2026 NJCAA D1 National Tournament Site

CHARLOTTE, NC – Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference regular season co-champions Butler Community College and Barton Community College have both been selected for the 2026 NJCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball National Tournament following the announcement of the 24-team national tournament field on Monday night.

Winners of the NJCAA Region 6 Division 1 Men’s Basketball Tournament and automatic berth into the NJCAA Division 1 National Tournament, Butler has received the number eight seed in the 24-team tournament after winning their first NJCAA Region 6 Men’s Basketball Tournament title since 2023, when the Grizzlies made their last appearance in the national tournament. Butler’s seed will allow the Grizzlies to have a first-round bye and await the winner of number nine seed Snow College and number 24 seed Trinidad State College as the National Tournament will get underway for BCC at 12:00 PM on Tuesday, March 24th.

After falling in the NJCAA Region 6 Division 1 Men’s Basketball Tournament title game for the second-straight year, Barton received one of eight at-large berths into the national tournament and will make their third-straight appearance in Hutchinson at the national tournament as the number 15 seed. The Cougars will play in the second game of the tournament on Saturday, March 21st, at 2:30 PM against number 18 seed New Mexico Junior College, with the winner advancing to take on number two seed College of Southern Idaho in a second-round game.

With the Grizzlies and Cougars on separate sides of the bracket, neither team would see the other unless both were to advance to the 2026 NJCAA D1 Men’s Basketball National Championship Game. Top seeds on Barton’s side of the bracket include number two-seed Snow, number three-seed Indian Hills, and number six-seed Vincennes College, while the Grizzlies are joined on their side of the bracket by top-seed Howard College, number four-seed Trinity Valley, and number five-seed Chipola.

All games of the 2026 NJCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball National Tournament will take place at the Hutchinson Sports Arena on the campus of Hutchinson Community College in Hutchinson, Kansas, with all games (except the National Championship game) being streamed live on ESPN+ (https://plus.espn.com/). The 2026 NJCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball National Championship game will take place on Saturday, March 28 at 3 PM (CDT) with the game airing live on ESPNU.