INDIANAPOLIS – IHSAA Commissioner Bobby Cox announced today that the Girls Basketball State Finals will return to Indianapolis next year.

The IHSAA Executive Committee unanimously approved the move during Friday morning’s monthly meeting.

A one-year agreement has been reached with Bankers Life Fieldhouse for the four state championship games to be played at the downtown venue on Saturday, March 7, 2015. The Indiana Fever and Indiana Pacers are the presenting sponsors of both basketball state tournaments.

For the last six years, the venue has hosted the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament on the same date as the IHSAA Girls Basketball State Finals. As a result, the girls state finals were played at Lucas Oil Stadium in 2009, at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne in 2010 and 2011 and for the last three years at the Hulman Center in Terre Haute.

“The IHSAA is extremely pleased that the girls basketball state finals will return to Indianapolis and Bankers Life Fieldhouse next year,” said Cox. “At the same time, we are very appreciative and grateful for the time and effort that our hosts in Terre Haute have put forth to make the events memorable for the participating schools and fans involved.”

On a related note, at its annual meeting on May 5, the IHSAA Board of Directors will weigh a proposal put forth by the commissioner on behalf of the Northern Lakes Conference principals that would move up the start of the entire girls basketball season by one week from the start of practice all the way through the state finals. The move would eliminate any overlap of the girls basketball state finals and the boys basketball sectionals and would become effective with the 2015-16 school year.