Purdue men’s basketball fans will not be able to touch the NCAA championship trophy this year, but a piece of the Final Four court could be theirs.
A spokesperson for the men’s basketball team told Sportico the Boilermakers are purchasing select panels of the 2024 Final Four court from their 75-60 loss to UConn in April’s title game. The champion Huskies are buying the center-court circle.
The Purdue spokesperson confirmed the panels will be made into various collectibles and sold through a third-party memorabilia vendor. South Carolina’s women’s basketball program took a similar approach after winning the title this year and entered into a revenue agreement with Artsman, a sports memorabilia company.
Artsman is selling collectibles of the women’s Final Four court panels. They turned the pieces of the South Carolina court into collectibles such as key chains, pendants and cuff links.
It is not unheard of for the losing team in the NCAA championship game to purchase small portions of the court after the winning team gets first dibs.
Connor Sports has been the maker of the NCAA Tournament courts since 2006. Each year the champions on the men’s and women’s side have the choice to purchase portions of the court and do with it what they please. Some schools turn the court into collectibles or display the portions they bought in their arenas. Florida, after winning the men’s basketball title in 2006, spent $70,000 on the Final Four court, according to the Gainesville Sun, and made it its main competition court until it was replaced in 2016.
Purdue did not reveal how many panels it purchased or how much it cost the university.
The Boilermakers’ men’s program has never won a national title and had not appeared in the Final Four since 1980, nor won a Final Four game since 1969. More recently, Purdue experienced an early exit in the NCAA Tournament in 2023 after losing in the first round to No. 16 seed FDU. It fell in the Sweet 16 the year prior, to No. 15 Saint Peter’s.
South Carolina purchased the women’s 2024 Final Four center court circle from Connor Sports for $86,946, according to Maria Hickman, South Carolina’s senior women’s administrator. That number was a large increase from the roughly $60,000 the Gamecocks paid after their 2022 championship victory over UConn.
South Carolina is displaying the Final Four circle in the lobby of Colonial Life Arena, where the team plays, along with the others it purchased.
