Albany had to wait 20 years, including a three-year delay because of COVID-19, to get the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament back.
With the first- and second-round games concluding on Sunday, how long will men’s March Madness take to return to MVP Arena? NCAA Division I men’s basketball committee member Keith Gill, who was in attendance, didn’t give a definitive answer but offered a very positive review.
“I think they certainly have put their best foot forward, but it’s really competitive and those bids go out and it’s kind of cyclical, so it’s kind of hard to handicap when the next time it will be here,” Gill, commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference, said Saturday. “But certainly there’s been nothing that’s happened during this time that would prevent it. It’s been really good. The facility has been good, the teams have had good experiences and so I think it’s really been a good event so far.”
The men’s tournament won’t be available again until at least 2027. The preliminary rounds — that is, all games played before the Final Four — are committed to sites through the 2026 tournament. The Final Four is booked through 2030.
MVP Arena general manager Bob Belber said he’s hopeful the men’s tournament will be back as soon as 2027 or 2028. The NCAA hands out bids in four-year cycles with the next round covering 2027 to 2030.
“We’ll bid on all of them,” Belber said. “I think we’ve got a better shot at getting it back sooner. My hope is we get it back in … three to five years, somewhere in there, rather than waiting anything longer than that. Certainly, don’t want to be anywhere near the number of years it was between 2003 and today.”
Belber said the NCAA bid specifications will come out in July and will be due by September or October. The NCAA will make its decisions next year. Belber…
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