The Armed Forces Classic is a

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

event operated on a military boatcraft, televised on ESPN, that involves one or two games played in front of military members and their families.

History

The first Armed Forces Classic was held on November 9, 2012, between

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the ...

and

UConn The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

, at the

Ramstein Air Base Ramstein Air Base is a United States Air Force installation located in Rhineland-Palatinate, southwestern Germany. It serves as the headquarters for the United States Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa (USAFE-AFAFRICA) and NATO Alli ...

in Germany. It was the first college basketball game played between two

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

teams in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. The 2016 edition broke new ground for the event in several respects. It was the first to feature two games, and also the first not to be played at a military base, with games held at

Stan Sheriff Center The SimpliFi Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center is a 10,300-seat multi-purpose arena in Honolulu CDP,University of Hawaii at Mānoa A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

. Additionally, it was the first time tickets were sold to the general public, although all seats in the arena's lower bowl were reserved for military personnel and their families. The event was held in Honolulu to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Territory of ...

; surrounding events were held at

Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam (JBPHH) is a United States military base on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. It is Joint Base, an amalgamation of the United States Air Force's Hickam Air Force Base and the United States Navy's Naval Station Pearl ...

. The game was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Games

Sites for future games are tentative and may change due to military circumstances. ;Notes

References

External links

Official Site
College men's basketball competitions in the United States College basketball competitions Recurring sporting events established in 2012 ESPN {{Germany-sport-stub