Changes coming to Blue Gray Classic after this year's tourney

By TIM GAYLE

The 76th annual Blue-Gray National Tennis Classic may have ended Saturday with the best possible finish.

The Alabama women defeated Illinois to win the championship, while the Princeton men upset Alabama in the semifinals and Michigan State in the finals to win the men’s division. The Alabama men, meanwhile, played defending champion Auburn in the consolation final, ensuing the local tennis fans of an exciting finish to the 2024 event.

And, as it turns out, the final spring event held in the annual tennis classic.

The Blue-Gray was launched in 1949 by visionary Jack Bushman, but switched from an individual format to a team format in 1984 and added a women’s division in 2011. Both moves featured plenty of discussion among the members of the Blue-Gray board, but both were necessary to keep the tournament relevant.

 Now, at a crossroads with the changing of the 2025 Southeastern Conference schedule because of the addition of Texas and Oklahoma, the board had another difficult decision to make.

“We had a choice,” Blue-Gray president Kimberly Mathews said. “We could continue Blue-Gray as it is and never have an SEC school because they are going to start their SEC play in February -- and we can’t have a tournament in January -- so we decided to keep Alabama and Auburn as our host schools and we are going to move to a September tournament in 2025. It will be an ITA event, which gives more prestige to what we’re doing.”

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association ranks schools and players in the spring, with many of those gaining valuable attention through their competition on the fall circuit. Schools compete in the fall with a smaller roster, letting their best players play the best players from other teams while coaches try to juggle singles positions and doubles partners for the spring season. And while every event in the spring is crucial for an NCAA postseason bid, the fall doesn’t count in the standings.

“We’ll be able to get even better teams because it won’t count as a play date,” Mathews said. “To get into the NCAA, even if you win the SEC, if you haven’t won 50 percent of your matches, you’re not eligible. The fall events don’t count but they want to get the players good competition. So when we go to a fall tournament, we help them achieve that goal.”

Past Blue-Gray president Paul Winn said the date of the event -- beginning in mid-September, 2025 -- will be set by Southeastern Conference coaches and will be played on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

“Basically, the SEC coaches will set it and it will be based on these other big fall tournaments,” Winn said. “They’ll make it fit so there won’t be a conflict.

“It’ll be different. But if we want Alabama and Auburn, we’ve got to do it. We could still have the spring tournament but we wouldn’t have Auburn and Alabama.”

The fall lineups will feature smaller lineups, likely four players, creating a faster paced schedule of four singles matches and two doubles matches that can be played entirely at Lagoon Park Tennis Center. Because of the different format, Blue-Gray officials can attract any team to the event (for example, making the 16-team event an all-SEC tournament if they wish) and the cost of the tournament will be substantially less with the smaller teams.

“The other teams in the SEC have expressed interest, but they want to get through this fall before they commit because there have been some changes made in the fall season,” Winn said.

Roughly half of the approximately $100,000 raised each year to hold the Blue-Gray pays for tennis officials, but a third of the normal team format is avoided in fall competition.

“We were a little concerned about moving to a fall tournament because Auburn and Alabama and everybody else will be playing football,” Mathews said. “We will probably lose some of our host families but we’re going to have half as many players. And it should be a little less expensive for us to run the tournament.” 

Blue-Gray officials will have a little time to adjust, electing not to return to Lagoon Park until the fall of 2025.

“We didn’t feel like we could raise enough money to run it in the fall of ‘24,” Mathews said, “plus that schedule is already firm.”

Switching to a team format in the mid 1980s proved to be a huge success. Adding eight women’s teams in 2011 appealed to a new group of fans and was a success. Mathews and Blue-Gray officials hope a switch to the fall will add to the prestige of the tournament and that it won’t get overlooked because of college football.  

“It’s what you have to do to stay relevant,” Mathews said. “Most of our host families do not know about it yet. It has been a three-year discussion with the board and we voted to keep Auburn and Alabama engaged and move to a fall tournament. We felt like there was more allegiance to our host schools.”