NCAA awards Final Four for 2012-16

INDIANAPOLIS, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- The NCAA Wednesday announced the sites for its Division I men's basketball title games for 2012-16, with four of the Final Fours set for southern venues.

The Division I Men's Basketball Committee said the 2012 Final Four would be in the Superdome in New Orleans while the 2013 title -- the 75th NCAA basketball championship -- will be decided in Atlanta's Georgia Dome.

The 2014 Final Four was awarded to the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, with the 2015 event in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, the NCAA's home city, and the 2016 Final Four is to be played in Reliant Stadium in Houston.

The title games in 2012 will mark the fifth time the Final Four will have been contested in the Superdome while the Georgia Dome was the site of Final Fours in 2002 and 2007.

Upcoming Final Fours are scheduled for Detroit in 2009, Indianapolis in 2010 and Houston in 2011.

"Now and for the foreseeable future, we'll have at least 70,000 fans in the venue and tens of thousands more visitors in the host cities to experience the atmosphere and events that accompany the three basketball games," said NCAA President Myles Brand. "It is a wonderful spectacle that continues to grow into one of the world's premier sporting events."