The 2025 Sun Belt Conference Tournament is in the books, and by all accounts, Pensacola delivered. I sat down with Pensacola Sports CEO Ray Palmer to recap the highlights, the drama, and one unforgettable fan story that captures exactly why these events matter.
Troy and James Madison Take the Crowns
Troy claimed back-to-back men’s championships, dispatching a scrappy Georgia Southern squad that had been the tournament’s Cinderella story.
- “They have a chance,” Palmer said of the Trojans. “They’re in the tournament, so that’s all that matters.” The two athletic brothers playing alongside their father on the bench gave Troy an edge in energy and execution that Georgia Southern, playing six nights in a row, simply couldn’t sustain.
On the women’s side, James Madison arrived with unfinished business. “They were kind of not to be denied,” Palmer noted. “They felt like they should have won it last year and did not.”
A standout player. Peyton McDaniel, dropped 28 points in the championship game — a performer Palmer called “as good of a collegiate basketball player and complete player as I’ve ever seen” — who also turned out to be a two-time Sun Belt academic player of the year.
The Bay Center’s new lighting gave ESPN’s broadcast a polished look, and the championship crowd was loud and engaged. Georgia Southern’s remarkable tournament run made Pensacola the talk of college basketball on a typically slow Monday. “We were the story,” Palmer said. “The court looked good.”
Two Guys from Miami Stole the Show
The weekend’s best moment may have come from two 26-year-olds who drove 10 hours from Miami, picked Pensacola over Jacksonville’s rival tournament, and ended up on the front row of the championship game. “We are having the time of our lives,” they told Palmer. By weekend’s end, they had three New York friends already committed to come back next year.
It’s the kind of story that can’t be manufactured — and it’s exactly the return on investment that Pensacola Sports has spent decades building toward.
