UNC To Host Five NCAA Championships In 2026 & 2027

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—The NCAA announced on Wednesday that the University of North Carolina and the city of Cary will host five NCAA Championships during the years 2026 and 2027.

The University North Carolina will host the following championship in Chapel Hill:
    2027 Division I Field Hockey Championship

The City of Cary, the University of North Carolina and the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance will host the following championships at Wake Med Soccer Park:
    2026 Division I Women's Soccer Championship
    2026 Division I Men's Soccer Championship
    2027 Division I Women's Soccer Championship
    2027 Division I Men's Soccer Championship

This will be the fourth time UNC has hosted the NCAA Field Hockey Championship, joining 1987, 2020 and 2023. The 2020 Championship was played in the spring of 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Carolina, the city of Cary and the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance have jointly hosted a number of NCAA Championships in recent years, including the 2024 men's and women's soccer College Cups, the 2023 and 2024 Women's Lacrosse Championship and several other College Cups.

For the fourth time in its history, the NCAA conducted a comprehensive site selection process, putting most of its championships up for bid simultaneously.

The Association chose over 240 host sites for preliminary and final rounds of predetermined championships across Divisions I, II and III, primarily for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 seasons. This cycle marked a shift from a four-year to a two-year site selection process.

The NCAA received more than 1,200 bids from member schools, conferences, cities and sports commissions across 47 states and Washington, D.C., all competing to host predetermined rounds for 87 of the NCAA's 90 championships. The respective NCAA sports committees selected the sites, with final approval from the divisional competition oversight and championships committees.

"The enthusiasm and interest from around the country to host NCAA championships continues to be a testament to the quality of our events," said Lynda Tealer, NCAA senior vice president of championships. "For this cycle we incorporated more data into the process to help our sport and oversight committees through the evaluation and selection of sites as we had so many quality venues and locations looking to host during these two seasons. We will continue to evaluate and gather feedback on going from the traditional four-year cycle to awarding championship bids for two years to determine the right cadence for the bid process in the future."

Division I baseball, Division I football and Division I softball were omitted from the process due to existing contracts for the Men's College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska; Football Championship Subdivision Championship in Frisco, Texas; and the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City.

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