State Farm Champions Classic renewed through 2028-29 season

The State Farm Champions Classic has been renewed and extended through the 2028-29 college basketball season. In 2025, the event will take place on November 18th at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Duke will face Kansas.

The event has been the informal kickoff of the college basketball season every year since 2011. It features the programs Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, and Michigan State. These teams meet in some order with two marquee matchups guaranteed each year in the event.

Duke is 1-3 against Kansas, 2-2 against Kentucky, and 4-1 against Michigan State all-time in the Champions Classic.

Duke faces Kentucky tonight for the first Champions Classic matchup between the two squads that doesn't include Mike Krzyzewski or John Calipari. This will be Jon Scheyer's third season coaching the Blue Devils, and Kentucky alum Mark Pope took the reigns of the program this offseason after Calipari left Lexington for the head coaching vacancy at Arkansas.

The Champions Classic serves as the first exciting event for each college basketball season as all four teams in the event are ranked the majority of the time. This season Kansas is #1 at the time of the event, Duke is #6, Kentucky is #19, and Michigan State is unranked.

This is one of the most special events in college basketball and it's a way for fans to get fired up for the long college basketball season ahead with two amazing games to watch on the first "super Tuesday" of the year.

Catch Duke taking on Kentucky tonight around 9:00pm EDT, right after Kansas faces Michigan State. Both games are at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, GA and will air on ESPN.