CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WNCN) — After two consecutive years playing in Thanksgiving tournaments on islands far from home — in the Bahamas for the 2023 Battle 4 Atlantis and in Hawai’i for the 2024 Maui Invitational — North Carolina men’s basketball will be on the mainland for this year’s holiday tournament, and their schedule is now set.
The 2025 Fort Myers Tip-Off Beach Division will feature a total of four schools playing pre-determined matchups on Nov. 25 and Nov. 27. at Suncoast Credit Union Arena on the campus of Florida SouthWestern State College.
Late last year, it was announced that the Tar Heels and the Michigan State Spartans would go head-to-head on Thanksgiving Day. The Nov. 27 matchup comes exactly one year since the two faced off at the Lahaina Civic Center in the third place game of the Maui Invitational, which the Spartans won 94-91 in overtime.
On Wednesday, UNC found out they would be playing St. Bonaventure in the first game of the Fort Myers tournament. The Bonnies were announced as the third team in the field and will face off against the Tar Heels on Nov. 25. According to UNC Athletics, it will be just the second time the two programs have ever faced each other. The lone previous meeting was in the 1968 NCAA Tournament, which the Tar Heels won 91-72.
The final team in the field will be announced in the coming weeks, according to event organizers. That program will play the Spartans on Nov. 25 and the Bonnies on Nov. 27. Game times for all of the contests have not yet been announced.
Travel packages for the 2025 Fort Myers Tip-Off go on sale on June 12.