Wichita fans helped bring March Madness back. Can they make it permanent?
The NCAA did not select Wichita on the promise that basketball fans would show up.
It selected Wichita because they already had.
Packed NCAA Tournament sessions at INTRUST Bank Arena, annual AfterShocks crowds at Koch Arena and strong support for this spring’s WBIT finals helped convince the NCAA that Wichita could become a successful home for the newly expanded opening round of the men’s basketball tournament.
Now the same fanbase that helped win the opportunity will have a major role in deciding whether Wichita keeps it beyond 2028.
“We have been granted a tremendous opportunity, but our obligation is massive as a community,” Wichita State athletic director Kevin Saal said Monday. “We want to put ourselves in a position in a couple of years where the NCAA walks away and says, ‘Why would we ever go anywhere else?’”
The NCAA announced last week that Wichita will join Dayton, Ohio, as an opening-round host in 2027 and 2028. Each city will host six games — three Tuesday and three Wednesday following Selection Sunday — as the men’s tournament expands from 68 to 76 teams.
The initial agreement is only for two years, but Wichita officials have made clear that the larger ambition is to follow Dayton’s model and become a permanent fixture at the beginning of March Madness.
Wichita already supplied the NCAA with compelling evidence that the model can work.
During the 2025 NCAA Tournament, without an in-state team in the field, INTRUST Bank Arena averaged 14,332 fans and was filled to 96.7% of capacity across three sessions. That ranked fourth among the eight first- and second-round sites and exceeded the percentage of seats filled in Seattle, Providence, Lexington and Cleveland.
National college basketball analyst Andy Katz believes Wichita’s track record made the city a natural choice.
Katz, a national correspondent for NCAA.com, has watched Wichita State fans travel throughout the country during decades of covering college basketball. The Shockers’ run to the 2013 Final Four stands out, but so do the crowds that consistently followed the program on the road and into the postseason.
“What I love about the Wichita basketball community is that they always show up,” Katz said. “To me, that was one of those criteria the committee was really looking at: Is there a built-in, passionate fanbase that is committed to supporting the event? There’s no question that was the case in Wichita.”
Wichita’s basketball reputation helped win the bid
Saal believes Wichita’s case was strengthened by more than its history of hosting NCAA Tournament games at INTRUST Bank Arena.
The city also supported the WBIT semifinals and championship game at Koch Arena this spring. Each summer, thousands of fans fill the same building to support the AfterShocks in The Basketball Tournament.
Together, those events reinforced Wichita’s reputation as a community willing to support high-level basketball regardless of the month, venue or teams involved.
“The fanbase here is ate up with basketball,” Saal said. “The Wichita community shows up, whether it’s the TBT or WBIT or women’s NCAA or men’s NCAA. It’s a basketball community and that’s why we’re both here.”
Wichita State coach Paul Mills believes that reputation may have been the city’s decisive advantage.
“The thing that allows Wichita to get over the top is our fanbase,” Mills said. “(The NCAA) knows our fanbase will support, regardless of what teams are here.”
Saal also credited the local team that assembled Wichita’s successful bid, spearheaded by Visit Wichita vice president of sports development Josh Howell, WSU senior associate athletic director Brad Pittman and INTRUST Bank Arena regional general manager A.J. Boleski.
Saal spent a significant portion of his career at Kentucky, where he gained experience helping host major events and championships. That background gave him an appreciation for the detail required to successfully run an NCAA event.
The NCAA wants confidence that a host can operate a clean event, meet revenue expectations and put fans in the seats. Saal praised Pittman and WSU’s event staff for building a reputation for attention to detail and consistently finding ways to improve with each hosting opportunity.
That history helped Wichita earn the NCAA’s trust.
Now comes the larger responsibility of proving the city deserves a permanent place on the tournament calendar.
Will fans embrace lower seeds and closer games?
The opening round will look different from the traditional first- and second-round weekends Wichita hosted in 2018 and 2025.
