ORLANDO, Fla. – The tournament field for the 2025 Terry's Chocolate ESPN Events Invitational has been announced, and will have ISU will have Charlotte, Furman, and Richmond in their four-team bracketed tournament.
The Imagination Bracket, which will feature the Redbirds, will be played on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 27, with the Championship and consolation game coming a day later, on Friday, November 28.
This will be the 19th year Walt Disney World has hosted the Thanksgiving week college basketball at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, and the first time the event has featured three brackets. All the games will once again be played at State Farm Field House – a venue that has been the site of world-class basketball competitions including NBA games and elite youth tournaments.
The Redbirds return six players who played in at least 17 games last season, including First Team All-MVC award winner Chase Walker, and Second Team All-MVC honoree Johnny Kinziger. ISU was 22-14 last season, winning the 2025 Purple CBI Championship in Daytona Beach, Florida.
About ESPN Events
ESPN Events, a division of ESPN, owns and operates a portfolio of collegiate sporting events nationwide. In the 2024-25 academic year, the 34-event schedule includes four early-season college football kickoff games, 17 college bowl games, 10 college basketball events, the premiere regular season college softball and gymnastics events, as well as the Band of the Year National Championship. Collectively, these events account for over 400 hours of live programming on ESPN platforms, reaching 60 million viewers and attracting more than 650,000 annual attendees. Each year, the portfolio of events features more than 20 Division I conferences and hosts over 4,000 participating student-athletes. With satellite offices in more than 10 cities across the country, ESPN Events builds relationships with conferences, schools and local communities, as well as providing unique experiences for teams and fans.
About Terry's Chocolate
Terry's Chocolate is more than a chocolate, it's an experience. Tap it, unwrap it and enjoy it: this ritual has been tempting the United Kingdom since 1926 and has become popular in the U.S. market with several million balls sold each year. This unique and interactive format has made the Terry's Chocolate a must-have Christmas stocking-stuffer and the perfect token gift all year round. Terry's, time to have a blast!
About ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex
ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, located at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, is the home of Disney Soccer and Disney Spring Training and one of the premier sites for amateur sports in the nation. The complex hosts dozens of events each year and has accommodated 70 different sports featuring athletes from 70 different countries. Designed to provide professional, amateur and youth athletes with experiences synonymous with the names Disney and ESPN, the 220-acre facility features multiple competition venues, including 16 baseball/softball fields; a 9,500-seat stadium; a state-of-the-art indoor arena in addition to two field houses for basketball, volleyball, eSports and other indoor sports; and 17 multi-purpose outdoor fields for soccer, football and field hockey. The complex also contains a professional production center that produces content for the Disney family of networks for global distribution.
GoRedbirds.com and the Illinois State Redbirds App: Your sources for Illinois State tickets, Weisbecker Athletic Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
