The Final Four Stadium Menu Features a Loaded Footlong Hot Dog and Pork Belly Mac and Cheese (Exclusive)

Chiara KimFri, April 3, 2026 at 9:55 PM UTC

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The 1939 Dog (front) and Past and Present DogCredit: Sodexo Live -

The Final Four menu is here, and Lucas Oil’s executive chef David Dyrek gave PEOPLE an inside look into its extravagant offerings

The menu is inspired by the "over the top" nature of the penultimate stage of the March Madness tournament and features specialty hot dogs and mac and cheese

Final Four attendees can also enjoy Cutwater slushies, Philly cheesesteaks and tacos throughout the stadium

High-stakes basketball won’t be the only thing on the menu as the NCAA Final Four tips off in Indianapolis.

The Lucas Oil Stadium Sodexo Live! culinary team is preparing an extravagant food experience for the penultimate stage of March Madness on Saturday, April 4, including pork belly mac and cheese and specialty footlong hot dogs.

The hot dog that will be served on Saturday is called the 1939 Dog. The footlong dog is finished off with a whole smorgasbord of toppings: shaved ribeye, beer cheese, chipotle aioli, both caramelized and fried onions, chopped bacon, roasted peppers and onions, “glizzy sauce,” diced tomatoes and avocado, per a release shared with PEOPLE.

The 1939 Dog is a “playful tribute” to the inaugural year of the Final Four of 1939, Executive Chef David Dyrek told PEOPLE. “It’s designed to be a little bit over the top, just like the Final Four is itself.”

The Past and Present Dog will be served during the March Madness Championship on Monday, April 6Credit: Sodexo Live

“We really tried to deliver a Final Four-sized experience to match the energy of the event,” Dyrek said of the menu he planned.

The hot dog that will be served at the March Madness championship game on Monday is called the Past and Present Dog.

This hot dog was inspired by nodding to both the first location of the tournament of Evanston, Ill., and the current location of Indianapolis, Dyrek said.

“We did flavors inspired [by] Illinois on one side of the footlong dog, and then flavors inspired by Indianapolis for the other side to merge the very first with our current tournament,” he said.

This dog features jalapeno cheddar sausage, Italian sausage, roast Italian beef, slow pulled pork, apple jalapeno slaw, chipotle bacon ranch and crispy onions sprinkled on top.

With these two hot dogs, “we really tried to lean into the tournament’s legacy, and we wanted to use food as a way to tell the story that kind of brings history to life for our fans,” Dyrek shared.

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Pork belly mac and cheese is among the offerings for the Final Four games at Lucas Oil Stadium on April 4Credit: Sodexo Live

The hot dogs will be offered in the stadiums East and West clubs, he said. The dogs will be also be available to all fans at the Heartland Markets for $17, while the pork belly mac and cheese will be offered for $11 at Chef Tony's Stand. The chef said he is aiming for 1,000 people to order each of the footlong hot dogs across game days.

The team will also serve Cutwater slushies and frozen lime margaritas throughout the stadium, along with local beers and typically-offered concessions like chicken tenders, burgers and Philly cheesesteaks. Other offerings will include items from Tony’s Street Tacos carts.

“At any given moment, if you’re feeling like something, you can get it just about anywhere you are,” Dyrek said.

March Madness players will be getting in on the food action as well — “the teams have ordered some food from us,” the chef said. “A lot of mac and cheese, [that's a] crowd favorite for sure.”

Serving the over 70,000 people expected for the Final Four, Dyrek said, is “not a small feat.” From feeding fans to school staff to boosters, “we’re feeding just about everybody,” he said.

The executive chef said his team has been meeting with clients and vendors since June 2025.

“I have an amazing team, I can't say enough about how amazing they are,” he said. “I wouldn’t be able to do any of what I’m doing without the support of all my cooks, my sous-chefs, all of my stewards, my two executive sous-chefs.”

He said he will oversee a staff of 150 on game day, while there will be a total of over 500 employees working throughout the stadium.

“It’s really…the team that we have that makes all of this happen,” he said. “They’ve been working tirelessly around the clock.”

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”