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The Champions Classic will continue through 2022, and the Kentucky Wildcats will remain part of it.
The Champions Classic announced Monday that it has added three more years to the current series, which will be played in Indianapolis this season and New York next year. The additional three years will bring the event back to Chicago in 2020, New York in 2021 and Indianapolis in 2022.
Kentucky will get the Michigan State Spartans in 2019, Kansas Jayhawks in 2020, Duke Blue Devils in 2021 and the Spartans again in 2022.
“The Champions Classic has been the gold standard for college basketball’s regular-season events for the last seven years, but I love what we’re doing to use it to tip off the basketball season,” Kentucky head coach John Calipari said in a press release. “What better thing for our sport than to begin the year with four of the most successful programs in college basketball.”
Over the last 14 games of the Champions Classic, there have been 13 top-25 matchups, and Tuesday’s Kentucky vs. Duke matchup will be the first AP top-five matchup to begin two teams’ seasons since Calipari’s No. 3 UMass team beat No. 1 Arkansas in 1994.