The 2021 NCAA men's basketball tournament will be staged in a bubble in the state of Indiana. All 67 men's basketball tournament games including the Final Four will be played in the state, in a bid to keep the marquee event from being called off for a second consecutive year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Championship weekend is still scheduled for April 3 and April 5 but preliminary round dates have not yet been determined.
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Games will be played one at a time on two courts inside Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts. They will also be held at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indiana Farmers Coliseum, Mackey Arena at Purdue and Assembly Hall in Bloomington.
Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis was already previously scheduled to host this year's Final Four, in early April. Indianapolis has been the site of several Final Fours over the years, most recently in 2015.
Still to be determined is how many fans will be allowed inside the venues.
NCAA officials said a limited number of family members of players and coaches could attend games but decisions about expanding attendance or conducting fan events will be announced later. The pandemic has already canceled scores of college basketball games this season, with postponements and COVID-19 issues nearly a daily occurance.
The plan is based on a similar strategy implemented by the NBA last summer, the report said, when the league finished its regular season and playoffs in a quarantined campus at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, due to the coronavirus crisis.
The NCAA said it intends to partner with a local health provider to administer COVID-19 testing for players, coaches, school administrators and officials and will continue to work with public health officials to maintain a safe and healthy environment around the tournament
CBS Sports and Turner Sports will continue to televise all of the games on the TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV networks and their digital platforms.
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