SEC awards 2016 women’s basketball tournament to Jacksonville

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By David Paschall May 29, 2014 2 min read

SEC Southeastern Conference

The Southeastern Conference is taking its 2016 women’s basketball tournament to a new horizon.

Whether it goes back to its roots in 2017 remains unknown.

The SEC on Wednesday awarded its 2016 women’s tournament to Jacksonville, which will mark the first time the event will be held in Florida. It will take place in Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena, a multipurpose arena that can seat 15,000 and hosted the NCAA men’s tournament in 2006 and 2010.

“We look forward to showcasing our women’s basketball programs in the Sunshine State for the first time,” league commissioner Mike Slive said in a released statement. “Our student-athletes, coaches and current fans will greatly enjoy their visit, and the exciting games will forge new fans of SEC women’s basketball in the process.”

Next year’s SEC women’s tournament will be held in North Little Rock, Ark., while the 2018, 2022 and 2026 tournaments are set for Nashville.

David Paschall

David Paschall has covered sports at the Chattanooga Times Free Press since 1999 and wrote for the Chattanooga Free Press in the nine years before that. David has mostly covered college athletics, with a focus on the University of Georgia from 2000 to 2019 and the University of Tennessee since 2020. He grew up in Chattanooga and is a graduate of the Baylor School and Auburn University. David has received multiple writing awards and has served as a Heisman Trophy voter since 2003. He has also worked in radio in Chattanooga and has been on the SEC Network's "Classic Rewind" series since 2014. David and his wife, Kelly, have three children — Conner, Emily and Spencer.

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.