NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The NCAA has awarded host duties for 2026 Men’s and Women’s Fencing Championships championships to the University of Notre Dame.
“This will be twice in a five-year span beginning in 2022 that we will host the NCAAs, and our eleventh time overall,” said head coach Gia Kvaratskhelia. “It’s always an honor to bring college fencing home. It is a salute to the strength of our program and the University’s commitment to it, as well as a vote of confidence in our ability to give the Championship the setting it deserves.”
The Irish recently were the institutional host of the 2017 NCAA Championship down in Indianapolis, where they won their ninth title in program history. Notre Dame is set to host the 2022 NCAA Championship at the Castellan Family Fencing Center at the Joyce Center. Prior to that, the Irish have hosted nine previous times (1970, 1977, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1995 & 1998). The Irish men and women both won the title when the Irish hosted in 1977 and the women won the title in 1987 when it was held at Notre Dame.
This is the third time for this specific NCAA championship bid process, which created the largest host site announcement ever, spanning 86 championships across a four-year cycle. Previously, selection announcements varied by sport. This process now gives the NCAA and host sites more time to plan each championship experience.
Bidding for 86 of 90 NCAA championships began in August 2019 and more than 3,000 bid applications were ultimately submitted. Each sport committee, per division, selected the host sites it believed would provide the ultimate experience for the respective student-athletes, resulting in more than 450 total championship event sites being awarded. More than 54,000 student-athletes compete in NCAA championships each year. The four championships not included in the process due to preexisting site arrangements are: Division I baseball, Division I football, Division I softball and Division III women’s ice hockey.
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