The Mississippi High School Activities Association basketball championship games will return to the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson for the 2021 season, March 1-6.

Follow MHSAA for dates and game updates.

The announcement came after MHSAA Executive Director Rickey Neaves met with and received unanimous approval from the 15-member MHSAA Executive Committee made up of school administrators from around the state.

“We are fortunate to have a tradition-rich facility like the Mississippi Coliseum to play not only our semifinals but the finals, too. There have been many great championship moments at the Big House over the years. We’ll expect to see the same in March.”

In addition to the 12 state championship games, all 24 semifinal games once again will be played at the Mississippi Coliseum.

The third round (quarterfinal) games will be hosted by the team with the better seed in order to avoid potential scheduling conflicts at universities or community colleges. If teams are equally seeded, the team from the lower-numbered region will host.

The Coliseum had hosted the boys and girls state championship games continuously since the early 1970’s prior to last year’s move to The Pavilion at Ole Miss, which opened in 2016 and was built primarily as a basketball venue.

“Our schools and fans had a great experience at Ole Miss and Oxford last year,” Neaves said, “and all of us were looking forward to a great experience this year at Mississippi State and Starkville. But our MHSAA championship games would’ve conflicted with potential Southeastern Conference make-up dates for Mississippi State. There were similar scheduling obstacles at some of our other universities as well.