WICHITA, Kan. — March Madness will begin in Wichita for the next two years.
The NCAA this week awarded Wichita hosting rights for the Opening Round of the 2027 and 2028 Division I Men’s Basketball Championships, adding the city alongside Dayton, Ohio, as the starting point for the expanded tournament.
Wichita and Dayton each will host three games per day on the Tuesday and Wednesday following Selection Sunday. The change comes after the NCAA’s decision in May to expand the men’s tournament field from 68 to 76 teams.
The Opening Round of the 2027 tournament will be played March 16-17 at INTRUST Bank Arena. The venue previously hosted first- and second-round games in 2018 and 2025.
“We were pleased but not surprised by the number of cities from around the country that very much wanted March Madness to begin in their market,” said Keith Gill, commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference and chair of the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee. “Like Dayton, Wichita is a basketball-crazed community that we expect will embrace the reimagined start of the tournament.”
Wichita was selected from several cities that expressed interest in hosting the Opening Round. The recommendation from the Men’s Basketball Committee was approved Thursday by the Division I Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee.
Gill said Wichita’s location in the middle of the country also played a role, helping with travel for teams that will not know their tournament path until Selection Sunday.
Wichita’s NCAA tournament history dates back to 1956, when Levitt Arena hosted first-round Midwest Regional games. Levitt Arena went on to host 24 tournament games over eight tournaments through 1981. The Kansas Coliseum hosted first- and second-round games in 1994 before InTrust Bank Arena brought the tournament back to Wichita in 2018 and 2025.
Dayton’s UD Arena will continue its longtime role as a tournament host. The arena has hosted 145 NCAA tournament games, the most of any venue in tournament history.
The 2027 Opening Round will feature the 12 lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the 12 lowest-seeded at-large teams. The automatic qualifier games will include matchups among teams seeded 15th and 16th, while the at-large games will match the final teams selected into the field against each other.
The committee also voted to remove a rule that had prohibited a school from playing at a site where it is serving as tournament host.
First- and second-round games in 2027 will be played March 18-21 in Charlotte, North Carolina; Fort Worth, Texas; Louisville, Kentucky; Minneapolis; Omaha, Nebraska; Pittsburgh; Sacramento, California; and Spokane, Washington.
Regionals will be played March 25-28 in Kansas City, Missouri; Los Angeles; New York City; and San Antonio. The Final Four is scheduled for April 3 and 5 in Detroit.
The committee also discussed evaluation tools used in the selection process. No changes were made to the NCAA Evaluation Tool or quadrants, but the committee approved an adjusted baseline for Wins Above Bubble because of the additional at-large teams in the expanded field.
“The WAB is an important factor for selecting teams, so the bulk of our time on this topic focused on that,” Gill said.
The committee also selected West Coast Conference Commissioner Stu Jackson to serve as vice chair for the 2026-27 season and chair of the committee in 2027-28.