2026 Andre Dawson Classic Returns to Vero Beach, FL February 20-26

The Andre Dawson Classic is the annual, round-robin collegiate baseball tournament designed by Major League Baseball to highlight Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and their baseball programs.

Recognized by the Higher Education Act of 1965, HBCUs have offered quality educational and athletic programs for African American youth for more than a century. HBCUs have a proud baseball tradition, and have produced Hall of Famers such as Lou Brock (Southern University) and Andre Dawson (Florida A&M University).

This event (originally known as the Urban Invitational) was first launched in 2008 at the MLB Youth Academy in Compton, Calif., and was hosted there until 2012 when the tournament relocated to Houston. The Houston Astros hosted the event at Minute Maid Park in 2012 and 2013. In 2014 and 2015 the tournament relocated to New Orleans, and those two years included participation by NCAA Division I programs LSU and the University of New Orleans. This year’s tournament will take place at the historic Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, Fla.

The 2026 tournament will feature seven HBCUs: Alabama State University (Montgomery, Ala.), Bethune-Cookman University (Daytona Beach, Fla.), Florida A&M University (Tallahassee, Fla.), Grambling State University (Grambling, La.) Jackson State University (Jackson, Miss.), Southern University (Baton Rouge, La.) and Texas Southern University (Houston). They will be joined by Yale University (New Haven, Conn.).

Each year, the tournament features dozens of Nike RBI and MLB Youth Academy alumni on the HBCU rosters.