MHSAA moves basketball championships to Jackson, quarterfinals to be held on campus

The MHSAA Executive Board voted to approve changes to format of the state basketball tournament, set to begin later this month. Under the changes, the

The MHSAA Executive Board voted to approve changes to format of the state basketball tournament, set to begin later this month.

Under the changes, the quarterfinal matchups will take place on campuses and the championships will be played at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson.

The quarterfinal matchups had been held in one central location, but will now be held at site of the higher-seeded team. In a case where teams are equally seeded, the team with the lower region number will host.

"This is the format we used two years ago before we went to playing quarterfinals in one location," MHSAA Executive Director Rickey Neaves said Thursday. "But when we did it this way before, we gave the edge to the team with the higher Region number, so this is a way of evening it out and giving the teams with the lower Region number their shot."

The State Semifinals were already scheduled to be held in Jackson, but Championship-round games were originally scheduled to be held at Humphreys Coliseum on the campus of Mississippi State, but due to COVID-19 considerations and the Bulldogs needing their facility for potential make-up games due to the virus, MSU and the MHSAA have agreed to move those games to Jackson.

All of the dates remain the same, with semifinal and championship games set to take place the first week in March.