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Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, will host more than 30 college basketball teams from seven conferences during games in November and December in what is being called “Bubbleville,” according to the Associated Press.
The venue has served as a bubble for mixed martial arts and boxing events this summer.
There will be at least nine “pods” of games, beginning with the Empire Classic on Nov. 25-26, which will include Villanova, Baylor, Arizona State and Boston College. Matchups for that event have not been released, but Villanova and Baylor are among the top-ranked teams entering the 2020-21 season.
UConn, USC, Virginia, Florida, St. John’s, UMass, Vanderbilt, BYU, Louisville, North Carolina State and other men’s and women’s programs also have agreed to play, organizers told the AP.
“We think we have a facility set up that could work if all comes together,” Greg Procino, vice president of basketball operations at the Naismith Hall of Fame, previously told this reporter via email.
“We are working with Gazelle Group [which runs several events] on collaboration in this unique time. But, this is very much a concept and work in progress. The scheduling and medical requirements will not be easy. This week, there was a lot of curiosity about this from schools but also hesitancy about seriously talking about adjustments or additions until [things] becomes more clear.
The Hall of Fame on Friday announced a revised field of teams and schedule for the Tip-Off Tournament. The event will be split into two brackets called Naismith and Springfield.
The Naismith bracket comprised of Rhode Island, South Florida, Temple and Virginia Tech will play Nov. 28-29. The Springfield bracket of Albany, Drexel, Long Island and Quinnipiac will play Dec. 3-4.
Procino mentioned numerous features of the Mohegan Sun Arena that make it suitable for a bubble, including a “single-site venue for hotel, food and beverage...with no reason to leave [the] property” and “protected hotel floors for teams, officials and staff to safely bubble our group.”
Each team will be tested upon arrival. Each school will have its own secured floor in the resort’s 34-story tower hotels along with meeting and catered dining areas.
The resort’s 125,000-square-foot exposition center will be converted into a practice facility, with courts on which some games also will be played. The teams will move around through designated “back of the house” corridors so they don’t interact with the public.
The organizers plan to use a pool of about 25 officials, who also will be housed at the resort for those two weeks.
The casino had already installed safety devices as part of its reopening in June, including ultraviolet lighting and special filters in its HVAC system.
The organizers are not planning to allow fans at the games, but that could change if metrics suggest it would be safe to allow a limited number of people, Procino told the AP.
It has not yet been determined how often and what kind of coronavirus testing will be done because each conference has its own requirements.
Mohegan Sun began a phased re-opening on June 1, and has hosted televised boxing and MMA events since July 24.
“In order to safely broadcast [boxing] events, we have a wide range of logistics to consider,” Stephen Espinoza, President of Showtime Sports, told the Hartford Courant. “Mohegan Sun has provided everything we could need in terms of safety, continuity, and convenience.”
