Lynx Paws

Summit League Basketball Championships extends for 3 years in Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls will continue to host The Summit League Basketball Championships tournament through 2029. 

The contract extension was approved by The Summit League’s Presidents Council and announced by Commissioner Josh Fenton last week, according to a statement from The Summit League.

By the completion of this latest extension, The Summit League Basketball Championships will surpass the two-decade mark of being held in the city, with the 2029 event marking the 21st straight year Sioux Falls has hosted the games. The combined tournaments have provided more than $90 million in estimated economic impact since arriving in 2009.

During its 10-year run at the Denny Sanford Premier Center, more than 600,000 fans attended the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, with those figures consistently ranking among the top-attended conference tournaments in the country on an annual basis.

The women’s basketball championship attendance of 8,417 in 2024 trailed only the Big 10, Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference among all Division I conferences and was just shy of The Summit League record of 8,704 set in 2018.

This past year, the women’s tournament topped 30,000 for the second consecutive season, and the men’s hit that mark for the ninth time in 10 tournaments at the Premier Center.

The 2026 Summit League Championships will be played March 4-8. This will be the 11th season South Dakota’s largest city will host the postseason tournaments.

Official dates and times for the 2027, 2028 and 2029 tournaments will be announced at a later date.