REPORT: Xavier Joins Marquette’s Battle 4 Atlantis Group

We already knew that Marquette men’s basketball was going to be in the 2026 Battle 4 Atlantis event in the Bahamas coming up this November. At the time back in May, it seemed that the event had shifted from an 8-team bracketed event where everyone plays three games to a pair of four team events with each team playing twice. The obvious presumption at the time was that Day 2 of B4A would be a Championship Game/Consolation Game format, with the winners and losers from the first day facing off on the second day.

We were still waiting to find out who the fourth team in Marquette’s side of the event was going to be after the news got out in mid-May, and now, thanks to Matt Norlander from CBS Sports, we have an answer: Everything is a mess.

Xavier is moving over to Marquette’s side of the event, and Mississippi State is taking Xavier’s spot in the group with Penn State, Memphis, and Wake Forest. Now, you might be saying to yourself, “Wait, isn’t Xavier in the Big East?” They sure are, which means that both the Musketeers and the Golden Eagles will play Texas A&M and Virginia in one order or the other at the Atlantis resort, and then go home. No Championship/Consolation format.

If you’re saying to yourself, “Hey, that’s stupid,” you’re correct. I think the explanation on what has happened here derives from the fact that Mississippi State is the team that’s dropping in to replace Xavier on the PSU/Memphis/Wake side. It would seem that the Bulldogs were the only team that the B4A administration could get to sign up to take the 8th spot…. but Marquette has already set up a home-and-home with Mississippi State for this season, so the Golden Eagles — understandably! — probably don’t want to entertain the possibility of playing them twice this year. On top of that, Texas A&M and Mississippi State are both in the SEC, so putting the Bulldogs with them gives you the same Marquette/Xavier problem.

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Wake Forest making the jump to the other side…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/report-xavier-joins-marquette-battle-135529913.html

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Publish date : 2026-06-16 13:55:00

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