The Atlantic Coast Conference will hold five straight men's basketball tournaments in North Carolina starting in 2025, while the women's tournament that has had a longtime home in Greensboro as the city of the league's founding will split time between there and Charlotte.
The ACC announced future sites for championships in 14 sports Thursday, coming ahead of next season's westward expansion that will add California and Stanford from the Pac-12 as well as SMU from the American Athletic Conference. Yet in a year that saw the league move its headquarters from Greensboro to downtown Charlotte, the ACC unveiled 42 future championship events — including those marquee basketball tournaments — for its home state.
In a news conference in Charlotte, commissioner Jim Phillips estimated the events could have an economic impact of more than $400 million.
The men's basketball tournament — next held in Washington, D.C. in March — will take place in Charlotte in 2025, 2026 and 2028, while Greensboro will host it in 2027 and 2029. That five-year run in North Carolina would be the longest in the state since holding 11 straight in Charlotte and Greensboro from 1990 to 2000.
Greensboro has hosted the men's tournament a league-high 29 times, while Charlotte is tied for second with 13.
That would comply with a state-budget provision tied to obtaining $15 million in state funds with its headquarters move last year. That provision required the league hold four men's basketball tournaments in the state among numerous championship events by the 2032-33 academic year.
The women's tournament has been held in Greensboro in all but one year dating to 2000 and will host again next month. The tournament will return in 2025 before going to Charlotte in 2027, with 2026 plans to be determined later.
The league's announcements also included baseball bouncing between Charlotte and Durham through 2029, as well as gymnastics; men's and women's swimming and diving; men's and women's soccer; men's and women's lacrosse; men's and women's tennis; women's golf; and rowing.
The football championship game is slated for Charlotte through 2030.
AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball