SWAC announces 2016-17 championship sites

BIRMINGHAM – The Southwestern Athletic Conference has finalized its list of championship sites for the 2016-17 season.

The first conference championship event of the year will be contested in a familiar place, as men's and women's cross country will return to the Choctaw Trails in Clinton, Miss., on Oct. 21. The league will then head west for the SWAC Soccer Tournament, as Prairie View A&M will host the event in its state-of-the-art facility from Nov. 3-6.

From there, Jackson State University will welcome teams for the SWAC Volleyball Tournament which is scheduled for Nov. 18-20. Closing out the fall slate of championships will be the Toyota SWAC Football Championship, which will be held Dec. 3 at NRG Stadium in Houston.

Kicking off the winter championships will be indoor track and field, which is set for Feb. 16-17, 2017 at the Birmingham Crossplex. In one of the big changes to the ledger, the SWAC men's and women's basketball championships will begin at on-campus sites. Set to take place from March 7-11, the tournaments will see the higher seeds host during the opening rounds, with the semifinals and finals to be held at the Toyota Center in Houston.

The SWAC Bowling Tournament will wrap up the early portion of the 2017 championship schedule, as the Bowling International Training and Research Center (IRTC) in Arlington, Texas, will host the proceedings.

Men's and women's tennis will jump start the spring championships as the Pepsi Tennis Center in New Orleans will showcase the conference from April 14-16. Immediately after that, men's and women's golf descends upon Oak Wing Golf Club/Links on the Bayou in Alexandria, La., for tournament action from April 17-19.

Outdoor track and field will follow soccer's lead as Prairie View A&M University welcomes SWAC athletes for competition from May 5-7. Rounding out the sports calendar for the season will be action on the diamond, with the 2017 SWAC Softball Tournament heading to the Barbara L. Williams Softball Complex at Alabama State University in Montgomery from May 10-13, and the SWAC Baseball Tournament returning to New Orleans' Wesley Barrow Stadium from May 17-21.

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