The Alabama High School Athletic Association’s South Regional basketball tournament will be held at Alabama State for the next three years.

The AHSAA made the announcement Friday afternoon.

Montgomery will host two of the four regional tournaments next winter. The Central Regional will be held at Garrett Coliseum, AHSAA executive director Alvin Briggs announced.

“This is great news, especially for our schools qualifying for the regional tournament from Southwest Alabama,” said Briggs, who officially will retire on Sept. 2. “No longer will schools have to drive past Montgomery, thus reducing travel and increasing the opportunity for more fans from those schools to attend.”

The Northeast Regional tournament is held at Jacksonville State, while the Northwest tournament is held at Wallace-Hanceville Community College. Both have been host sites since the regional format was introduced in 1994.

Alabama State’s Acadome has hosted regionals in the past but elected not to host following the pandemic. For the last two years, the Central Regional was held at Bill Harris Arena in Birmingham while the South Regional was held at Garrett Coliseum.

“We are excited to host the Regional AHSAA tournament on our campus. This a great opportunity to expose the local and state community to our institution,” ASU athletic director Jason Cable said.

The winning teams in each class in each of the four regionals move on to the final four at Birmingham’s Legacy Arena.