TAMPA, FL – APRIL 07: Confetti is seen on the court after the Connecticut Huskies defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 63-53 during the NCAA Women’s Final Four National Championship at Amalie Arena on April 7, 2015 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mike Carlson/Getty Images)

On Tuesday, the NCAA announced more than 600 host sites for different rounds of various Division I, II, and III tournaments that will be held from 2019-2022.

The biggest news came from the 2019-2022 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament sites, with North Carolina receiving 1st and 2nd round games in 2020 and 2021, but no regional hosting roles.

The NCAA and North Carolina have battled in recent years over what to do with NCAA events due to the controversial HB2 bill. In early April, the NCAA said it would “reluctantly” return championships to North Carolina after the HB2 bill was repealed. The reluctance stems from the bill’s repeal not overturning some discriminatory provisions.

There are other notable events that will be held in North Carolina, including the 2019 Women’s Regional in Greensboro, Men’s College Cup in 2019 and 2022 in Cary, Women’s College Cup in 2018 and 2020, Swimming/Diving finals in 2021, Women’s golf regional in 2020, 2019 Women’s Field Hockey Championship in Winston-Salem, and others.

While the state of North Carolina did receive its share of tournament hosting roles, they aren’t getting anything major, such as a men’s regional, Final Four, or major Division I title games.

In its release, the NCAA states it received over 3,000 bid submissions from NCAA schools, conferences, sports commissions, and cities who wanted to host predetermined rounds for 84 of the NCAA’s 90 titles. 613 sites were rewarded on Tuesday.

“We want to thank everyone who submitted a bid for this cycle of championship site selections and for their continued commitment during the process,” said Joni Comstock, NCAA senior vice president of championships. “We look forward to working with our membership, the cities and local organizing committees who may host for the first time, as well as the groups who will repeat as host sites. I also want to acknowledge and thank the sports committees that reviewed these exceptional bids and made the selections based on providing the best possible experience for our student-athletes, coaches and spectators.”

“Working with our valued host institutions and conferences, as well as sports commissions and cities, to create a great atmosphere for student-athletes, coaches and fans with the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments is our goal every year,” said Dan Gavitt, NCAA senior vice president of basketball. “We’re looking forward to working with the groups that earned preliminary-round basketball sites, as well as the local organizing committees already slated to host NCAA Men’s and Women’s Final Fours.”

43 states won rights to host at least one round of an NCAA Championship and Pennsylvania had the most with 53, followed by Florida’s 51, and Indiana’s 41. The city with the most championship events coming its way is Pittsburghm with 22 preliminary rounds and finals along with the 2018 Division II National Championships Festival.

While most of the tournament and championship sites were announced, six were not: Division I Bbseball, Division I softball, Division I men’s and women’s outdoor track and field (which is two separate championships), and the Football Championship Subdivision game. These all weren’t announced due to existing contracts, and the Division III women’s ice hockey championship also wasn’t announced due to it not selecting predetermined sites.

Here are a couple notable sites and decisions made by the NCAA in their tournament announcement:

1. It was already known, but the NCAA stated once again the next five Men’s Basketball Final Fours will take place in San Antonio (2018), Minneapolis (2019), Atlanta (2020), Indianapolis (2021), and New Orleans (2022).

2. The 2020 Men’s Frozen Four and 2022 Division I Wrestling Championships will be hosted at the yet-to-be open Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

3. The 2018 Division III Football Championship will be hosted at the Woodforest Bank Stadium in Shenandoah, Texas. It will be the first D3 title game not played in Salem, Virginia in 26 years.

4. The University of Dayton will host the NCAA First Four “through at least 2022” as it always has since 2001. The U of Dayton Arena has hosted more men’s basketball tournament games than any other facility – an incredible 117.

5. The 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament will see games played in Columbia, South Carolina and Hartford, Connecticut, which last hosted tournament games in 1970 and 1998, respectively.

6. Five of the seven arenas that will host Division I Women’s Basketball Championship regionals in 2019 and 2020 will be hosting the tournament for the first time.

7. In 2022, the NCAA Basketball tournament will return to three cities for games who haven’t hosted in decades. The 2022 West Regional will be in San Francisco (1960), 2022 first and second round games in Fort Worth, Texas (1970), and Cincinnati will host first and second round games for the first time since 1992.

Here you can find the various championship sites announced by the NCAA today: Division I, Division II, Division III, and NC.

[NCAA]

About David Lauterbach

David is a writer for The Comeback. He enjoyed two Men's Basketball Final Four trips for Syracuse before graduating in 2016. If The Office or Game of Thrones is on TV, David will be watching.

1 thought on “NCAA announces tournament host sites in 2019-2022, returns to North Carolina

  1. Benefits of Sports Participation in High School and College

    A lot of people think of the scandals that have happened in college sports when a discussion begins about NCAA athletes. We tend to focus on the negative news articles we remember hearing about because that is what dominates the media headlines. For those of us who prefer to hear about the uplifting and positive outcomes, there is much to smile at in the world of high school and collegiate sports. Statistically, your grade point average might take a hit due to the demands of belonging to a collegiate team, but you are more likely to graduate high school as a student-athlete. Not to mention higher graduation rates on the bright college stage. Job preparedness, social skills, and team-building experience are just added bonuses to being a college athlete. We watch them compete and fill out our brackets every year to try and win bragging rights amongst our friends, but let us not forget that our student-athletes work their tails off for much more than fifteen minutes of fame.

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