The Hampton University men’s basketball team will play Howard on national television during the 2024-2025 season, the Coastal Athletic Association announced Monday.
The Battle for the Real HU will be part of a nationally televised doubleheader Dec. 28. The CBS Sports Classic: HBCU Showcase will feature a game between North Carolina Central at North Carolina A&T at 2 p.m. before Hampton and Howard tip off at about 4.
Both games will be televised on CBS (WTKR-3 in Hampton Roads), streamed live on Paramount+ and played on campus. Hampton will host its game against Howard at the Convocation Center.
“The Hampton-Howard series is one of the great HBCU rivalries in college basketball, with the two teams having faced each other 92 times,” Hampton athletic director Anthony D. Henderson Sr. said in a release “The fans of both teams always look forward to any time our two schools match up, and having CBS take an interest in nationally broadcasting this game on its primary platform to illustrate the passion and competitiveness of the players and fans will allow an unprecedented audience the opportunity to see the excitement and emotion connected to the game and HBCU basketball.”
Hampton played Howard twice last season, splitting the series. The Pirates won the second matchup 63-61 in the Invesco QQQ Legacy Classic which was nationally televised on TNT.
The CBS Sports HBCU Showcase is the second piece of scheduling news to be released since first-year head coach Ivan Thomas has taken over for Hampton. In November, Thomas will take the Pirates to the Cayman Islands Classic alongside fellow Hampton Roads schools Norfolk State and Old Dominion.
Michael Sauls, (757) 803-5774, michael.sauls@virginiamedia.com
