I love college basketball.

It is truly the only sport that touches all 50 states and campuses big and small across America. The tournament in March unifies the country in a way that nothing else in sports can.

I also love New England. Born and raised in the region, I’ve gone around to all six of the states to see college hoops at some point in my first 28 years of life and want to take this journey all the way to the end.

Enter The Hoops Project. This is a project with no timeline. My goal is simply to see a game at every single four-year college in New England at some point in my life. As of this post, there are 116 such colleges and universities in New England and 120 venues (UConn, Providence, UMass Lowell, and Northeastern each utilize two)

From Fort Kent, Maine to Fairfield, Connecticut and up to Johnson, Vermont and everywhere in between, college hoops is a unifying factor in the region. There are rivalries big and small in arenas both spacious and cramped. I plan on getting to all of them.

Just on my own, I have already visited 31 of the arenas in my travels and even a few more that don’t regularly host a college program.

Throughout the rest of the offseason I will be posting about some of the places I’ve been, what makes them good venues for basketball, and why you should make a day to go see a game there.

Additionally, I’m looking for the best things to do in around campus. Whether that be a place to shop, eat (I am a sucker for a good sandwich recommendation), or spend an hour just walking around. I want to fully bake into these communities when I am there and get familiar with what makes the campuses so important for so many.

This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, and I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences with college basketball fans across the country.