UCF Named Host for 2023 NCAA Championships In Men’s Basketball and Tennis

By  //  October 16, 2020

UCF joins Greater Orlando Sports Commission to submit bids

UCF will serve as the institutional host for multiple 2023 NCAA Championships, including a unique tennis event to be held at the USTA National Campus in Orlando.

ORLANDO, FLORIDA – UCF will serve as the institutional host for multiple 2023 NCAA Championships, including a unique tennis event to be held at the USTA National Campus in Orlando.

The 100-court USTA facility will serve as the venue for all six tennis championships in 2023. It will mark the first time in NCAA history that men’s and women’s championships in all three divisions (I, II and III) of the same sport are held at the same time in the same venue.

The NCAA also awarded 2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship first-and-second-round games to Amway Center in downtown Orlando. Amway Center also played host to NCAA first-and second-round men’s basketball games in 2014 and 2017 and the Amway Arena was the host location in 2004.

UCF joined the Greater Orlando Sports Commission in submitting bids for these events.

Since 1997, GO Sports has hosted at least one NCAA national or regional championship every year. During the NCAA’s 2018-2022 bid cycle, Greater Orlando was awarded 13 championships/regionals across all three divisions, highlighted by the Division I Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championships at the USTA National Campus in 2019 and 2021.

The 2019 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championships attracted nearly 12,000 fans over the 10-day event. Tennis Channel, which has a permanent production presence at the campus, broadcast more than 50 hours of live coverage in 2019, a first for college tennis. The USTA National Campus also is scheduled to host the NCAA Division III championships in 2022.

“Congratulations to the Greater Orlando Sports Commission for its work in ensuring that Orlando continues to qualify as the top destination in the country for intercollegiate championship events,” said UCF vice president and director of athletics Danny White.

“The NCAA announcement of these future site selections is proof of that—and UCF looks forward to its role in making those events memorable ones for student-athletes, coaches and spectators.

“Since our tennis teams play their home matches at the USTA National Campus, all of us at UCF are well aware that it’s unquestionably the best collegiate tennis facility in the country. So it’s no surprise that the NCAA has elected to bring its tennis championships back to Orlando.”

This is the third time for this specific NCAA championship bid process, which created the largest host site announcement ever, spanning 86 championships across a four-year cycle. Previously, selection announcements varied by sport. This process now gives the NCAA and host sites more time to plan each championship experience.

Bidding for 86 of 90 NCAA championships began in August 2019 and more than 3,000 bid applications were ultimately submitted. Each sport committee, per division, selected the host sites it believed would provide the ultimate experience for the respective student-athletes, resulting in more than 450 total championship event sites being awarded. More than 54,000 student-athletes compete in NCAA championships each year. The four championships not included in the process due to preexisting site arrangements are: Division I baseball, Division I football, Division I softball and Division III women’s ice hockey.

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