Someday, very soon, Major League Baseball will be on your television screen for the first time in 2025. Before then, it’s time to get excited about college baseball’s return. One of the main attractions of the college baseball season is MLB’s Desert Invitational, held in Arizona.
The event brings together eight college baseball programs featuring top prospects across the United States. In 2024, players like shortstop Kaelen Culpepper, the Minnesota Twins’ No. 4 overall prospect (per MLB.com) from Kansas State University, competed.
In 2024, the event hosted eight teams for the first time in tournament history. Participating teams included Boston College, Brigham Young University (BYU), the University of California, Georgetown University, Grand Canyon University, Kansas State University, Ohio State University, and the University of Southern California (USC). Grand Canyon was the top team in 2024, going 3-0 in the tournament.
In 2025, the eight schools competing are Austin Peay State University, Grand Canyon University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of New Mexico, San Diego State University, Seton Hall University, University of California, Irvine, and Vanderbilt University. The games will be played from Feb.14 to 16 at three venues in Arizona: Salt River Fields at Talking Stick in Scottsdale, Sloan Park in Mesa, and Brazell Field at GCU Ballpark in Phoenix.
MLB.com will broadcast all games, and MLB Network will televise one game on Friday, Feb.14, and two games on Saturday, Feb.15.
2025 Desert Invitational schedule: Desert Invitational | MLB Youth Baseball.
Andre Dawson Classic
The Andre Dawson Classic, to be held in 2025 at Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, Florida, from Feb. 21-23, is a round-robin tournament created by MLB to showcase Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) baseball programs across the United States.
The tournament launched in 2008 under the name “Urban Invitational” and is now named after former MLB Hall of Fame outfielder Andre Dawson. Dawson hit 438 career home runs and won the 1987 National League Most Valuable Player award while playing for the Chicago Cubs. Dawson attended an HBCU himself, Florida A&M University in Tallahassee.
This year, the Andre Dawson Classic will feature seven HBCUs: Alabama State University, Alabama A&M University, Dawson’s alma mater Florida A&M, Grambling State University, Jackson State University, Prairie View A&M University, and Southern University and A&M College. A non-HBCU school, the University of Missouri, will compete in the tournament.
MLB.com will broadcast all games, and MLB Network will televise two games on Friday, Feb. 21.
2025 Andre Dawson Classic schedule: https://www.mlb.com/youth-baseball-softball/andre-dawson-classic
