SAN FRANCISCO – Tickets for the 2018 Pac-12 China Game presented by Alibaba Group are now on sale to the public, the Conference announced today. On Saturday, Nov. 10, the men’s basketball teams from California and Yale will showcase their skills to a Chinese audience in the fourth annual Pac-12 China Game at the Baoshan Sports Center in Shanghai.

Priced starting at 100RMB, tickets went on sale at 9:00 a.m. local Shanghai time on Thursday, Oct. 4 (6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Oct. 3) through ticketing hotline 400-610-3721, and online via en.Damai.cn (English) and Damai.cn (Chinese).

This is the fourth year the Pac-12 will open its men’s basketball season in China. The Conference remains the only United States sports league, collegiate or professional, to host a regular-season contest in China. The series debuted in 2015 when Washington defeated Texas, followed by Stanford beating Harvard in 2016 and UCLA edging Georgia Tech last season to keep the Pac-12 unbeaten in the event.

The Pac-12 China Game will help usher in the start of the 2018-19 U.S. college basketball season. The game will tip at 12 p.m. local Shanghai time on Saturday, Nov. 10 (8 p.m. PT/11 p.m. ET on Friday, Nov. 9) and be televised live on ESPNU (with immediate re-air on ESPN2 at 10:15 p.m. PT) in the United States and streamed live on Youku Tudou in China. Tickets are available through en.Damai.cn in the United States and Damai.cn in China.

Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA), the world’s largest online and mobile commerce company, will once again serve as the game’s presenting sponsor after extending its sponsorship through the 2020 Pac-12 China Game. In addition to event sponsorship, Alibaba will distribute the game live via their mobile and digital distribution platforms and AliSports Group will support the game in the areas of sponsorship, ticketing, advertising and marketing. The company’s leadership, including Yale alumnus and Alibaba co-founder and executive vice chairman Joe Tsai, will also host California and Yale student-athletes and delegations from each university at their headquarters in Hangzhou for high-level meetings with company leadership and an academic symposium on Chinese culture and business, and the future of e-commerce.

Longtime Pac-12 partner Federation of University Sports of China (FUSC), which operates under China's Ministry of Education and also extended its strategic collaboration with the Conference through 2020, will co-host the game, and AEG and AliSports will operate the event.

The 2018 Pac-12 China Game will feature the highly regarded men’s basketball programs from California and Yale, the world’s Nos. 5 and 12 ranked universities in the annual Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). This year’s event holds special significance for California as the university is celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2018 and will host an academic forum and gala in Shanghai during the week.

California men’s basketball enters its second season under head coach Wyking Jones led by the return of super sophomores Juhwan Harris-Dyson, Darius McNeill and Justice Sueing. The trio of Golden Bears combined to average more than 30 points and connected on over 100 three pointers as freshmen last year. Cal will also benefit from the addition of transfer guard Paris Austin, who averaged over 12 points and earned all-league honors in his most recent collegiate campaign.

Yale men’s basketball head coach James Jones, the winningest coach in school history, enters his 20th season with the Bulldogs in 2018-19. All-Ivy League selections Miye Oni and Trey Phills highlight a roster of 12 returning letterwinners for a program that has advanced to the Ivy League Tournament finals and semifinals the past two seasons.

More than 18,000 fans have attended the three previous Pac-12 China Games, which for the second straight year will be played at Baoshan Sports Center, currently home to Shanghai Baoshan Dahua of the Women’s Chinese Basketball Association. Reigning WNBA Most Valuable Player Breanna Stewart has played for the Baoshan Dahua the past two seasons. More information on the Pac-12 China Game, Pac-12 Global, and the Pac-12 Conference can be found at pac-12.com.

About Pac-12 Global:
Founded in 2011, Pac-12 Global is an unprecedented effort to harness the passion and spirit of collegiate athletics to showcase the Pac-12 Conference and its member institutions around the world, while giving student-athletes access to transformative life experiences and impactful cultural exchanges. The initiative uses athletics to support the ambitious international strategies that many Pac-12 universities have embarked upon to extend their reach around the world. For more information on the initiative and its history, go to www.pac-12.com/global.