The Nebraska boys and girls basketball tournament will have a new look beginning in 2023.

Friday, the NSAA board unanimously approved a recommended format that will primarily eliminate playing state tournament games in Lincoln high schools. 

A four day state tournament (Wednesday-Saturday) format for both the boys and girls tournaments will happen in 2023. The quarterfinals will be played Wednesday and Thursday at Devaney Center and Pinnacle Bank Arena. Friday semifinal games would be C2, D1 and D2 at Devaney. Classes A, B and  C-1 would have their semifinals at PBA on Friday. All six championship games would be at PBA on Saturday. The only games that will be played at Lincoln high schools will be the Class C1-D2 third place games. 

In March, a survey was sent to every athletic director, head boys basketball coach and girls basketball coach in the state asking for feedback on one of four options they would prefer. The option voted on Friday was the overwhelming preference among those surveyed. 

“We have done four different things in three years based on the circumstances,” NSAA Assistant Director for basketball Jon Dolliver said in March. “We had a lot of positive feedback based off of the things we’ve done in 2021 and 2022. We felt like it is an opportunity to survey our member schools and see what their feedback would be.”