Triple Crown Space Coast Challenge Ready to Run in Florida

With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing changes throughout college basketball, Triple Crown Sports has officially cancelled the 2020 Cancun Challenge and in its place will run the Space Coast Challenge, set for Nov. 25-26, 2020.

The men’s field consists of Clemson, Liberty, Mississippi State and Purdue; games will be played at Titan Field House, located on the campus of Eastern Florida State College in Melbourne, FL.

The bracket listing is here.

Here’s the schedule (all games televised by CBS Sports Network):

Wednesday, Nov. 25

Liberty vs. Purdue, 6 p.m. ET

Clemson vs. Mississippi State, 8:30 p.m. ET

Thursday, Nov. 26

Third place game, 6 p.m. ET

Championship game, 8:30 p.m. ET

No fans are being allowed to attend the games, as tournament officials have established a series of protocols (including daily COVID-19 testing) to protect the health of those players, coaches, officials and staff attending the Space Coast Challenge.

“I am grateful for our teams, their support, their collaboration, and especially their communication. Re-imagining how this event might look for 2020 required patience from our event partners, and we’re thrilled to have games on the horizon,” said men’s event director Sarah Sullivan. “I know it has been difficult to plan, and those plans have changed a million times, but our facility, hotels, restaurants, tourism/community, and medical partners have all stuck by us and worked daily to get everything figured out.”

Purdue beat Auburn to win the championship game of the 2016 Cancun Challenge; this also marks the second appearance for Liberty in Triple Crown’s Thanksgiving event, as the Flames played in Mexico in 2014.

Follow the action at the Space Coast Challenge on the event website, which includes schedule information, live stats and recaps: www.spacecoasthoops.com or follow the event on Twitter @SpaceCoastHoops. Use #SpaceCoastHoops.

About Triple Crown Sports Based in Fort Collins, CO., Triple Crown Sports has been producing youth, high school and college events for more than 38 years. TCS runs both the preseason and postseason WNIT basketball events and produces the men’s and women’s DI Cancun Challenge tournaments in November. Triple Crown is also powering “WNIT” concept events in D-I softball (NISC) and volleyball (NIVC), with those two events debuting in 2017. Triple Crown’s PV College Challenge features more than 10 of the top DI college softball teams in the country each year in Puerto Vallarta, MX. TC fastpitch tournaments (including the 900-team Sparkler/Fireworks event) draw the nation’s finest club programs, and hundreds of college coaches attend TCS events for recruiting purposes. TCS produces one of the largest youth baseball events in the world with the 750-team Omaha SlumpBuster during the College World Series. The Triple Crown Volleyball NIT has become the top-recruited club volleyball event in the country each February when 650 teams compete in Kansas City, MO.