Wichita will no longer have the opportunity to host No. 1 seeds, national championship contenders or second-round games with trips to the Sweet 16 at stake if it becomes a permanent opening-round site.
Instead, the city will host the 12 lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the final 12 at-large teams selected for the tournament. Katz believes it should produce more competitive games.
Instead of watching a No. 1 seed face a No. 16 seed, Wichita will host evenly matched teams fighting to keep their seasons alive. The at-large games are expected to feature teams seeded near the No. 11 and No. 12 lines, while the lowest automatic qualifiers will face opponents with similar resumes as No. 15 or No. 16 seeds.
“We’re guaranteeing competitive games,” Katz said. “The First Four games have been some of the best games of the tournament, whether they’re 16 seeds or the at-large teams.”
Katz pushed back on the idea that Wichita is settling for a lesser version of March Madness.
The opening round has produced memorable games and launched deep tournament runs. VCU advanced from the First Four to the Final Four in 2011, while UCLA made the same run in 2021.
Katz believes annual access to evenly matched NCAA Tournament games will ultimately provide more value than waiting several years between opportunities to host traditional opening weekends.
“In the short time that this has been out there, I have not heard anyone criticize Wichita as the choice,” Katz said. “Because everyone knows it’s a basketball city. It’s got great history, great fans, great location. I really think it will be a home run.”
Wichita’s central location also could generate natural regional interest.
Depending on which teams qualify and how the selection committee builds the bracket, Wichita State, Kansas or Kansas State could potentially be assigned to INTRUST Bank Arena. Programs from nearby states such as Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma or Iowa also could bring large followings.
But the success of the event cannot depend on receiving the perfect draw.
That is why Saal views the opportunity as a community-wide obligation.
The opening round should attract basketball fans from throughout Kansas, as well as surrounding areas in Oklahoma and Missouri, he said. Those visitors would fill local hotels, eat at Wichita restaurants and spend money throughout the community.
For Saal, the value extends beyond economic impact. Major events also create community engagement and improve the quality of life by giving local residents access to experiences that otherwise might require traveling to another city.
But the NCAA will be watching how Wichita responds.
Strong crowds could reinforce the city’s reputation and make the opening round an annual March Madness tradition. Sparse attendance for lower-profile teams would be just as visible during Wichita’s two-year audition.
How the opportunity could benefit Wichita State
The impact of tournament expansion could eventually extend beyond Wichita hosting games.
The eight additional spots may create more opportunities for teams from conferences such as the American, which has struggled in recent years to receive multiple NCAA Tournament bids.
Katz pointed to Wichita State and Tulsa as examples from this past season. Both put together successful regular seasons but missed the NCAA Tournament after failing to win the conference tournament, then demonstrated their postseason ability with runs in the NIT.
In an expanded field, similar teams may have a stronger opportunity to receive an at-large invitation.
“I really do think this is going to give a lot of hope to a lot of different teams,” Katz said.
There is another potentially significant benefit for WSU.
The NCAA removed the rule that prohibited a host school from playing at its own site. If the Shockers qualify as one of the final at-large teams and are assigned to Wichita, they could potentially play an NCAA Tournament game at INTRUST Bank Arena.
Mills believes any positive basketball exposure connected to Wichita can help his program.
He has received compliments from players and agents about the annual support for the AfterShocks in TBT. The atmosphere at Koch Arena has become part of WSU’s recruiting conversations and another example of the community’s investment in basketball.
“Anytime you can get your brand on television, it helps,” Mills said. “It’s one more notch in the belt of another thing Wichita is doing on the basketball front.”
Mills coached at Baylor in Texas and Oral Roberts in Oklahoma before coming to WSU. He said neither place matched the depth of basketball passion he has experienced in Kansas.
He received another reminder Sunday while returning from a recruiting trip.
While traveling through the Atlanta airport, a Shocker fan recognized Mills and offered a message for the upcoming season: “Beat the Wildcats!”
That kind of devotion is why Mills came to Wichita.
It also is a major reason March Madness is coming back.
This story was originally published July 14, 2026 at 10:50 AM.
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