U Sports Mens Basketball Championship

The U Sports Men's Basketball Championship, branded as the Men's Basketball Final 8, is a Canadian university basketball tournament conducted by U Sports, and determines the men's national champion. The tournament involves the champions from each of Canada's four regional sports conferences. The W. P. McGee trophy is awarded to the winners.

The championship consists of an eight-team single-elimination tournament. Four teams automatically qualify for the tournament as one of the winners of the four conferences, two qualify as the runners-up of both the OUA and Canada West conference, one qualifies as the host, and one is given an at-large berth. The tournament is played over four days. The quarterfinals are played on the Thursday, the consolation semi-finals on Friday, the consolation final and championship semi-finals on Saturday, and the bronze and gold medal games on Sunday. This format has been in use since 2015.

U Sports Mens Championship Tournament History

Assumption University (Windsor, Ontario)" Assumption University (Windsor, Ontario) has the distinction of originating the national championship trophy. In 1963, the University of Windsor Alumni Association donated the award featuring a silver basketball, and named in memory of W.P. McGee for his outstanding contribution as both teacher and coach during the 1920s and 1930s. For more than 60 years, the McGee trophy has been awarded annually to the Canadfan men's basketballl champion.

The tournament first consisted of only conference champions (four or five teams) and held that format from 1963 until 1971. In 1972 and 1973, only four teams qualified, regardless of conferences. In 1974, the championship expanded to include eight teams being revised in 1983 where regional championships took place with up to 16 teams participating. The regional championships took place in up to five different cities with the national championship featuring four teams in the main host city. The format reverted to an eight team national championship in 1987 until l 2004 when the tournament expanded to ten teams. The Final 10 format would last only three years, until it was again reverted to a Final 8 tournament in 2007.

Seasons	Format	Locations
1963-66	Four teams from four conferences	Windsor (1963-64), Halifax (1965), Calgary (1966)
1967-71	Five teams from five conferences	Calgary (1967), Antigonish (1968), Waterloo (1969), Hamilton (1970), Wolfville (1971)
1972-73	Four team tournament	Vancouver (1972), Waterloo (1973)
1974-82	Eight team tournament	Waterloo (1974-75), Halifax (1976-78), Calgary (1979-80), Waterloo (1981), Victoria (1982)
1983-86	Regional tournaments plus Final Four	Final Four in Waterloo (1983), Halifax (1984-86)
1987-03	Final 8 Tournament	Halifax (1987-2003)
2004-06	Final 10 Tournament	Halifax (2004-06)
2007-25	Final 8 Tournament	Halifax (2007), Ottawa (2008-10), Halifax (2011-12), Ottawa (2013-14), Toronto (2015), Vancouver (2016), Halifax (2017-19), Ottawa (2020), Edmonton (2022), Halifax (2023), Quebec City (2024), Vancouver (2025)

U Sports Mens Tournament Final Game Results

Click on the year of interest for an expanded look at that years tournament.

College Database Connected

Year
Result