​The opening round of the expanded men’s NCAA Tournament will be hosted in two traditional hubs, Dayton, Ohio, and Wichita, Kansas, for at least the next two years. The NCAA announced on Thursday that both cities will host six games apiece in the enlarged 76-team field. “Like Dayton, Wichita is a basketball-crazed community that we expect will embrace the reimagined start of the tournament,” Sun Belt Commissioner Keith Gill, who chairs the Division I men’s basketball committee, said in a statement. “Having a city in Middle America will be advantageous for getting teams from various points around the country, many of which won’t be known until Selection Sunday, to the opening round and subsequently first-round sites,” Gill added.
The expansion to 76 teams was approved by the NCAA in May. The debut of the new-look opening round is scheduled for March 16-17, with Dayton and Wichita each hosting a triple-header on those two days. The matchups will feature the 12 lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the 12 lowest-seeded at-large teams. Dayton, in 2001, hosted the original play-in game, and since the field expanded to 68 teams in 2011, the additional games have been played at University of Dayton Arena, with two games per day on Tuesday and Wednesday of the tournament’s opening week. The new arrangement in Wichita will see games played at InTrust Bank Arena, located about five miles from the Wichita State University campus. That downtown venue previously served as a host for first- and second-round NCAA Tournament games in 2018 and 2025.
In addition to framing the opening round venues, the men’s basketball committee also announced that it has voted to remove a rule prohibiting schools from playing at sites where they serve as a tournament host. The committee indicated that the full selection and seeding procedure will be released later this year.
Looking ahead to the 2027 tournament, first- and second-round games are planned to be held in Charlotte, North Carolina; Minneapolis; Omaha, Nebraska; Fort Worth, Texas; Louisville, Kentucky; Pittsburgh; Sacramento, California; and Spokane, Washington. The regional rounds are set for Kansas City, Missouri; Los Angeles; New York City; and San Antonio. The Final Four is scheduled for April 3 and 5 in Detroit. These developments illustrate the NCAA’s ongoing efforts to restructure the tournament’s opening stages and broaden regional participation while maintaining high-profile venues for subsequent rounds.