Men's Final Four is on the move

Oct 02, 2024
A look from floor level at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, as it was set up for the 2022 Division III women's basketball national semifinals.
2022 d3photography.com photo by Dan Hunter
 

The Division III men's basketball Final Four will have a new home for 2027 and 2028, as the event will move from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Pittsburgh.

Allen County War Memorial Coliseum has been the host of the Division III men's basketball championships since 2019, when the event left its longtime home, the Salem Civic Center in Salem, Virginia. Fort Wayne has proven to be a suitable host for the event over the previous four seasons, and has been buoyed by the presence of Indiana schools in two of the four years. That includes in 2024, when Trine University won the national title, 69-61 against Hampden-Sydney, in front of a Division III championship game record crowd of 4,546.

The 2027 and 2028 men's Final Four events will be held at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, a 3,500-seat facility on the campus of Duquesne University. It's the same venue which recently hosted the women's Final Four -- that came in 2022, when Hope outlasted UW-Whitewater in front of a crowd of 1,108.

Fort Wayne declined to bid for basketball for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 cycle. The Coliseum will be hosting the Division II men's basketball and women's basketball Elite Eights in those years.

UPMC Fieldhouse will also host Division III women's volleyball in the fall of 2026 and Division III men's volleyball in the spring of 2028.