Chapel Hill Review

The NCAA has announced that the University of North Carolina (UNC) and the city of Cary will host five NCAA Championships in 2026 and 2027. UNC will host the 2027 Division I Field Hockey Championship in Chapel Hill. Meanwhile, Cary, along with UNC and the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance, will organize the 2026 and 2027 Division I Men's and Women's Soccer Championships at Wake Med Soccer Park.

This event marks the fourth time UNC has hosted the NCAA Field Hockey Championship, with previous events held in 1987, 2020, and 2023. The 2020 championship was postponed to spring 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In recent years, Carolina, Cary, and the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance have hosted several NCAA Championships including the men's and women's soccer College Cups in 2024 and the Women's Lacrosse Championship in both 2023 and 2024.

For only the fourth time in its history, the NCAA conducted a comprehensive site selection process for its championships. More than 240 host sites were chosen across Divisions I, II, and III for preliminary and final rounds during the 2026-27 and 2027-28 seasons. This cycle saw a shift from a four-year to a two-year site selection process.

The NCAA received over 1,200 bids from member schools, conferences, cities, and sports commissions across 47 states and Washington D.C., all vying to host rounds for 87 of its championships. The respective NCAA sports committees selected these sites with final approval from divisional competition oversight and championships committees.

Lynda Tealer, NCAA senior vice president of championships said: "The enthusiasm and interest from around the country to host NCAA championships continues to be a testament to the quality of our events." She added that more data was incorporated into this cycle's process to aid sport and oversight committees in evaluating potential sites.

Certain championships such as Division I baseball, football, and softball were excluded due to existing contracts for venues like Omaha's Men's College World Series; Frisco's Football Championship Subdivision Championship; and Oklahoma City's Women's College World Series.