The Centennial Conference men's basketball tournament is the annual conference basketball championship tournament for the NCAA Division III Centennial Conference. The tournament has been held annually since 1994. It is a single-elimination tournament and seeding is based on regular season records.
The tournament champion receives the Centennial's automatic bid to the NCAA Men's Division III Basketball Championship.
Format Ten teams compete in this competition and each team face the other team twice each season, so there are 18 within-conference matches each season. After the regular season, the fifth ranked team visit the fourth ranked team for the first round match. Then the final four tournament is hosted by the first ranked team.
In 2004, the play-in match was played because Gettysburg and Haverford were tied for the fourth place, but the first round match has been always held between the fourth and the fifth ranked teams thereafter. Until 2003, ten teams were divided two east and west divisions and top two teams from each division advanced to the tournament while play-in match was played if two teams were tied for the second place in the division.
Results YearChampionsScoreRunners-upRefs 1994 Franklin & Marshall 63–61 Johns Hopkins 1995 Muhlenberg 88–86 (OT) Franklin & Marshall 1996 Franklin & Marshall 79–67 Gettysburg 1997 Dickinson 90–59 Swarthmore 1998 Muhlenberg 55–53 Johns Hopkins 1999 Johns Hopkins 78–52 Washington (MD) 2000 Franklin & Marshall 75–67 (OT) Johns Hopkins 2001 Gettysburg 68–59 Muhlenberg 2002 Gettysburg 50–47 Franklin & Marshall 2003 Ursinus 96–88 (OT) Franklin & Marshall 2004 Franklin & Marshall 69–58 Johns Hopkins 2005 Ursinus 72–70 Franklin & Marshall 2006 Ursinus 100–82 Johns Hopkins 2007 Johns Hopkins 68–61 Haverford 2008 Ursinus 85–78 Gettysburg 2009 Gettysburg 73–65 Franklin & Marshall 2010 Franklin & Marshall 66–62 Gettysburg 2011 Franklin & Marshall 65–55 Dickinson 2012 Franklin & Marshall 71–55 Muhlenberg 2013 Dickinson 64–40 Franklin & Marshall 2014 Johns Hopkins 60–55 Dickinson 2015 Dickinson 65–62 Johns Hopkins 2016 Franklin & Marshall 75–64 Swarthmore 2017 Swarthmore 68–64 Dickinson 2018 Johns Hopkins 61–57 Swarthmore 2019 Swarthmore 79–61 Johns Hopkins 2020 Johns Hopkins 73–71 Swarthmore 2021Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic2022Johns Hopkins80–66Swarthmore2023Swarthmore76–73Johns Hopkins2024Swarthmore67–62Johns Hopkins 2025 Franklin & Marshall 60–47 Johns Hopkins 2026 Gettysburg 51–47 Johns Hopkins
Championship records Performance by school School Finals Record Finals Appearances Years won Franklin & Marshall 9–6 15 1994, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2016, 2025 Johns Hopkins 6–11 17 1999, 2007, 2014, 2018, 2020, 2022 Swarthmore 4–5 9 2017, 2019, 2023, 2024 Gettysburg 4–3 7 2001, 2002, 2009, 2026 Ursinus 4–0 4 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008 Dickinson 3–3 6 1997, 2013, 2015 Muhlenberg 2–2 4 1995, 1998 Haverford 0–1 1 Washington (MD) 0–1 1
McDaniel (formerly Western Maryland) has not yet qualified for the Centennial tournament finals
Performance by year
Teams (# of titles)1994199519961997199819992000200120022003200420052006200720082009201020112012201320142015201620172018201920202022202320242025Centennial (31)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)(10)1Franklin & Marshall (9)CFCSFSFCSFFFCFFCCCFSFSFCSFSF1R 1RSFC2Johns Hopkins (6)FSFFCFSFF 1RFCSF 1RSFCF 1RCFCCFFF3Ursinus (4) PI PISFSFCSFCCSFC 1RSFSFSFSF 1RSF3Swarthmore (4)SFFF C F C F FCC 1R5Dickinson (3)CSFFSFCFCSFF1R 1R1R1R5Gettysburg (3)FCCSFSFSFSFFCFSF 1RSFSF SF SF SF SF7Muhlenberg (2)SFCSF PICSFSFFSF 1R 1RSFSFFSF 1R SF SF8HaverfordSF PISFFSF SF8Washington (MD)SFSFSFFSFSFSF 1RSFSFSF 1R10McDanielSF 1RSF 1RSF 1R 1R Key CChampionFRunner-upSFSemifinals1R1st roundPI Play-in•Did not participate
References