DETROIT – In a little under 18 months, college basketball’s biggest weekend will be back in the Motor City.
Friday, Dec. 19, at Ford Field, the NCAA -- along with officials from the city of Detroit, Michigan State University, and the Detroit Lions -- officially unveiled the logo for the 2027 NCAA Men’s Final Four.
“Detroit, to me, is our biggest and best city,” MSU head basketball coach Tom Izzo said. “We’re doing such an incredible job down here that we are all benefiting from it.”
The 2027 Final Four will be held at Ford Field on April 3 and April 5, 2027. It will be the first time the city has hosted it since 2009. The Detroit that will host it this time is in a much different place than it was 16 years ago, with more restaurants, hotels, and entertainment options for visitors.
“All the improvements that have happened in the city of Detroit had a lot to do with the Men’s Basketball Committee gaining confidence that Detroit was ready to host again,” Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball, said.
“The organization, the collaboration, the business community, the civic community, the government’s support, both the city, the state,” he added. “I think the collaborative effort and the pride of Detroit, from where the city has come from, has really been impressive.”
MSU will be the official host school for the weekend, and Detroit and the Final Four are particularly special to the Spartans and Izzo.
Michigan State headlined that 2009 Final Four field, along with North Carolina, Villanova, and Connecticut. The event also set attendance records for the Final Four that still stand.
The Spartans, then led by Draymond Green, and Detroiters Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers, electrified Ford Field in an 82-73 win over UConn in the national semifinal on April 4, 2009. The win sparked a frenzied celebration inside the stadium and throughout downtown.
MSU lost to North Carolina in the National Championship game two nights later. The scenes of downtown Detroit teeming with Green and White, regardless of the result, have stuck with Izzo ever since.
“The city embraced us, even people that weren’t Michigan State people,” Izzo said, noting the economic peril the city was in at the time. “I mean it, we were just playing for something bigger.
“I think our players looked at it that way, and the whole battle cry that weekend was the chance to come home,” he said. “And do something bigger than just win a game.”
There will also be a number of fan events and community initiatives happening that weekend, hosted by the NCAA and the city of Detroit. The logo reveal also coincides with the launch of the event’s website: FinalFourDetroit.com
Izzo still remembers that weekend 16 years ago fondly and would love to see it again in ’27.
“I’m going to do everything I can to try to make sure we find a way to, hopefully, get an opportunity to play in that,” Izzo said. “Either way, I’m either gonna be a hell of a competitor that day or a hell a fan, and that’s the way I’m looking at this.”