The 2017 American Conference tournament originally scheduled to be held at the Amway Center will be moved elsewhere, likely to Connecticut according to several reports.
The American Athletic Conference men's BB tournament close to returning to XL Center in 2017, per sources. Had been scheduled for Orlando.
— Jeff Jacobs (@jacobscourant) February 18, 2016
The Amway Center recently won a bid to host second and third round games for the NCAA Tournament necessitating the need to move the tournament.
As Shannon Green of the Orlando Sentinel reports, having the tournament in Orlando in 2017 would book the arena for two consecutive weeks and push the Orlando Magic and Orlando Solar Bears out for two weeks. That is not something the arena was going to do.
And so they sought to reschedule their hosting of the American Conference tournament. Orlando likely will get it back in 2018 to make due from the original agreement.
From March 10-13, the American Athletic Conference will hold its annual basketball tournament at the Amway Center, with the attendant NCAA Tournament bid that comes with it. UCF will obviously be competing in that with a bit of a home-court advantage, and likely their last shot at any play.
The arena scheduling issue appears to be the main reason why the event needed to be rescheduled. It should return for 2018 and college basketball fans should get their March basketball fix with the 2017 NCAA Tournament.
