March Madness for Division I squads is still a week away, but the country’s oldest Black college basketball tournament has already crowned its 2026 champion.

The Fayetteville State University men took home the CIAA tournament championship on Saturday, making it through a gauntlet that saw them beat Johnson C. Smith on Friday before Saturday’s title tilt against the Big Blue of Bluefield State University. Fayetteville State won a tight game, 71-68, to punch their ticket to the NCAA Division II tournament, which kicks off March 14. 

The win marked the Broncos’ second CIAA title in four years, as they’ve been a powerhouse in the conference. This season, they played to a dominant 23-6 record and tied Bluefield State with two players each named to the CIAA All-Tournament Team. Fayetteville State senior guard Terrell Williams led scoring in the championship game with 29 points, and will end his collegiate career as conference MVP.

Bluefield led by eight points at halftime, 40-32, before Williams led a late-game charge. Ellija Preddy led the Big Blue with 20 points.

The CIAA was originally founded in 1912 and is the oldest among HBCU athletic conferences; the SWAC was founded in 1920 and the MEAC in 1970. It moved its basketball tournament to Baltimore in 2021, after a 15-year run in Charlotte, N.C.