March Madness will be held in one city in 2021. 

The NCAA announced Monday it is in talks with Indianapolis to hold its entire men’s basketball tournament there to mitigate the risks of COVID-19. 

The Final Four is already set to be played in Indianapolis next year, and the NCAA has its headquarters in the Indiana capital. The association said it is relocating early-round games that had been scheduled to be played at 13 already-determined sites.

"In recent weeks, the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee has engaged in a thorough contingency planning process to determine the most effective way to conduct a safe and healthy March Madness for all participants for the 2021 championship," the NCAA said in a statement posted to its website. "Through these discussions, it became apparent to the committee that conducting the championship at 13 preliminary round sites spread throughout the country would be very difficult to execute in the current pandemic environment. The committee has decided the championship should be held in a single geographic area to enhance the safety and well-being of the event."

“My committee colleagues and I did not come lightly to the difficult decision to relocate the preliminary rounds of the 2021 tournament, as we understand the disappointment 13 communities will feel to miss out on being part of March Madness next year,” said Mitch Barnhart, chair of the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee and the athletic director at the University of Kentucky, which was scheduled to host first- and second-round games.

The committee said hosting all 68 teams in one place would “enhance the safety and well-being of the event.”

The preliminary round sites that had been slated to host games were Dayton, Ohio; Providence, Rhode Island; Boise, Idaho; Detroit; Dallas; Wichita, Kansas; Lexington, Kentucky; Raleigh, North Carolina; San Jose, California; Minneapolis; Denver; Memphis, Tennessee; and Brooklyn, New York.

After restarting their seasons this summer, the NBA and NHL confined their players to single-site “bubbles” in Orlando, Florida, and Toronto, respectively. Neither league had a player test positive for COVID-19.

Major League Baseball did not use a bubble for the regular season but limited its postseason to two cities: San Diego and Arlington, Texas. There was just one positive case — the Dodgers’ Justin Turner — which baseball officials learned about during the final game of the World Series. 

The NCAA canceled its 2020 tournament in March as the virus began spreading rapidly around the U.S. and just as qualifying conference tournaments were being played.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.