The geography of the men's NCAA Tournament is an underrated factor when filling out your bracket. Sure, the selection committee does its best to make things as convenient as possible for each team and its fans, but this is a big country. With a 68-team field across four different regions, someone's bound to get the short end of the stick — and a very long flight.
If you're lucky (or you earned it during the regular season), you're rewarded with a short drive and a friendly home crowd. If you're not, you could wind up flying 3,000 miles in order to play a noon start in front of a hostile arena. Here's where each NCAA Tournament game will be held in 2026, from the First Four to the Final Four, as well as a little bit more about what goes into the process of determining locations for the Big Dance.
Where every NCAA Tournament game will be played in 2026
The Big Dance always begins in Dayton, which has hosted the First Four every year since the field expanded to 68 teams in 2011. Once the tournament begins in earnest, each of the four regions is divided into two sites, which host four games apiece in the first round (the round of 64; eight games total per 16-team region) and two games apiece in the second round (the round of 32).
For the second weekend, action shifts to the four regional sites for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight before moving on to the Final Four. Here's the full list of every NCAA Tournament location in 2026.
- First Four: Dayton, OH (UD Arena, University of Dayton)
- First/Second Round: Buffalo, NY (KeyBank Center); Greenville, SC (Bon Secours Wellness Arena); Oklahoma City, OK (Paycom Center); Portland, OR (Moda Center); Tampa, FL (Benchmark International Arena); Philadelphia, PA (Xfinity Mobile Arena); San Diego, CA (Viejas Arena); St. Louis, MO (Enterprise Center)
- East Regional (Sweet 16/Elite Eight): Washington, DC (Capital One Arena)
- Midwest Regional (Sweet 16/Elite Eight): Chicago, IL (United Center)
- South Regional (Sweet 16/Elite Eight): Houston, TX (Toyota Center)
- West Regional (Sweet 16/Elite Eight): San Jose, CA (SAP Center)
- Final Four: Indianapolis, IN (Lucas Oil Stadium)
As you can see, there are eight first-/second-round sites in all, with two for each region: Buffalo and Philadelphia in the East, Tampa and Greenville in the South, St. Louis and Oklahoma City in the Midwest and San Diego and Portland in the West. The East region will be held in Washington, DC, this year, with the Midwest region in Chicago, the South region in Houston and the West region in San Jose.
Every host city for the first two rounds of March Madness 2026
KeyBank Center, Buffalo, NY
- Venue capacity: 19,200
- Past tournament history: KeyBank Center is no stranger to hosting the NCAA Tournament, having served as an opening weekend site in 2000, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2014, 2017 and most recently 2022. It also serves as the primary home of the Buffalo Sabres.
Bon Secours Wellness Arena, Greenville, SC
- Venue capacity: 15,000
- Past tournament history: Bon Secours first hosted the tournament back in 2002, the first time the event had come to South Carolina since 1970. Greenville wouldn't host again for over a decade, as the NCAA barred the state from hosting events until the Confederate flag was removed from the statehouse. That finally happened in 2015, and the tourney returned two years later — when a raucous home crowd helped South Carolina embark on a Cinderella run to the Final Four.
Paycom Center, Oklahoma City, OK
- Venue capacity: 18,203
- Past tournament history: Built in 2002 as part of the eventually successful effort to lure an NBA team to OKC, Paycom has hosted the NCAA Tournament four times previously in 2003, 2005, 2010 and 2016.
Moda Center, Portland, OR
- Venue capacity: 19,393
- Past tournament history: It had been 25 years since the men's NCAA Tournament had come to the state of Oregon when the Moda Center (then still known as the Rose Garden) played host to the first and second rounds in 2009. It's entered the regular rotation since, also hosting games in 2012, 2015 and 2022.
Benchmark International Arena, Tampa, FL
- Venue capacity: 20,500
- Past tournament history: The home of the Tampa Bay Lightning is a major player in the women's tournament, having hosted four different Final Fours (including the most recent one last year). On the men's side, it's hosted first- and second-round action in 2003, 2008 and 2011.
Xfinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia, PA
- Venue capacity: 20,478
- Past tournament history: Philly holds a seminal place in college basketball history; The Palestra, home of the Penn Quakers, first started hosting men's tournament games back in the 1950s. Hosting duties have since shifted to Xfinity Mobile Arena, home of the Sixers, which has served as an opening weekend site three times (2006, 2009 and 2013) as well as a regional site twice (2001, 2016).
Viejas Arena, San Diego, CA
- Venue capacity: 12,414
- Past tournament history: Home of the San Diego State Aztecs, Viejas is one of the more unique venues in college basketball: It was built directly into a hillside, creating steeply vertical stands that make you feel like you're right on top of the action. It's no surprise that it's become a tournament staple since its construction in 1997, hosting games in 2001, 2006, 2014, 2018 and 2022.
Enterprise Center, St. Louis, MO
- Venue capacity: 18,096
- Past tournament history: St. Louis and the men's NCAA Tournament go back a ways: The city has hosted three Final Fours (two at the old St. Louis Arena, one at the then-Edward Jones Dome) as well as nine regionals since 1982. Enterprise Center, home of the Blues, served as the site of the Midwest region in 1998 and was previously an opening weekend site in both 2014 and 2016.
March Madness 2026 regional sites: Sweet 16 and Elite Eight host cities
Once the opening weekend concludes, the four teams remaining in each of the four regions travel to that year's regional site — typically a bigger, pro-style arena in a major metro area. Here are the regional sites for 2026.
- East Regional (Sweet 16/Elite Eight): Washington, DC (Capital One Arena)
- Midwest Regional (Sweet 16/Elite Eight): Chicago, IL (United Center)
- South Regional (Sweet 16/Elite Eight): Houston, TX (Toyota Center)
- West Regional (Sweet 16/Elite Eight): San Jose, CA (SAP Center)
There are three NBA venues here (home of the Wizards, Bulls and Rockets, respectively), and SAP Center in San Jose serves as the home of the Sharks. There's plenty of NCAA experience here, too: Washington has hosted a regional three times previously (most recently in 2019), Chicagoland has done it eight times (two at United Center, most recently in 2022) and San Jose four (most recently in 2017). While this will technically be the Toyota Center's first time hosting a men's regional, the city of Houston has a done of history with the NCAA Tournament, hosting six regionals and four Final Fours since 1971.
Where the 2026 Final Four and national championship game will be played
The road to the 2026 Final Four will end in Indianapolis, where Lucas Oil Stadium (home of the Colts and the NFL Scouting Combine) will play host for the fourth time. And if this year is anything like the last time, we're in for a doozy: Indy most recently hosted the Final Four back in 2021, when Gonzaga advanced to the national title game on Jalen Suggs' OT buzzer-beater against UCLA before losing to Baylor.
Oh, and Lucas Oil also hosted the 2010 Final Four, the year when Gordon Hayward's half-court heave nearly lifted Butler to a miraculous title-game win over Duke. No wonder the NCAA keeps on coming back, with the Final Four already scheduled to return to Indy in 2029.
How does the NCAA select host cities for March Madness?
It's a process years in the making, one that feels more like a beauty pageant than a sporting event. Each city needs to submit a bid to the NCAA, which is then evaluated using a number of criteria — from venue size (a minimum capacity of 10,000 is required) to amenities to attendance history to geographic location to operating costs.
If you notice that a certain group of cities seem to keep popping up as hosts over and over again, well, there's good reason for that. There aren't a ton of arenas with the requisite capacity, for starters, and the NCAA isn't about to ask tens of thousands of people to show up in a city that isn't big enough to provide them with enough hotel accommodations as well as places to eat and things to do in between games. Cities never host in consecutive years, though, with most on a three- or four-year rotation at least.
Which cities have hosted the most NCAA Tournament games?
In a way it's fitting that the men's tournament now begins each year in Dayton, because no single venue has played host to more March Madness games — 137 in all, dating all the way back to 1970. That laps the next arena on the list, Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium, which hosted a whopping nine national title games from 1940 to 1964.
In terms of which city has hosted the most tournament games, though, that honor once again goes to Indianapolis, with Dayton and K.C. tied for second.