HBCU Tip-Off Tournament Cancelled

The Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions, Green Bay Phoenix , Norfolk State Spartans, and Texas Southern Tigers were all slated to start their season with a two or three games in the HBCU Tip-OFF Championship in Atlanta next week. Now, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the event has been cancelled less than two weeks before tip-off.

According to Tournament Organizer Kevin Clayton, two sponsors were not able to come up with the support they original committed to:

"We weren’t able to close the gap to what was needed to put on the type of event that was envisioned. It’s not about just basketball. We wanted to raise money for other causes and put on a first-class event." via AJC

The tournament will now re-group and attempt to have the event at Phillips Arena in 2014 and 2015. But that leaves these four Division I programs and Division II programs Johnson C. Smith, Morehouse, Tuskegee, and Virginia Union Panthers without a proper start to their season.

At this point, any sort of make-up games or games filling in the schedule gap have not been made by the four Division I schools. Most will simply start the season the following week with already scheduled match ups.