Big Sky Conference Women's Basketball Tournament
| Big Sky Conference Women's Basketball Tournament | |
|---|---|
| Conference Basketball Championship | |
| Sport | Basketball |
| Conference | Big Sky Conference |
| Number of teams | 12 (since 2016) |
| Format | Single-elimination tournament |
| Current stadium | Reno Events Center |
| Current location | Reno, Nevada |
| Played | 1983–1988 (as MWAC Tournament) 1989–present (as Big Sky Tournament) |
| Last contest | 2017 |
| Current champion | Montana State |
| Most championships | Montana (21) |
| Official website | BigSkyConf.com Women's Basketball |
| Host stadiums | |
| Campus sites (1983–2015) Reno Events Center (2016–present) |
|
| Host locations | |
| Campus sites (1983–2015) Reno, Nevada (2016–present) |
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The Big Sky Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament is held at the end of each women's college basketball regular season. The tournament was first conducted by the Big Sky Conference at the end of the 1988–89 season, the first in which the conference sponsored women's sports. However, the Big Sky claims the history of the Mountain West Athletic Conference (not to be confused with today's Mountain West Conference), a women's athletic league consisting mostly of Big Sky members that operated from 1982 to 1988. The tournament can thus trace its history to 1983. The winner of the tournament receives The Big Sky's automatic bid into the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship.
Prior to the 1982–83 season, Big Sky members that had women's basketball programs housed them in several different conferences. The formation of the MWAC brought the women's sports programs of all Big Sky members under a single umbrella, and the Big Sky ultimately absorbed the MWAC in 1988, incorporating all MWAC statistics and records as its own. From the tournament's inception through the 2015 edition, each matchup was contested on the home court of the higher seed, a practice also used by the Big Sky men's tournament. The 2016 men's and women's tournaments were the first to be held at a predetermined neutral site, with both held at the Reno Events Center in Reno, Nevada.
Starting in 1986, an MVP was selected at the conclusion of the championship game. In 1989 (the first tournament under the Big Sky name), the conference added All-Conference Team honors, in addition to the MVP.
¹no longer a conference member
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