Mark Hollis, MSU’s athletic director, grabs his clubs and heads to the driving range in 2011 for a golf outing with University of Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon. Hollis told ESPN.com Thursday that he has received commitments from 16 collegiate men’s basketball teams to compete in a tournament in Portland, Ore. in November 2017 to celebrate the 80th birthday of Nike co-founder, Phil Knight.
Even with his history of placing MSU in marquee events, Mark Hollis might trump them all with his greatest scheduling triumph yet.
Hollis told ESPN.com Thursday that he has received commitments from 16 collegiate men’s basketball teams to compete in a tournament in Portland, Ore. in November 2017 to celebrate the 80th birthday of Nike co-founder, Phil Knight.
The event will consist of two tournaments with eight teams apiece with two teams from each conference to be represented.
Other than MSU, the teams scheduled to participate are all sponsored by Nike and include Ohio State, reigning national champion Kentucky, Florida, Duke, North Carolina, Connecticut, Georgetown, Texas, Oklahoma, Stanford, Oregon, Xavier, Butler, Gonzaga and Portland.
“All of these great programs have been supported by Phil Knight and Nike,” Hollis said in the release. “His support of the programs have created scholarships and recourses for these departments to excel.”
According to Hollis, the event isn’t sponsored by Nike or Phil Knight, but is a way that the athletic directors of the respective schools can show their appreciation to the popular clothing and footwear supplier.
The tournament would play out similar to other college basketball tournaments, such as the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, Fla., or the Puerto Rico Tip-Off Classic, in that it would begin on a Thursday evening and finish on Sunday after taking Saturday off for college football.
Hollis also told ESPN.com that the teams need to agree to attend now because many have commitments thru 2016.
Hollis has expanded the Spartan brand in past years by sanctioning the idea of playing North Carolina on the USS Carl Vinson in the inaugural Carrier Classic in 2011 in addition to scheduling a game with Connecticut at the Ramstein Military Base in Germany this upcoming November.
“You can only have two team’s per conference, and with the current climate you never know,” Hollis said in the release. “We have the commitments to move forward from the 16 schools. What we’re doing is creating the greatest in-season basketball event of all-time.”
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