By Zach Flesch / The Jambar
The Youngstown State University men’s and women’s basketball teams will have the opportunity to reach Corteva Coliseum in Indianapolis a day earlier during the 2025-26 season.
The updated 2026 Barbasol Horizon League Championship format brings two additional programs to the stadium — one men’s and one women’s. It also helps protect the conference’s regular season champions to secure a spot in Indianapolis, rather than potentially losing a game at home and not reaching the next round.
The former tournament structure that was used since the 2022-23 season had the bottom six finishers in the standings play in the first round, with the three winners of those matchups joining the top-five teams in the quarterfinals.
Reseeding throughout the bracket now offers second-round byes for the top-remaining teams during March Madness.
The new championship format will open with play-in games featuring the No. 10 and No. 11 seeds March 2, 2026, at the site of the No. 10 seeds.
The First Round will feature five men’s and five women’s teams securing their spots in Indy with games occurring on best-seeded campus sites.
The action shifts to Corteva Coliseum on March 8, 2026, with Second Round contests featuring the second-worst seed, First Round winners and worst-seeded First Round winners.
The three best-seeded men’s and women’s teams remaining after the First Round will advance to semifinal action.
The Horizon League men’s and women’s championships will culminate March 10, 2026, with two teams punching their tickets to the NCAA Tournament.
The league office recently announced Barbasol would return as the title sponsor of the championships for the fourth-straight year.
The YSU men’s basketball program reached the 2025 Barbasol Horizon League Championship game as the No. 4 seed. The team faced the No. 1 seeded Robert Morris University on March 11, but fell short 89-78.
