http://youtu.be/3FEhZL2mw_Y

Last year brought the first edition of The Basketball Tournament, a $500k 5-on-5 amateur basketball tournament (though former pros and college players participated), to Philadelphia University. The tourney featured a reunited group of former Villanova Wildcats, but was won by the Notre Dame Fighting Alumni. And this year, the same thing is happening, but much bigger.

The Basketball Tournament returns with the prize doubled to $1 million, 96 teams (up from 32), and five host cities. Oh, and the final four will air on ESPN. According to Awful Announcing:

It begins on July 10-12 with 96 teams at regional sites in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Television then comes into play with ESPNU televising several “Super 17″ games, the 16 survivors from the regionals plus the defending champion (yes, there’s a champion from last year) Notre Dame Fighting Alumni which consisted of several former Big East players. And once final four are determined, they’ll go to New York to determine a champion and those games will aired on ESPN.

There’s a whole thing with “fan groups” (like last year), but this time around “the winning team’s fan group will share 5% ($50,000) of the overall prize.” More info is available over here, including a registration page to put your team together. I dibs Scott O’Neil.

[Editor’s note: We need a team.]