2021 OVC Tournament

THIS IS THE OVC

2021 OVC BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

The 2021 Ohio Valley Conference Basketball Championships presented by Kentucky Wild will be held March 3-6 at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana.

It marks the fourth-straight year the event will be held at the venue. The Ford Center, which opened in 2011, is a 11,000-seat arena located in the core of Evansville’s downtown district. The 290,000-square foot facility serves as home of the Evansville Thunderbolts of the Southern Professional Hockey League and the Indiana Freebirds of the National Gridiron League (NGL). The Ford Center has serves as host to numerous sporting events and concerts on an annual basis.

The top eight men’s and women’s teams, based upon Conference winning percentage, automatically earn access to the OVC Basketball Championship presented by Kentucky Wild. The OVC Basketball Championships feature 14 games of basketball action spanning four days as teams compete to capture the OVC title and earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament. The opening rounds of the 2021 OVC Basketball Championships begin on Wednesday, March 3. The championship games will be played on Saturday, March 6, 2021.

The bracket shifted from a traditional 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, etc. format to a merit-based format in 2011. It rewards the top teams during the regular season with byes into the quarterfinals and semifinals.

Now, the first round of the men’s tournament features the No. 5 seed against the No. 8 seed and the No. 6 seed against the No. 7 seed. The winners of those games advance to the quarterfinals to face the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds (who received a bye). The winners of those quarterfinal matchups advance to the semifinals to face the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds (who received a pair of byes).

The 2021 Championship marks the 58th time the men’s event has been held, making it the fourth oldest Division I championship in the country (behind only the Southern, ACC and SEC).