HBCU schools and local Black-owned businesses, will also include high school education days and new sponsorship opportunities.
Championship games between the CIAA and SIAC are set for Saturday, March 22, and the men’s and women’s teams from the MEAC and SWAC are scheduled to meet in their finals on Sunday, March 23.
