Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons

The Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons play home games at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, one of the largest arenas in mid-major college basketball. Known for years as IPFW before rebranding, the Mastodons made their name with gritty, giant-slaying performances, headlined by a stunning 2016 overtime win over a Top-25 Indiana team in front of over 11,000 fans. The program has bounced between the Summit League and Horizon League as Division I independents in the region shifted around it. It's a scrappy campus program that has never been afraid of a marquee opponent.

The university traces back to 1964 as a joint Indiana University-Purdue University campus, with athletics moving from Division III to Division II in the early 1980s before beginning the climb to Division I in 2001-02. The Mastodons joined the Summit League in 2007, reaching their first Summit League Tournament championship game in 2014, and later moved to the Horizon League in 2020. Their signature win came on November 22, 2016, upsetting No. 3-ranked Indiana 71-68 in overtime at home. The Mastodons have yet to reach the NCAA Division I Tournament, but that Indiana upset remains the program's defining moment.