Green Bay Men's CBB Files Waiver with NCAA to Compete in $1M The Basketball Tournament

Green Bay men's basketball is hoping to stay busy this summer.

The university is filing a waiver with the NCAA to appear in The Basketball Tournament, an annual summer showcase that features a $1 million prize and consists of former collegiate and professional players.

The Phoenix would currently be unable to play in the tournament under NCAA rules, but head coach Doug Gottlieb noted that other programs play in overseas matchups in the offseason and that his team should be allowed to participate.

"When you play overseas, these teams that go to France, Spain, Belgium, whatever, those aren't NCAA-sanctioned games," Gottlieb said, per Kyle Bonagura of ESPN. "So the NCAA's argument is, 'Hey, in summer competition, you can't play these games in the United States. They're not NCAA-sanctioned.' So if I played this exact same game three hours north of here in Canada, it'd be OK. It doesn't make sense."

Rules allow NCAA programs to make a foreign trip once every four years. Not every program chooses to utilize this experience and undertake the financial cost of a trip, but the Green Bay program believes that participating in TBT could be something of a stand-in for the experience.

Green Bay athletic director Josh Moon told Bonagura that the university would be willing to donate the prize money and that it is not after the monetary value but instead "about our team and trying to give them opportunities."

The Phoenix went 4-28 in 2024-25 during Gottlieb's first season at the helm. He is the fourth head coach of the program in the past three seasons but is surely the most notable. He was a standout at Oklahoma State during his collegiate career and continues to work as a radio host for Fox Sports.

The Basketball Tournament is slated to take place from July 18 through August 3. If the Phoenix are allowed to participate, they would be the first active college team in the tournament's field.