The NCAA Tournament men’s regional will return to the District in 2026.
The NCAA announced Wednesday that the games will be played at Capital One Arena with Georgetown as a co-host.
“We are excited to serve as co-hosts for the 2026 NCAA Regional Championship with our partners at Capital One Arena,” Georgetown Athletic Director Lee Reed said in a statement. “March Madness is a special time in our Nation’s Capital and we are excited to showcase the city and the arena as we welcome these teams on the road to a championship.”
It will be the eighth time a regional has been played in the District since 1998 with the most recent being in 2019. Capital One Arena has hosted seven of them.
The District joins Chicago, Houston, and San Jose, California, as sites for the regional semifinals and finals in 2026.
The NCAA also announced on Wednesday that Las Vegas will host an NCAA Tournament men’s regional for the first time after the NCAA changed a policy that prevented states with sports wagering from hosting championships.
The 2023 men’s regional will be the first time Nevada will host an NCAA championship since a women’s basketball regional was held at the Thomas & Mack Center in 1991.
The men’s regional in Las Vegas was among 450 host sites announced through 2026 for a variety of sports. Nevada will host 11 events, including the 2026 men’s Frozen Four, after the NCAA changed its stance on cities with sports betting last year.
The NCAA also announced Dayton, Ohio, will continue to host the NCAA First Four through at least 2026. It has served as the site for the start of the NCAA Tournament since 2001. The extension of the contract gives the University of Dayton Arena the rights to the tournament play-in games.
UD Arena has hosted the event since the First Four began in 2011. Before that, it hosted a single play-in game for the tournament from 2001-10. The arena seats around 12,000 and regularly sells out for the four games played over two days. The previous NCAA contract with Dayton ran through 2022.
The NCAA had previously announced future Final Four sites: Indianapolis in 2021; New Orleans, 2022; Houston, 2023; Phoenix 2024; San Antonio, 2025; and Indianapolis again in 2026.
The 2020 NCAA Tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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