CHICAGO -- Horizon League Commissioner Jon LeCrone and Olympia Entertainment President and CEO Tom Wilson unveiled the logo and bracket for the 2016 Horizon League Men's Basketball Tournament at the League's media day on Wednesday.
The tournament will be contested at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Mich., March 5-8. The return to a single-site tournament comes after extensive conversations with administrators, coaches and student-athletes on continued enhancements to the tournament. The first two years of the tournament will be contested at venerable Joe Louis Arena, home to the National Hockey League’s Detroit Red Wings, before moving to the state-of-the-art Detroit Events Center, currently under construction in downtown Detroit.
Among the planned tournament enhancements will be a celebratory event for the participating teams, increased fan participation experiences and multi-event ticketing packages. Tournament information will be posted to MotorCityMadness.HorizonLeague.com prior to the start of the regular season.
The bracket, as approved by the Horizon League Executive Council, continues the League's traditional double-bye format, with the top two finishing teams in the regular season earning byes to the semifinals, which will be contested on Monday, March 7. The opening round will see the teams placing third through 10th competing in the opening day on Saturday, March 5, with four games being contested across the afternoon and evening.
The winners of the Nos. 3-10 and Nos. 6-7 games will meet in the second round on Sunday, March 6, with the victors in the Nos. 4-9 and Nos. 5-8 games taking on each other.
Every game of the tournament will be carried on ESPN networks, with the championship airing live on Tuesday, March 8, at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN or ESPN2.
