The opening round of the expanded men's NCAA Tournament will be split between Dayton, Ohio, where those early games traditionally have been played, and Wichita, Kansas, for at least the next two years.
The NCAA said Thursday that both cities would 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, the chairman of the NCAA's 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 said.
The NCAA approved the expansion of the tournament from 68 teams in May. The first edition of the new-look opening round will take place March 16-17, with Dayton and Wichita hosting a triple-header each day. Those games will feature the 12 lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the 12 lowest-seeded at-large teams.
Dayton hosted the original play-in game in 2001. Since the tournament expanded to 68 teams in 2011, the additional games also have been played at University of Dayton Arena, with two apiece on Tuesday and Wednesday of the first week of the tournament.
The games in Wichita will be played at InTrust Bank Arena, about five miles from the Wichita State University campus. The downtown arena was a host venue for first- and second-round NCAA Tournament games in 2018 and 2025.
The men's basketball committee also said Thursday that it has voted to remove a provision that prohibited schools from playing at sites where they serve as a tournament host. The full selection and seeding procedure will be released later this year.
First- and second-round games in 2027 will be played in Charlotte, North Carolina; Minneapolis; Omaha, Nebraska; Fort Worth, Texas; Louisville, Kentucky; Pittsburgh; Sacramento, California; and Spokane, Washington. The regional rounds will be played in Kansas City, Missouri; Los Angeles; New York City; and San Antonio. The Final Four is scheduled for April 3 and 5 in Detroit.
AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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