PRESS RELEASES

• NSIC Basketball Holiday Hoopfest [downloadable PDF]
• Sioux Falls Selected for Basketball Championships [downloadable PDF]

NSIC Announces Men’s & Women’s basketball Holiday Hoopsfest

Sioux Falls, S.D. - Representatives from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference and the Sioux Falls Sports Authority announced today that beginning in 2008, the NSIC Holiday HoopsFest will be held in Sioux Falls during the Thanksgiving weekend.

The Holiday HoopsFest will feature the men’s and women’s teams from 8 NSIC schools playing 16 non-conference games. The games will be played at the Sioux Falls Arena and the Elmen Center, located on the Augustana College campus. Four games will be played at each location each day.

The 2008 Holiday Hoopsfest will be held on Saturday, November 29 and Sunday, November 30, with game times scheduled for 1, 3, 6 and 8 p.m. The event will be held on the corresponding dates after Thanksgiving each year. To ensure strong attendance at the event, the men’s and women’s teams from Augustana College and Northern State University will play in the event each year, and will play their games at the Arena. The additional 6 NSIC schools will rotate every other year. Pairings will be set up so that teams will play games against teams they do not play a second time in NSIC play.

The Sioux Falls Sports Authority will work cooperatively with the NSIC office and the Sioux Falls Convention and Visitors Bureau in putting on a first-class event each year. The Sports Authority and the NSIC office will also work closely with the management of the Sioux Falls Arena and the Elmen Center on plans and organization for this event each year.

The Sioux Falls Sports Authority, working cooperatively with the NSIC Office, will enlist corporate sponsorship from the Sioux Falls business community and the surrounding region to assist in supporting this event each year.

As part of the Holiday HoopsFest, a banquet will be held on the Friday after Thanksgiving each year. All participating teams and representatives from the Sioux Falls Sports Authority, Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the NSIC will be in attendance. After that banquet, teams are welcome to attend the “Parade of Lights” pre-Christmas celebration in downtown Sioux Falls or the Sioux Falls Skyforce home opener, if it is scheduled at the Arena that night.

The Holiday HoopsFest is expected to benefit both the NSIC and the city of Sioux Falls. As the NSIC expands to 14 teams in 2008-09, this event will assist in promoting the league as a premier NCAA Division II conference doing great things in the Upper Midwest. In addition, 16 Upper Midwest basketball teams and their fans, all within 7 hours or less driving distance, will converge in Sioux Falls each year. The NSIC Holiday HoopsFest is expected to have an economic impact of $1,000,000 or more per year for the city each year. This event will also showcase Sioux Falls to people from the Upper Midwest region each year.

Sioux Falls Selected For Basketball Championships

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Contact: Hope Nsiah-Kumi, Media Relations Director (nsiah-kumi@thesummitleague.org)

ELMHURST, Ill. - The Summit League will head to Sioux Falls, S.D., and the Sioux Falls Arena for its men’s and women’s basketball championships in 2009 and 2010 Commissioner Tom Douple announced today.

“We are very excited about having our basketball tournament in Sioux Falls,” Douple said. “It will be great for the city and the region, and we anticipate tremendous support from the community. We are especially looking forward to bringing March Madness to the state of South Dakota.”

The Summit League Presidents Council voted Monday to move the league’s top event to the largest city in South Dakota. “We look forward to having the tournament in Sioux Falls,” said Dr. Al Goldfarb, president of Western Illinois University and chair of the Presidents Council. “It will provide a very positive experience for our student-athletes.”

Built in 1961, the Sioux Falls Arena is a 7,100-seat facility. It is home to the Sioux Falls Skyforce, an NBA Development League team, the Sioux Falls Storm, an arena football team in the United Indoor Football Association (UIF), and the Sioux Falls Stampede, a United States Hockey League (USHL) team and the 2007 Clark Cup champions. The arena hosted the 2007 NBA D-League Showcase and also hosts several musical and theatrical productions.

The Summit League Basketball Championships feature the top eight men’s and women’s teams in the conference with the winners receiving automatics bids in the NCAA Tournament. The championship games are televised nationally on the ESPN family of networks. The men’s championship game has appeared on ESPN or ESPN2 each of the last 14 years, while the women’s title game has appeared on ESPNU each of the last two seasons.

The Summit League is comprised of 10 member institutions:

• Centenary College of Louisiana
• Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW)
• Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
• University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC)
• North Dakota State University
• Oakland University
• Oral Roberts University
• South Dakota State University
• Southern Utah University
• Western Illinois University.