EL PASO, Texas (September 4, 2008) - The Sun Bowl Association has suspended the Sun Bowl Basketball Tournament for 2008, announced SBA President Joe Valenzuela.

The nation's oldest collegiate holiday basketball tournament has had a 47-year run from 1961 to 2007, but due to the increased number of NCAA exempt basketball tournaments across the nation, tournament officials were unable to secure a field for this year's event.

"We are truly saddened that one of El Paso's most treasured holiday events will be suspended for 2008," said Valenzuela. "We are going to do everything in our power to re-launch the Sun Bowl Basketball Tournament in 2009."

The Sun Bowl Basketball Tournament is not the only collegiate tournament that will not take place this season. Several historic tournaments have also been cancelled for 2008-09.

"We have come to a point where hosting a four-team, four-game tournament has become a challenge," said SBA executive director Bernie Olivas. "The change in the NCAA rules allowing exempt events in 2006 has really hurt a lot of tournaments like ours."

UTEP has served as the host school for the first 47 years of the event winning the tournament 29 times.

"The decision to suspend this year's tournament was disappointing," said Bob Stull, Director of Athletics at UTEP. "The increasing number of exempt events and the escalation in guarantees has made it almost impossible to fill the non-exempt Sun Bowl Basketball Tournament field."

Before 2006, there were only 10 exempt basketball tournaments in the country. With a change in NCAA regulations in 2006, any institution can now host a multiple-team exempt event. Last season, there were 58 exempt events held nationwide. A team can only play in the same exempt event once every four years.

"We are not only fighting the influx of 48 new exempt events, but the rising cost of guarantees teams get to participate in road games and tournaments," added Olivas. "We are definitely at a crossroads."

"The Sun Bowl Committee has made hundreds of phone calls since January scouring the country to fill the three spots (UTEP fills the fourth spot in the Sun Bowl Basketball Tournament)," said Stull. "The decision to suspend the tournament this year was a difficult one to make after so many teams have made the trip to El Paso and had an outstanding experience participating in past Sun Bowl tournaments."

At the end of last year's tournament, 89 different schools had participated in the tournament 138 times, producing 18 different tournament champions, including 27 titles to host-school UTEP. Last season, UTEP upended Wyoming, 79-73, to secure the tournament title.

"For 47 years, El Pasoans have looked forward to seeing teams like Indiana, Georgetown, Michigan, Purdue, Penn State, Ohio State, Nebraska, Rutgers and Texas in our field," said Valenzuela. "There is too much tradition to see this tournament go away. Our goal is to make sure there is a tournament for 2009."

"In my first two years as head coach at UTEP, the Sun Bowl Committee put together two great events," said UTEP head coach Tony Barbee. "College basketball tournaments have become very competitive and I know that our players and coaches will be disappointed to not be playing in the Sun Bowl Basketball Tournament. It was one of the longest running college basketball tournaments in the nation and it was a nice advantage participating in the event on our home court."

The Sun Bowl Basketball Tournament has featured some of the game's top coaches over the years - Gene Bartow, Bobby Cremins, Don Haskins, Lon Kruger, Gene Keady, Bobby Knight, Mike Krzyzewski, Guy Lewis, Phil Martelli, Rollie Massimino, Jim O'Brien, Lute Olson, Wimp Sanderson, Charlie Spoonhauer, John Thompson III, Gary Waters and Tex Winter.

It has also featured some of the nation's top collegiate players - Nate Archibald (UTEP), Earl Boykins (Eastern Michigan), Dana Barros (Boston College), Adrian Caldwell (Lamar), Antonio Davis (UTEP), JoJo English (South Carolina), Mike Evans (Kansas State), Jim Farmer (Alabama), Greg Foster (UTEP), Walt Frazier (Southern Illinois), Jeff Green (Georgetown), Tim Hardaway (UTEP), Roy Hibbert (Georgetown), Tim McCormick (Michigan), Chuck Person (Auburn), Glenn Robinson (Purdue), Brandon Wolfram (UTEP) and Sharone Wright (Clemson).

Three other bowl organizations have hosted collegiate basketball events - the Orange Bowl, The Sugar Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl. The Sugar Bowl last held a basketball classic in 2004, while the Orange Bowl has hosted a basketball doubleheader with Florida and Florida State as the two home teams. The Fiesta Bowl has gone from a basketball classic to a single showcase game with Arizona hosting the event in Tucson, Ariz.

"We have had a unique niche of hosting a collegiate basketball tournament and a college bowl game for close to five decades," said Olivas. "Our goal is to see this tournament back in El Paso in 2009." 

This marks the second time the Sun Bowl Association has had to suspend an event for a year. In 1987, the Association had to suspend the Western Refining College All-America Golf Classic due to a change in NCAA legislation. Officials worked with the NCAA to garner an exemption for the event and reinstated the event in 1988. This past January, the All-American renewed its exemption to set the stage for the 33rd edition of the tournament in November of this year.

The Sun Bowl Association was founded in 1934 as the Southwestern Sun Carnival Association. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Association, which hosts 20 events year around.