2026 NCAA Tournament

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

8,0000 is way too big. Even Fort Wayne's 4,500 is way too big unless Trine makes the final again.

That 4500 is with significant parts of the arena closed.  I think they can get 10,000 in there.  A lot of it is how a place is structured and whether there's an upper level they can close off.  I've been the Palestra in Philly a half dozen times now - it's super intimate, with seats really close to the floor.  They keep saying you could put 10,000 in there, but it's hard to believe - just feels so small.

A lot of places could work well, but this isn't a huge money-maker, so you have to get the right city that really wants to highlight something.  It's not just about the venue, but the buy-in from the community to make it feel special.

[deiscanton]

I hope that there is enough buy-in from Pittsburgh in the next 2 years to make it worthwhile to not only have future D3 Men's "Final Fours" in basketball, but also to have return appearances for the D3 Women's "Final Fours" as well.

Pittsburgh is a very accessible city by air and bus, and the UMPC Cooper Fieldhouse (formerly known as the AJ Palumbo Center) is very close to Carnegie Mellon-- only about a 10 to 15 minute drive away from Carnegie Mellon's Highmark Center given traffic.

The father of current Colby athletic director Amanda Demartino took me to see a Duquesne women's basketball game at the then AJ Palumbo Center (now known as UMPC Cooper Fieldhouse) on one of my trips to Carnegie Mellon and Rochester back when Ms. DeMartino was the point guard on the Brandeis women's basketball team and the Judges were on playoff runs.   This would be during the 2006-09 period-- at that time, Carnegie Mellon and Rochester were travel partners on UAA basketball trips, while Emory was paired with CWRU.    John Wise, the father of one of Amanda Demartino's teammates also accompanied Mr. Demartino and myself on the trip.   I would take a bus from Boston to New York where I would meet up with the other two, and then Mr. Demartino and Mr. Wise would take turns driving to Pittsburgh and Rochester before returning back to New York after Sunday's games at the Louis Alexander Palestra where I would get back on a bus to Boston's South Station.   There was one year when I wanted to fly back from Pittsburgh through Philadelphia back to Boston to save money.   On that trip, I could not fly back to Boston on Sunday night because Logan Airport was closed due to a winter storm.   However, the leg of the trip from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia was not cancelled, so I had to make a decision on what to do.   Fortunately, I had travel insurance to pay for meals incurred during the delay.  If I had the money, and I had to do it over again, I would have booked an extra night in Pittsburgh and then attempted a direct non-stop flight from Pittsburgh assuming the airline would rebook me onto a seat.  Then, I would file a claim with travel insurance for reimbursement of at least the hotel cost for the extra night.    Any hotel room is better than having to sleep in the baggage claim area of the Philadelphia airport.   I did get back from Philadelphia to Boston that Monday, but that is a personal experience of attempting to do a UAA road trip. 

Reminder if you book any significant away trip for sporting events-- always get travel insurance, because you never know when weather can interrupt your plans. 

[Patrick Coleman]

8,0000 is way too big. Even Fort Wayne's 4,500 is way too big unless Trine makes the final again.

Fort Wayne seats way more than 4,500.

[Greek Tragedy]

8,0000 is way too big. Even Fort Wayne's 4,500 is way too big unless Trine makes the final again.

Fort Wayne seats way more than 4,500.

Yes, Ryan already explained that to me. Thanks.

[Gregory Sager]

BTW, since the DIII Men's Basketball Championship's Final Four for the next 2 seasons after this year will be played at the UMPC Cooper FieldHouse at Duquesne U in Pittsburgh, I would love a future bid for this tournament to be played at URI's Ryan Center in Kingston, RI if the Little East is willing to sponsor a bid for this.  8,000 seats and not too far of a drive from either Boston or New York.  Plus, it has been a while since the New England region got to host this event. 

New England has never hosted the D3 men's Final Four. The closest it's been to New England was Reading, PA, as Albright hosted the first three Final Fours in the mid-'70s.

New England is too far away for the midwestern schools, which make up a huge chunk of the D3 constituency. Pittsburgh is actually the most reasonably central location that the D3 map offers.

I know how much people love the Salem experience, but if D3 was ever going to find a permanent home for the Final Four, then geography, the availability of potential arenas, and airport and hotel access would make Pittsburgh by far the most logical choice.

[ronk]

BTW, since the DIII Men's Basketball Championship's Final Four for the next 2 seasons after this year will be played at the UMPC Cooper FieldHouse at Duquesne U in Pittsburgh, I would love a future bid for this tournament to be played at URI's Ryan Center in Kingston, RI if the Little East is willing to sponsor a bid for this.  8,000 seats and not too far of a drive from either Boston or New York.  Plus, it has been a while since the New England region got to host this event. 

New England has never hosted the D3 men's Final Four. The closest it's been to New England was Reading, PA, as Albright hosted the first three Final Fours in the mid-'70s.

New England is too far away for the midwestern schools, which make up a huge chunk of the D3 constituency. Pittsburgh is actually the most reasonably central location that the D3 map offers.

I know how much people love the Salem experience, but if D3 was ever going to find a permanent home for the Final Four, then geography, the availability of potential arenas, and airport and hotel access would make Pittsburgh by far the most logical choice.

