Indy Showcase, new college volleyball event, to help kick off season in 2027. What we know

INDIANAPOLIS — College volleyball is returning to Gainbridge Fieldhouse with a two-day early season showcase.

The Indiana Sports Corp. announced Wednesday evening that the Indy Showcase will feature a four-team event Aug. 28-29, 2027. Similar to the men's college basketball Indy Classic, the event will serve as a fundraiser supporting Sports Corp. missions, according to a release.

Indianapolis once hosted a Final Four in 1987 at Market Square Arena, and college volleyball returned downtown on Oct. 16, 2025 when Purdue beat Indiana in the Monon Spike Match , which drew 6,477 fans on a sectional volleyball night , no less. The explosion of college volleyball reaching the Circle City is perhaps not a surprise.

The inaugural Big Ten volleyball tournament will be hosted at the nearby Fishers Events Center from Nov. 20-25.

"You can't keep up with the explosion right now that is volleyball," Purdue coach Dave Shondell said last season. "And I think that you, fortunately people in the media are finally getting behind it — whether it be TV or print or on the internet — but it's hard to keep up with all the things that are going on in the attendance records that are being broken. You watch it every night you want to on TV, so it's a great time to be in volleyball."

The Indy Showcase will have information at a later date about the four teams, match times and broadcast information. However, it will bring four matches downtown early in the season, a rising trend across the sport.

The AVCA First Serve Showcase has become popular with Big Ten members Wisconsin (in Milwaukee) and Nebraska being featured prominently. Other events have blossomed out of those successes, both in television viewership and attendance.

Consider Indiana played at the Broadway Block Party in Nashville this season, and Purdue played in the State Farm Volleyball Showcase at the Sanford Pentagon in South Dakota and the Paradise Invitational in the Bahamas. Both teams were part of the Big Ten/SEC challenge, too.

Aside from the college level, the Indy Ignite enter their third season as the state's lone professional volleyball team. They won the Major League Volleyball regular-season championship in 2026 and open the next season in January. The state also produces top talent for the college level through various high school and club programs.

Now, Indianapolis is getting involved with the Sports Corp. and its mission to make Indianapolis the women's sports capital of the world by 2050. Perhaps that means a Final Four in the near future.