NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale men's basketball team is slated for a Thanksgiving trip to the Sunshine State, as the Bulldogs will compete in the 2026 ESPN Events Invitational at the State Farm Field House inside ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Kissimmee, Florida. Yale will join a talented field of programs for one of the premier early-season tournaments in college basketball.
The tournament is scheduled for Nov. 23-27 and will feature a 10-team field divided between the Adventure Group and the Magic Group. The six-team Adventure Group includes Akron, Appalachian State, Belmont, St. Bonaventure, Wright State, and Yale. Those six teams will each play three games from Nov. 23-25. The Magic Group features Boston College, UCF, Cincinnati, and Georgia. Two games will be played on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 26, with the teams switching opponents for two additional games on Friday, Nov. 27.
Matchups and streaming will be released at a later date.
About ESPN Events
ESPN Events, a division of ESPN, owns and operates a portfolio of collegiate sporting events nationwide. In the 2024-25 academic year, the 34-event schedule includes four early-season college football kickoff games, 17 college bowl games, 10 college basketball events, the premiere regular season college softball and gymnastics events, as well as the Band of the Year National Championship. Collectively, these events account for over 400 hours of live programming on ESPN platforms, reaching 60 million viewers and attracting more than 650,000 annual attendees. Each year, the portfolio of events features more than 20 Division I conferences and hosts over 4,000 participating student-athletes. With satellite offices in more than 10 cities across the country, ESPN Events builds relationships with conferences, schools and local communities, as well as providing unique experiences for teams and fans.
About ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex
ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex is where sports dreams come true for athletes and fans of all ages. Located at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, the complex is the home of a variety of events including Disney Soccer and Disney Spring Training and has accommodated 70 different sports featuring athletes from 70 different countries since opening in 1997. Designed to provide professional, amateur and youth athletes with experiences synonymous with the names Disney and ESPN, the 260+-acre facility features multiple competition venues, including 16 baseball/softball fields; a 9,500-seat stadium; a state-of-the-art indoor arena and two versatile field houses for basketball, volleyball, and other indoor sports; and 17 multi-purpose fields for outdoor sports including soccer, football and field hockey. The complex includes a professional production center that produces content for global distribution on the Disney family of networks. For more information, visit www.disneysportsnews.com for news releases, photos and videos.
