# 2025 College Basketball Crown

The 2025 College Basketball Crown (CBC) is a single-elimination, fully-bracketed men's college basketball postseason tournament featuring 16 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I teams not selected to participate in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. The first edition of the tournament is scheduled to commence on March 31 and conclude April 6. All games will be played on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, with all first and quarterfinal round games at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and the semifinal and final round games at T-Mobile Arena. The first and quarterfinal round games will air on FS1 and the semifinal and final round games on FOX.
The bracket was unveiled on Monday, March 17, 2025, during a segment within the FS1 show Breakfast Ball, by Fox Sports college basketball broadcaster, writer and insider John Fanta.

## Participating teams

Note: Team records are as of the end of the regular season and prior to the beginning of the tournament.
| Team | Conference | Record |
| Arizona State | Big 12 | 13–19 (.406) |
| Boise State | Mountain West | 24–10 (.706) |
| Butler | Big East | 14–19 (.424) |
| Cincinnati | Big 12 | 18–15 (.545) |
| Colorado | Big 12 | 14–20 (.412) |
| DePaul | Big East | 14–19 (.424) |
| George Washington | Atlantic 10 | 21–12 (.636) |
| Georgetown | Big East | 17–15 (.531) |
| Nebraska | Big Ten | 17–14 (.548) |
| Oregon State | WCC | 20–12 (.625) |
| Tulane | American | 19–13 (.594) |
| UCF | Big 12 | 17–16 (.515) |
| USC | Big Ten | 16–17 (.485) |
| Utah | Big 12 | 16–16 (.500) |
| Villanova | Big East | 19–14 (.576) |
| Washington State | WCC | 19–14 (.576) |

### Declined bids

* Indiana
* Iowa
* Kansas State
* Northwestern
* Ohio State
* Penn State
* Rutgers
* TCU
* West Virginia

## Schedule

| Game | Time | Matchup | Television |
| First Round – Monday, March 31 |||||||
| 1 | 12:00 pm | Utah vs. Butler | FS1 |
| 2 | 2:30 pm | George Washington vs. Boise State | FS1 |
| 3 | 5:30 pm | Nebraska vs. Arizona State | FS1 |
| 4 | 8:00 pm | Georgetown vs. Washington State | FS1 |
| First Round – Tuesday, April 1 |||||||
| 5 | 12:00 pm | DePaul vs. Cincinnati | FS1 |
| 6 | 2:30 pm | Oregon State vs. UCF | FS1 |
| 7 | 5:30 pm | Colorado vs. Villanova | FS1 |
| 8 | 8:00 pm | Tulane vs. USC | FS1 |
| Quarterfinals – Wednesday, April 2 |||||||
| 9 | 4:00 pm | Game 1 Winner vs. Game 2 Winner | FS1 |
| 10 | 6:30 pm | Game 3 Winner vs. Game 4 Winner | FS1 |
| Quarterfinals – Thursday, April 3 |||||||
| 11 | 4:00 pm | Game 5 Winner vs. Game 6 Winner | FS1 |
| 12 | 6:30 pm | Game 7 Winner vs. Game 8 Winner | FS1 |
| Semifinals – Saturday, April 5 |||||||
| 13 | 10:30 am | Game 9 Winner vs. Game 10 Winner | FOX |
| 14 | 1:00 pm | Game 11 Winner vs. Game 12 Winner | FOX |
| Final – Sunday, April 6 |||||||
| 15 | 2:30 pm | Game 13 Winner vs. Game 14 Winner | FOX |
| Game times in Pacific Daylight Savings Time. (#) Rankings denote tournament seed. |||||||

## Bracket

| First Round MGM Grand Garden Arena March 31 & April 1 FS1 | First Round MGM Grand Garden Arena March 31 & April 1 FS1 |
| Utah | Utah |
| Butler | Butler |
| George Washington | George Washington |
| Boise State | Boise State |
| Nebraska | Nebraska |
| Arizona State | Arizona State |
| Georgetown | Georgetown |
| Washington State | Washington State |
| DePaul | DePaul |
| Cincinnati | Cincinnati |
| Oregon State | Oregon State |
| UCF | UCF |
| Colorado | Colorado |
| Villanova | Villanova |
| Tulane | Tulane |
| USC | USC |

## Quality of participating teams compared with NIT

Fox Sports leveraged its media rights relationship with the Big East, Big Ten and Big 12 conferences to create the CBC and thereby create postseason college basketball content for itself. Each of those three conferences committed to send at least two teams to the CBC. In addition, non-NCAA tournament teams from those three conferences were contractually prohibited from playing in any other postseason tournament, including the NIT, if they declined an invitation or removed themselves from consideration for a bid to the CBC. Even if Big East, Big Ten or Big 12 schools might have preferred to play NIT games at home instead of CBC games in Las Vegas or anticipated they might have more attractive matchups in the NIT, they did not have that option, which may have degraded the quality of the NIT field. No Big East or Big Ten teams appeared in the 2025 NIT, and Oklahoma State was the only Big 12 team to accept an NIT bid. Georgia Tech, SMU and Stanford were the only other power conference teams to accept bids to the NIT.
An analysis of the NET rankings as of Selection Sunday for the teams participating in the 2025 CBC and NIT is set forth in the table below.
| CBC participants | CBC participants | NIT participants | NIT participants | NIT participants | NIT participants |
| Team | NET | Team | NET | Team | NET |
| Arizona State | 74 | Arkansas State | 94 | Northern Iowa | 93 |
| Boise State | 44 | Bradley | 80 | Oklahoma State | 95 |
| Butler | 83 | Cal State Northridge | 104 | Saint Louis | 101 |
| Cincinnati | 50 | Chattanooga | 115 | Saint Joseph's | 76 |
| Colorado | 86 | Dayton | 67 | Samford | 116 |
| DePaul | 119 | Florida Atlantic | 111 | San Francisco | 64 |
| George Washington | 124 | Furman | 127 | San Jose State | 175 |
| Georgetown | 88 | George Mason | 68 | Santa Clara | 57 |
| Nebraska | 59 | Georgia Tech | 109 | SMU | 46 |
| Oregon State | 85 | Jacksonville State | 122 | St. Bonaventure | 97 |
| Tulane | 145 | Kent State | 128 | Stanford | 81 |
| UCF | 71 | Loyola Chicago | 107 | UAB | 106 |
| USC | 70 | Middle Tennessee | 105 | UC Irvine | 62 |
| Utah | 73 | North Alabama | 113 | UC Riverside | 142 |
| Villanova | 55 | North Texas | 65 | Utah Valley | 108 |
| Washington State | 112 | Northern Colorado | 114 | Wichita State | 134 |
| Mean: 84 Median: 79 Best: 44 Worst: 145 | Mean: 84 Median: 79 Best: 44 Worst: 145 | All 32 teams Mean: 99 Median: 105 Best: 46 Worst: 175 | All 32 teams Mean: 99 Median: 105 Best: 46 Worst: 175 | Top 16 teams Mean: 78 Median: 78 Best: 46 Worst: 104 | Top 16 teams Mean: 78 Median: 78 Best: 46 Worst: 104 |
Like all metrics used to rank or rate college basketball teams, the NET is imperfect. However, it is consistently applied and represents a way in which teams can be compared. While it may appear at first glance that the CBC attracted a better quality group of participants, this can be attributed to the NIT having to fill 32 tournament berths, while the CBC had only 16. Comparing the field of CBC teams with the top 16 NIT teams reveals that the quality of the teams as measured by NET rankings is similar.