The historic CIAA tournament is all set to tip off tonight in the Queen City.
The 2019 CIAA “Live the Legacy” Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament will feature the conference’s 13-member institutions, including its newest member Claflin University. This year’s 24-game bracket will begin at Bojangles’ Coliseum on Monday evening, Feb. 25, to accommodate a new round of games and will conclude with the highly anticipated championship semifinals and finals at the Spectrum Center on Friday, March 1 and Saturday, March 2.
The tournament’s first game will be Johnson C. Smith University (8-17) v. Chowan University (12-14) tonight at 8pm at the Bojangles Coliseum.
CIAA Officials recently confirmed that the historic tournament will no longer be played in Charlotte after 2020.
The historic tournament, which first started in 1946 and has been hosted in Charlotte since 2006, will be moving to the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, Maryland.
Even though 8 out of the CIAA’s 13 schools are located in North Carolina, attendance figures have continued to decline over the past few years. Additionally, violence and crime often spiked while the tournament was in town (last year over 100 shots were fired during a shootout between 2 rap entourages).
For tickets or more information, visit TheCIAA.com.
A portion of proceeds from all ticket sales from this year’s tournament will go to support scholarships for students attending CIAA member schools.