March 12, 2008

FARMVILLE, Va. – Longwood University was one of 32 winners in the NCAA Division I “Pack the House” Challenge.

Schools urged fans to “Pack the House” for selected women’s basketball games from January 1 through February 17. And pack the house, they did.

Almost two-thirds of the Division I membership – 198 institutions – participated in the effort that attracted more than 592,000 fans.

Longwood hosted 817 fans at its women’s basketball game on January 17 during a 70-69 victory past visiting Radford University.

Events at Duke, Louisville, Marist, Navy, Oklahoma State and Presbyterian produced sell-out crowds. Seventy other programs surpassed their single-game attendance highs from last year.

“Pack the House” is a first-year national effort in which conferences and institutions compete to build attendance. One winner from each of the 31 conferences and one from a group of independent institutions were named. Selections were based on marketing plan creativity and attendance criteria. The NCAA will award prizes and donate $500 to the nonprofit organization of each winning institution’s choice.

“We believe the effort motivated schools to attract new fans to our game,” said NCAA Vice President for Women’s Basketball Sue Donohoe. “Campuses devoted additional time and resources to the competition. We are already being asked for information about next year. New alliances were formed among conference offices, member institutions and (NCAA) national office staff that will only strengthen efforts in the future.”

The ideas to market the games were as diverse as the membership itself.

At Longwood, for example, the women’s basketball team worked with the marketing staff to distribute flyers and promotions on campus and to local schools. Students were welcomed with free pizza, drinks and raffle tickets, which made them eligible to win prizes such as gift cards and iPods.

“We had our largest crowd of the year for the ‘Pack the House Challenge’ game against Radford and the staff did an amazing job of getting the community involved with our women’s basketball team,” said Eric Stoller, Longwood Ticket & Athletic Events Manager. “The women pulled off an exciting 70-69 win in front of the enthusiastic crowd.”

Winners of the “Pack the House” Challenge are:
CONFERENCE WINNERS
America East - Hartford
Atlantic 10 – Rhode Island
ACC – Virginia
Atlantic Sun – Lipscomb
Big 12 – Oklahoma State
Big East – Louisville
Big Sky – Sacramento State
Big South – Winthrop
Big Ten – Michigan
Big West – UC Davis
CAA – Delaware
Conference USA – East Carolina
Horizon – Youngstown State
Ivy – Columbia
MAAC – Marist
MAC – Miami (Ohio)
MEAC – North Carolina A&T
Missouri Valley – Evansville
Mountain West – Brigham Young
NEC – Wagner
Ohio Valley – Eastern Illinois
Pac-10 – UCLA
Patriot – Lehigh
SEC – South Carolina
SoCon – Georgia Southern
Southland – Texas State
SWAC – Jackson State
Sun Belt – Middle Tennessee
Summit – IUPUI
West Coast – Portland
WAC – Louisiana Tech
Independent – Longwood

GRAND PRIZE WINNER
Louisville