The Horizon League men's basketball conference tournament is held annually at the end of the men's

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

regular season. The tournament has been played each year since 1980. The winner of the tournament is designated the

Horizon League The Horizon League is an 11-school collegiate athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, whose members are located in and near the Great Lakes region. The Horizon League founded in 1979 as the Midw ...

Tournament Champion and receives the conference's automatic bid to the

NCAA men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...

. The finals of the tournament are typically among the first held before the field for the NCAA tournament is announced.

History and tournament format

Through 2002, the entire tournament was hosted at a single venue. From 2003 through 2015, all first-round matches were played at the home court of the higher-seeded team involved. Hosting rights for the quarterfinals and semifinals were awarded to the winner of the regular season championship. The championship game was played at the home arena of the higher remaining seed. This format rewarded the regular-season champion and runner-up with a double-bye into the semifinals. The regular-season champion received the added benefit of home-court advantage in the semifinals, plus a home-court final if it won its semifinal. Beginning in 2009, the Horizon League secured an entitlement sponsorship of its men's and women's basketball tournaments with Speedway SuperAmerica, a major gas and convenience store chain throughout the midwest United States, officially changing the name of the tournaments to "The Speedway Horizon League Men's/Women's Basketball Championship". From 2016 to 2019, the Horizon League tournament was held in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

under a five-year deal, beginning at Joe Lewis Arena, adding the women's tournament in 2017 (with both events marketed under the title ''Motor City Madness''), and moving to the new

Little Caesars Arena Little Caesars Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Midtown Detroit. Opened on September 5, 2017, the arena, which cost $862.9 million to construct, replaced Joe Louis Arena and The Palace of Auburn Hills as the home of the Detroit Red Wings of ...

beginning in 2018. As part of a contract carried over from Joe Louis Arena, Little Caesars Arena hosted the

's men's and

women's A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

basketball tournaments until 2019, under the blanket title ''Motor City Madness''. However, the contract with Detroit was ended a year early; the league reopened bidding for the men's and women's tournaments in 2018, with the new contract taking effect with the 2019–20 season. On January 25, 2019, the conference announced that Indianapolis would host the men's and women's semifinals and final from 2020 to 2022, with

Indiana Farmers Coliseum The Indiana Farmers Coliseum (originally Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum and formerly Pepsi Coliseum and Fairgrounds Coliseum) is a 6,500-seat indoor multi-use arena, located on the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis. The Indiana Far ...

as the venue. In 2022, the deal was extended through 2026.

Horizon League tournament championship game records

;Notes * Current conference members in bold.

Horizon League Tournament all-time standings

Current members

:''Through 2020 tournament finals''

Former members

Horizon League Tournament results

Post-season success

Horizon League members past and present have made several Sweet 16, Elite Eight, and Final Four appearances. Charter member Loyola also won the

1963 NCAA tournament The 1963 NCAA University Division basketball tournament involved 25 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball in the United States. It began on March 9, 1963, and en ...

Championships and post-season appearances

Broadcasters

Television

Radio

Notes

{{NCAA men's college basketball tournament navbox Recurring sporting events established in 1980