 The reason for that was that the Albright head coach or AD was a principal force in the formation of the D3 basketball concept. I attended the 2nd Final 4 at Albright(1976).

[Gregory Sager]

Yep, that was Wilbur Renken, Albright's all-time winningest coach. He was a mover-and-shaker on the administrative side of college basketball, chairing the selection committee for the 1976 U.S. Olympic men's basketball team, serving as the National Association of Basketball Coaches president for two years, and he was part of the NCAA basketball rules committee and multiple national tournament selection committees. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

The UMPC Cooper Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh lists a capacity of 3500.  There have been d3 MBB final fours with attendance greater than that, usually when a very local school is participating.

For the Pittsburgh area, maybe a Mount Union appearance could push capacity, but that's about it.

I'm really looking forward to checking it out.  1) I can drive there!  and 2) there were nothing but rave reviews from the WBB experience.

[saratoga]

Ronk,
That would be Dr. Will Renkin you'd be referring to.
And, he was both AD & men's b-ball coach at Albright.
One chilly night in March 1976 the Rock & Roll Royals owned the Bollman Center & Reading, Pa. 

[augie77]

That would be TWO chilly nights in March 1976.  I was in the Augustana student section and can still hear echoes of "rock and roll"! from the Vikings semi-final loss to Scranton.  That was back-to-back bronze medals for Augustana as they'd lost to eventual champion LeMoyne-Owen in the initial Final Four. I was in attendance at both of those Final Fours at Albright College.  Two years later I watched North Park win its first of five championships as Augustana hosted in 1978.

[ronk]

Augie,
  I remember chatting with you on these boards maybe a decade ago about that final 4 game. 4,000 in attendance for the title game the next night.

[augie77]

Definitely a good size crowd but was it 4,000??

[ronk]

 That's what it said when I googled the '76 final 4; was looking for the boxscores but couldn't come up with them.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Official attendance is recorded here, although you see a lot of round numbers early on, so, grain of salt.

https://www.d3hoops.com/archives/index-men

[Greek Tragedy]

Copied from the UAA page.

The NCAA DIII Men's Basketball Committee released the official NPI summary report for games through February 1, 2025.  However, while the national NPI rankings of the UAA men's basketball teams are correct, the "official" NPI numbers of the UAA men's basketball teams as calculated by the NCAA computer are incorrect.  That is because the NCAA DIII NPI computer, for the second year in a row, is incorrectly counting games where Coast 2 Coast teams are playing each other as conference round-robin games.  The Coast 2 Coast Conference does not play conference round robin games-- only C2C conference tournament games are the official conference games in the C2C.  Moreover, starting this season, the C2C is seeding the teams in their conference tournaments using the D3Datacast NPI numbers. 

Since Emory and UChicago played C2C teams in their non-conference schedules this season, the NPI numbers being calculated by the NCAA DIII computer are different than the D3Datacast NPI numbers.

For the second year in a row, the NCAA DIII NPI calculator is also not programmed to account for the fact that the GNAC only plays a single round robin prior to their conference tournament, and is once again counting the first game where one GNAC team plays another as a conference game if the two GNAC teams play each other twice.  In GNAC, if one GNAC team is playing another twice in the same season, only the second game counts as the conference round robin game.  GNAC conference round robin action is being played as doubleheaders on the men's and women's sides-- but both the GNAC men's and women's conference games are single round robin.

The larger discrepancy in Brandeis's numbers in both NCAA and D3Datacast is explained by the fact that Brandeis played GNAC teams in their non-conference schedule.

The NCAA DIII NPI February 1, 2026 summary report for men's basketball can be located at:

http://stats.ncaa.org/selection_rankings/nitty_gritties/48516

Here are the discrepancies due to incorrect calculation by the NCAA of games where C2C teams played against each other and skewed the NPI numbers, as well as incorrect calculation by the NCAA of non-conference games where GNAC teams played against each other:

1.)  UChicago-- ranked #1 in NPI by both NCAA and D3Datacast-- NCAA has the NPI at 69.155, while D3Datacast has it at 69.156

2.)  Emory-- ranked #9 in NPI by both NCAA and D3Datacast-- NCAA has the NPI at 66.285, while D3Datacast has it at 66.283

3.)  WashU-- ranked #20 in NPI by both NCAA and D3Datacast-- NCAA has the NPI at 62.742, while D3Datacast has it at 62.739

4.)  Brandeis-- ranked #28 in NPI by both NCAA and D3Datacast-- NCAA has the NPI at 61.769, while D3Datacast has it at 61.761  (Brandeis played 2 GNAC teams, Emmanuel and Lasell, in their non-conference schedule.)

5.)  NYU-- ranked #34 in NPI by both NCAA and D3Datacast-- NCAA has the NPI at 61.198, while D3Datacast has it at 61.196.  (NYU played GNAC team University of St. Joseph in their non-conference schedule.)

6.) Carnegie Mellon-- ranked #64 in NPI in both NCAA and D3Datacast-- NCAA has the NPI at 58.345, while D3Datacast has it at 58.335

7.)  CWRU-- ranked #117 in NPI in both systems-- NCAA has the NPI at 55.254, while D3Datacast has it at 55.251

8.)  Rochester-- ranked #120 in NPI in both systems-- NCAA has the NPI at 55.194, while D3Datacast has it at 55.186