NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball National Championship Qualifiers Announced

NAIA Basketball News Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has officially released the field of 32 teams for the 30th Annual NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball National Championship, held March 17 – 23 at Oman Arena in Jackson, Tenn.

College Fanz Sports Network, the world’s largest online college sports community launched by ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen, will offer live video streaming broadcasts of the tournament bracket starting Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. CST. This broadcast will be available, live, free and on-demand, at www.CollegeFanz.com.

Union (Tenn.) will make its 19th consecutive appearance (1992-2010) and 21st overall, which is most among the qualifiers for the championship. Union and Oklahoma City have each won four national championships, which is the most among the championship qualifiers.

Montana Tech, Southern Polytechnic State (Ga.) and Southwestern Assemblies of God (Texas) is each making its first appearance in the event. Montana Tech received an at-large bid, while Southern Polytechnic State was the Southern States Athletic Conference regular-season champion. Southwestern Assemblies of God qualified as the Red River Athletic Conference tournament runner-up.

The Golden State Athletic Conference, TranSouth Athletic Conference and the Sooner Athletic Conference are each represented by four schools in the field.

The 32-team field is comprised of 16 automatic qualifiers from NAIA affiliated conferences and 16 at-large selections, which are determined using the final Top 25 rating released on March 2.

Thirty-one games will be played in Jackson. The first 30 games will be video-streamed by NeuLion, the parent company of JumpTV. Three different subscription plans for basketball (Men’s and Women’s Division I; Men’s and Women’s Division II) will be available for tournament coverage. Users can purchase the All-Tournament pass, which includes every event offered on College Sports Direct from all four basketball championships for $39.95. Each of the four basketball championships can be purchased separately for $24.95 and any single day can be purchased for $9.95. In order to view the streaming, click http://www.watchnaia.com/liveEvents/liveEvents.dbml?db_oem_id=5901.

The Championship final on March 23 will be televised live nationally on CBS College Sports Television with tipoff at 9 p.m. CST.