Houston will host an NCAA men’s regional tournament in 2020 at Toyota Center.
Houston won’t have to wait long for the return of March Madness.
A year after the city hosted the Final Four, Toyota Center for the first time was awarded the South Regional of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in 2020, the NCAA announced Tuesday. The University of Houston will serve as the host school.
It will be the 12th time NCAA Tournament games will be played in Houston. NRG Stadium has hosted the last five: the Final Four (2011 and 2016) and South Regional (2008, 2010 and 2015).
The Harris CountyHouston Sports Authority, Toyota Center and Rockets submitted a joint bid to host first- and second-round games and regionals during the next four-year cycle.
“The bid is highly competitive,” said Janis Schmees Burke, CEO of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority. “There are many cities around the country that want to host these type of events, so we are very pleased with this date. I think we have avid sports fans that love the game of basketball.”
Long having a preference to play its regionals in larger venues, the NCAA appears to have reversed course since many of Tuesday’s non-Final Four sites are NBA and college arenas. Toyota Center has a capacity of 18,043.
The other three regional sites in 2020 are Los Angeles (Staples Center), Indianapolis (Lucas Oil Stadium) and New York City (Madison Square Garden).
Other Texas cities awarded basketball games were Dallas (American Airlines Arena) for firstand second-round games in 2021, Fort Worth (the new Fort Worth Arena) for first- and second-round games in 2022 and San Antonio (AT&T Center) for the South Regional in 2022.
Still undecided, however, is Texas’ proposed bathroom bill legislation and if it could force the NCAA to reconsider. Among the criteria to host is an “adherence to NCAA principles, which include providing an atmosphere that is safe and respects the dignity of all attendees.”
In September, the NCAA pulled seven championships in 2016-17 from North Carolina in response to that state’s bathroom bill. On Tuesday, the state was awarded championship games after it repealed parts of the law.
The NCAA also announced that the 2018 Division III Football Championship will be played at Woodforest Bank Stadium in Shenandoah, marking the first time in 26 years the game will not be played in Salem, Va. Woodforest Bank Stadium is where The Woodlands, College Park and Oak Ridge high schools play their games.