Since 2010, the Michigan high school girls state championship games have called the Breslin Center home, giving the players a chance to play at Michigan State University.

But an NCAA move to award homecourt advantage to women's basketball teams forced Michigan State to reserve the first weekend of the NCAA tournament while also forcing the Michigan High School Athletic Association to look elsewhere for its games.

Enter Calvin College, a Grand Rapids university with a Division III athletic program.

"Great facility, perfect size," Saginaw Heritage coach Vonnie DeLong said. "Breslin's too big. We played at Little Caesar's Arena, so we've had the big-arena experience."

The 2019 girls state finals will return to Calvin College, but future venues are up in the air.

"The facilities were great, and the fans were so close," Detroit Edison coach Monique Brown said. "But it's not the same as the Breslin. It's special for the players when they play at Michigan State, just to be able to play on that court."

The high school association faced few problems during the two-day event.

"For a first-time event, it was a fabulous weekend," MHSAA spokesperson John Johnson said. "The people at Calvin College and the West Michigan Sports Commission did a fantastic job of meeting all the needs for conducting the tournament.

"They had a huge task, having an event come to them that had been played in a fairly popular place. They responded wonderfully. The comments we got from coaches to players to parents to administrators all weekend long was what a great atmosphere that Van Noord Arena provided for the games. We had average attendance, and it sounded like it was the most exciting place in the world to be."

Calvin College's Van Noord Arena has a capacity of 5,000 fans.

"I love how the fans are close," Adrian Lenawee Christian coach Jamie Salenbein said. "Everything was top-notch. Not being able to play at Breslin was something I thought about earlier during the season, but the last couple of weeks, I haven't even thought about it."

The high school association will ask its member schools for input regarding the future placement of the tournament.

"We're faced with making some decisions that would put us in position to dance around the Breslin Center's availability so that we can keep the boys in there," Johnson said. "Or do we look at what other states have done and get completely out of the way of the NCAA tournament. Maybe we'll look at radical change, which could be a four-week tournament where the boys and girls play concurrently.

"We're going to go to our membership to see what they want to do."

Meanwhile, the girls basketball tournament will remain at Calvin College for at least one more year.

"This place is nicer than a lot of Division I arenas ... it's the biggest Division III arena in the country," Johnson said. "They know how to conduct major events. They know what's needed.

"This is the third new venue we've used in four weeks. We moved team wrestling from Mount Pleasant to Kalamazoo, moved individual wrestling from The Palace to Ford Field. We've received great responses from all three new venues."