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Summary
Indiana's state championship at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Class finals (1A-4A) played across one weekend in late March. The Indiana state finals have run continuously since 1911 — one of the longest unbroken state-tournament traditions in American sports.
What makes this tournament distinct
Indiana's basketball history runs through this event. Crowd sizes for the state finals dwarf most other states' equivalent.
Who it fits
Best for: IHSAA programs that win their sectional, regional, and semi-state brackets.
Indiana's girls' state series. Four classes, single-elimination through Sectionals, Regionals, and Semi-States to State Finals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Runs about a week ahead of the boys' bracket each season.
First played in 1916, ran through 1972, restarted in 2000. Sixteen teams, four days starting the day after Christmas, split between the two Terre Haute high school gyms. Sponsored by First Financial Bank.
Run by the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame at the New Castle Fieldhouse — at 8,424 seats the largest high school fieldhouse in the country. A flagship in-season high school basketball event in Indiana, with boys and girls games over the holiday break.
Alaska Airlines Center on the UAA campus. Two weekends — 1A/2A first (March 11-14), then 3A/4A (March 18-21). NFHS Network livestreams every game. Branded as ASAA March Madness, hosted by ASAA and Anchorage School District.
Hot Springs. Arkansas Activities Association state finals, classes 1A through 6A boys and girls, all played at Bank OZK Arena over three days in mid-March. Free live streaming through Arkansas TV makes this one of the easiest state finals in the region to follow.
Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, two-day final weekend. The Open Division boys final is the most loaded state title game in the country most years — you have to win your CIF section first, and the Open bracket pulls eight teams from those section champs. Eastvale Roosevelt won the 2025 Open over Archbishop Riordan; Brayden Burries dropped 44 in the final.
Denver. Colorado state finals for both boys and girls, classes 1A through 6A. Great 8 round opens the week, all six championship games run on the final Saturday at Denver Coliseum. Every game streams on NFHS Network.
CIAC moved finals to Mohegan Sun Arena and runs both boys and girls D-I through D-IV champion games over a single weekend. Public + private all together (CT doesn't separate them). Ellington won D-IV 2025 — their first state title in 53 years. Greenwich girls took D-I.
The Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association crowns boys, girls, and unified basketball champions each March. The 2025 boys final saw No. 6 Sanford School upset No. 1 Dover 37-34 — typical of a small-state bracket where seeding doesn't carry as much weight as program continuity.
National Prep Tournament in Fort Walton Beach, Florida takes both high school and post-grad programs. Applications stay open through October 31. If you want a competitive early-March slot without invitation-only barriers, this is the one to apply for.