The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I for most sports; in football, it participates in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly referred to as Division I-AA.
Legion Field is an outdoor stadium in the southeastern United States in Birmingham, Alabama, primarily designed to be used as a venue for American football, but occasionally used for other large outdoor events. Opened in 1927, it is named in honor of the American Legion, a U.S. organization of military veterans.
Birmingham–Southern College (BSC) is a private liberal arts college in Birmingham, Alabama. Founded in 1856, the college is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). More than 1300 students from 33 states and 16 foreign countries attend the college.
Savage Arena is a multi-purpose arena located in Toledo, Ohio, on the campus of the University of Toledo.
Barton Coliseum is a 7,150-seat multi-purpose arena located within the Arkansas State Fairgrounds in Little Rock, Arkansas. The coliseum was dedicated on September 29, 1952, in honor of Thomas Harry Barton, founder of Lion Oil.
The Alabama State Fairgrounds, also known as Fair Park, was the former home of the Alabama State Fair and the Birmingham International Raceway, and is located in West Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama, United States. It is located adjacent to the Five Points West shopping area.
The Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Coliseum was a multi-purpose arena located in Jacksonville, Florida. Built in 1960 and known as "northern Florida's most historic concert venue", it was home to most of the city's indoor professional sports teams and it hosted various concerts, circuses, and other events. It was demolished in 2003 and replaced with the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.
Boutwell Memorial Auditorium is a 5,000-seat multi-purpose arena located in Birmingham, Alabama. It was built in 1924 as Birmingham's Municipal Auditorium, on a site near City Hall, facing Capitol Park.
The LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers are the athletic teams representing Louisiana State University (LSU), a state university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU competes in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC).
The Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA), based in Montgomery, is the governing body for interscholastic athletics and activities programs for public schools in Alabama.
The Celebration Arena is a 5,000-seat indoor arena located in Priceville, Alabama, near Decatur. It contains a 150-by-300-foot arena floor that can be used not only for sporting events as well as rodeos and horse shows, but also for trade shows, flea markets, and other special events, such as concerts.
Old Dominion University Fieldhouse was a 5,200-seat multi-purpose arena located on the campus of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Opened in 1970, it was home to the Old Dominion Monarchs and Lady Monarchs college basketball teams until the 2002–03 season, when the Ted Constant Convocation Center opened. The fieldhouse was demolished in 2006.
The Dome Center is a fair and convention complex located in Henrietta, New York, just outside the city of Rochester. It was originally part of a 60 acre site that hosted the annual Monroe County (NY) Fair between 1947 and 2013.
Birmingham International Raceway, (BIR) was a 5/8-mile oval paved racetrack located at the Alabama State Fairgrounds in the Five Points West neighborhood of Birmingham, Alabama. It was used primarily for late-model automobile racing.
The Tampa Bay area is home to many sports teams and has a substantial history of sporting activity. Most of the region's professional sports franchises use the name "Tampa Bay", which is the name of a body of water, not of any city. This is to emphasize that they represent the wider metropolitan area and not a particular municipality and was a tradition started by Tampa's first major sports team, the original Tampa Bay Rowdies, when they were founded in 1975.
Buffalo, New York and its greater metropolitan area is currently home to three major league sports teams. The Buffalo Sabres & The Buffalo Bandits who play in the City of Buffalo as well as The Buffalo Bills who play in the suburb of Orchard Park. Buffalo is also home to several other major and minor league sports teams, including the Buffalo Bisons and FC Buffalo. Several local colleges and universities are active in college athletics, including Canisius College, Niagara University and The State University of New York at Buffalo at the NCAA Division I level. Buffalo was host city for the 1993 World University Games, for which Burt Flickinger Center and University at Buffalo Stadium were built.
Legacy Arena is an arena located at the Birmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex in Birmingham, Alabama. The arena seats 17,654 for sporting events, up to 16,250 for concerts and 6,000 in a cut-down theater configuration.
Sports in Birmingham, Alabama include several minor league professional teams and college sports. The city of Birmingham and the Birmingham metro area have no major professional sport franchises. The Birmingham area is home to the Birmingham Barons, the AA minor league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, which plays at Regions Field in the Southside adjacent to Railroad Park. The University of Alabama at Birmingham has a popular basketball program, and Samford University, located in Homewood, has basketball and football teams. The Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in the suburb of Hoover is home to the Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament which drew more than 108,000 spectators in 2006. There is also an amateur soccer association, known as La Liga. The Birmingham area also hosts the Alabama Alliance basketball and Tragic City Rollers roller derby teams.
The 2019 SWAC men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball tournament for the Southwestern Athletic Conference during the 2018–19 season. Tournament first round games were played at the campus of the higher seeded team on March 12. The remainder of the tournament was held on March 15 and 16, 2019 at the Bill Harris Arena in Birmingham, Alabama. Prairie View A&M defeated Texas Southern 92–86 in the championship game to win the tournament, and received the SWAC's automatic bid to the 2019 NCAA tournament. It was the second SWAC title for Prairie View A&M, and the first since the 1997–98 season.
The Birmingham CrossPlex is a $46 million indoor track and aquatic facility developed by the City of Birmingham, Alabama as the centerpiece of the redevelopment of the Alabama State Fairgrounds near Five Points West. The facility's 200-meter hydraulically-banked running track and 50-meter swimming and diving pool are used by high school and college teams for training and competition.
