The newly expanded 76-team men’s NCAA Tournament will feature an additional site for the next two years: Wichita, Kansas. The men’s selection committee convened this week in San Diego and voted on Wednesday to designate Wichita as the sister host, along with longstanding First Four site Dayton, for the opening round beginning in 2027 and extending into 2028, the NCAA announced on Thursday.
Wichita beat out seven other finalists, sources told CBS Sports, including Albuquerque, New Mexico; Des Moines, Iowa and other cities west of the Mississippi.
The games will be held at InTrust Arena, which can house up to 15,004 — approximately 5,000 more people than Wichita State’s home arena on campus.
Wichita’s central location was a major selling point for the committee as it prepares for a major change with the expanded 76-team field. The city’s hotel capacity and passionate local fan base were also major selling points. Dayton has hosted all pre-field-of-64 games on the men’s side since 2001 because of the arena’s size, location and the fan base’s year after year dedication to buying tickets.
The vision is that Wichita will be just as reliable in the next two years as the tournament’s format will expand out on the Tuesday and Wednesday after Selection Sunday, including games in the late afternoon instead of solely being primetime viewing. Next year’s men’s and women’s tournaments will feature 12 opening-round games split between two sites on the men’s side, with Dayton hosting six and Wichita hosting the other six.
The two sites will switch between hosting automatic qualifiers (No. 16 and No. 15 seeds) and at-large candidates (the final eight at-large teams selected to the field).
The NCAA approved expansion of the men’s and women’s tournament from 68 to 76 teams in early May; the men’s tournament had been at 68 teams since the 2010-11 season, and expansion had been extensively explored over the last four years.
The bid process was competitive, sources said, with several finalists putting on a big push in recent weeks for the chance to host the NCAA Tournament. But Wichita’s proximity and location in the Central Time Zone were ultimately critical.
We will update this story with more details shortly.
