By Tom St. Myer
Basketball falls relatively low on the sports pecking order in Pensacola except for one week each March when the Sun Belt Conference turns the city into a basketball mecca.
“It’s Pensacola’s Super Bowl,” said Ray Palmer, the Pensacola Sports Association president, of the Sun Belt Conference basketball championships. “You walk into the parking lot of the Bay Center and there are bands performing, cheerleaders are performing. You can’t help but be jacked up and excited knowing I’m really at something big.”
The 2024 men’s and women’s tournaments tip off Tuesday, March 5, and last through the championship games Monday, March 11. A total of 26 games will be played in the Bay Center as men’s and women’s teams vie for their respective conference championships and the accompanying automatic NCAA Tournament berths. The University of Louisiana men and James Madison University women will take the court as defending champions.
Pensacola will be showcased nationally with games broadcast on the ESPN family of networks and covered by various media outlets. The Bay Center is antiquated, but Sun Belt officials rave about Pensacola as a host city. Its location is ideal for a conference with 14 schools spread across 10 states ranging from West Virginia to Texas. The lodging and food options only strengthen its appeal.
“Because Pensacola is such a great town with the beaches, the weather, so much to do, you don’t have to be in close proximity,” said Keith Gill, the Sun Belt commissioner. “It’s a draw for schools and all the parts of our footprint, no matter how far from Pensacola.”
Heads in Beds
The Pensacola hospitality and tourism industry benefits tremendously from the city hosting the tournaments. According to Visit Pensacola, the 2023 Sun Belt tournaments attracted 10,000 unique attendees, with 6,100 locals and 3,900 out-of-county attendees. Out-of-county visitors generated 6,930 nights in paid accommodations, spent $2.8 million and generated $4.34 million in economic impact in the Pensacola area.
“It’s during a time we could use the increased number of visitors,” said Darien Schaefer, the Visit Pensacola President/CEO. “There are opportunities September through March that we’re putting our focus on. We certainly don’t need to pile on in the middle of the summer.”
Schaefer noted fan support and participation have grown each year. The economic impact of the 2023 Sun Belt tournaments increased by about $1.5 million from the 2022 tournaments. What caused the increase? The Sun Belt expanded from 12 to 14 schools. That meant two additional men’s teams and two additional women’s teams, along with their pep bands, cheerleaders and dozens of others associated with the programs.
Expansion for the Sun Belt has extended beyond the number of schools. The conference is venturing into new sports, including swimming and diving, men’s soccer and beach volleyball.
“This really is about just trying to provide opportunities for young people, right?” Gill said. “There are opportunities to play a sport they love and opportunities to get a world-class education at a Sun Belt school.”
Educational opportunities at Sun Belt schools will be included during the weeklong festivities. Education Day is 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. March 6 at the Bay Center. Sun Belt invites 350-450 high school students to attend Education Day and will cover the cost of admission to the game and lunch for each student and teacher. Stations will be set up that include information on college admissions, athletics, health and wellness.
Other activities the conference planned include a busy Saturday, March 9, that features Fan Fest, a Dribble Drive for children ages 3-12 and discounted tickets for active military and veterans.
“One of our big things is obviously we’re trying to bring people to Pensacola, so obviously they can see it and experience it, but we’re trying to engage the community,” Gill said. “This is a community event, and we want to make sure that we create opportunities for all aspects of the community to get involved in the Sun Belt basketball tournament.”
Sun Belt Competition
The Sun Belt competes at the highest level in 20 sports. Its football programs compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision, and 12 of its teams qualified for bowl games this past season. Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia State, South Alabama and Texas State each claimed bowl victories. James Madison generated national notoriety for winning its first 10 games of the season, including a victory over a Power 5 Program in Virginia.
Gill attributed the banner football season to a sky-is-the-limit mindset that permeates throughout the conference.
“It’s one of those ‘shoot for the stars,’ but if you miss, you’ll be at the moon, or you’ll be halfway there,” he said.
Sun Belt teams experienced similar success in other fall team sports. Multiple teams in volleyball and men’s and women’s soccer earned NCAA Tournament bids.
The conference has yet to reach that level of success on the hardwood. Only the tournament champion in men’s and women’s basketball traditionally plays in the NCAA Tournament.
The last conference champion to win an NCAA Tournament game on the men’s side occurred in 2016 when Little Rock upset No. 12 Purdue. Last year’s champion Louisiana nearly upset No. 20 Tennessee, losing 58-55. On the women’s side, the last Sun Belt champion to win an NCAA Tournament game occurred in 2015. Little Rock upset sixth-seeded Texas A&M.
No one is mistaking the Sun Belt teams for the blue bloods of college basketball, but Palmer said he walked away impressed by the talent level at each of the three previous Sun Belt Conference tournaments played at the Bay Center.
“We don’t have Division I sports here on a day-to-day basis, and it’s a different level of student-athlete that plays Division I,” Palmer said. “It’s an opportunity for our community to see Division I basketball, which they can’t see otherwise without driving an absolute minimum of an hour.”
The Bay Center is where childhood dreams came true in the previous three seasons. The same will unfold March 11 when the champions punch their tickets to the Big Dance.
“March Madness comes to Pensacola, and if you think about all the times you’ve either been in the driveway or the gym and you’re counting down in your head 3, 2, 1, and you fire up the shot, and if you miss it, then you redo it, but you don’t really get to redo it in the real games,”
Gill said.
He continued, “And so, getting to watch that drama and to see that all unfold is really something to behold. We invite everybody to come out and certainly bring their children, because it is really good basketball by folks that at one point were the little child or the young person dreaming about hitting the winning basket.”
Ticket booklets to all sessions and single-game tickets are available through the Bay Center box office or Ticketmaster. Single-game tickets start at $5 for children and $15 for adults. Additional fees may apply.
