Report: Green Bay files waiver with NCAA to participate in $1 million The Basketball Tournament

Wisconsin-Green Bay has reportedly filed for a waiver with the NCAA to participate in The Basketball Tournament, a non-certified winner-take-all summer tournament with a $1 million payout, according to ESPN.

The waiver request was filed last week, according to ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura, and acknowledges the tournament doesn’t fall within the NCAA’s legislated exceptions. Instead, the waiver argues TBT is a “suitable replacement for a foreign tour” that the NCAA allows college programs to participate in once every four years, according to ESPN.

“When you play overseas, these teams that go to France, Spain, Belgium, whatever, those aren’t NCAA-sanctioned games,” Green Bay head coach Doug Gottlieb said, per 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.”

Green Bay athletic director Josh Moon also made the point that participating in a true foreign tour can be cost-prohibitive for a small-school program, and by playing in the TBT, it provides a similar experience against elite competition without necessarily enduring massive travel expenses.

“Let’s not worry about the prize money right now, but that could go to a charity, just let us play,” Moon told ESPN. “It’s really about our team and trying to give them opportunities.”

Green Bay’s waiver request reportedly has the full support of Horizon League commissioner Julie Roe Lach and the organizers of The Basketball Tournament, per ESPN.

“The idea of undergraduate teams or student-athletes participating and competing against retired players or current professionals overseas or any number of other types of teams that we get is really appealing to us,” TBT CEO Jon Mugar told ESPN. “We have a long track record of working with and partnering with universities through alumni teams, and now it makes a lot of sense to do that through their actual teams.”

Green Bay reportedly filed a similar request in 2024, but the NCAA’s denial came too late to mount a proper appeal of the ruling, according to ESPN. The Phoenix went 4-28 in Gottlieb’s first season as head coach following a longtime career with Fox Sports Radio.