LHSAA Moving Marsh Madness to Lafayette’s Cajundome in 2027

LAFAYETTE, La. — Three Louisiana high school championship events are getting new addresses next year, and one of them is landing in Lafayette’s backyard. The Louisiana High School Athletic Association announced Tuesday that boys basketball, wrestling, and powerlifting will all move to new venues for the 2026-27 season.

The LHSAA announced that boys basketball is leaving Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles, where the tournament has been held since 2014, and coming to the Cajundome at UL Lafayette. The wrestling tournament is leaving Bossier City for the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. Powerlifting is departing the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner after two seasons there and heading to the West Monroe Sports & Events Complex.

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Boys Basketball Comes to Lafayette

Thirteen years is a long time to make the same drive. Lafayette-area families heading to “Marsh Madness” — the LHSAA boys basketball state tournament — have been pointing their cars toward Lake Charles every March since 2014, a trip of roughly an hour and 40 minutes each way. That changes next year.

The Cajundome sits on the UL Lafayette campus and seats 12,362 for basketball, with general session capacity reaching 13,000. It last hosted the boys basketball state tournament in 2011. Bringing it back to Lafayette puts one of the state’s most-watched prep championships right in the middle of Acadiana. Most families will be able to walk in without booking a hotel room. The drive that used to take the better part of two hours just became a trip across town.

Wrestling Heads to New Orleans

The wrestling tournament has had a bit of a nomadic recent history. It was held at Brookshire Grocery Arena in Bossier City for both the 2025 and 2026 championships. New Orleans is the next stop.

The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center is a substantial venue for this kind of event. The LHSAA runs the wrestling championship across four simultaneous divisions — Boys’ Divisions I, II, and III plus the Girls’ Division, which was added as a fully sanctioned championship in 2025 — which requires significant floor space and a facility built to handle big crowds moving in multiple directions at once. The Convention Center fits that description. It also puts the state wrestling tournament in a city that knows how to host, which should make the trip worth the travel for families coming from across the state.

Powerlifting Moves to West Monroe

Powerlifting’s move is the most straightforward of the three. The event spent two seasons at the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner before this relocation to the West Monroe Sports & Events Complex, shifting the championship from the New Orleans metro to north Louisiana.

Part of a Larger Shift

These venue changes don’t happen in a vacuum. Earlier this month, the LHSAA announced the Allstate Sugar Bowl is returning as title sponsor for all 21 LHSAA championship events in a deal running through 2031-32. Under the new branding, the football championships will carry the name Allstate Sugar Bowl Prep Classic, and the remaining events, including the three moving to new venues next year, will be branded as Sugar Bowl championships.

“Home … that is what the Sugar Bowl has always been to us, and here we stand again before all of you back in a partnership with the Allstate Sugar Bowl,” LHSAA executive director Eddie Bonine said at the sponsorship announcement earlier this month.

Full schedules and venue details for 2026-27 will be posted at lhsaa.org as the new seasons get underway.