Championship tournaments and select regular season games to air on ESPN

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- With an exciting football season underway and headed toward the championship game on December 12, 2009 in Birmingham, AL, teams in the SWAC are starting to heat up the courts as basketball season has arrived. Farmers Insurance Group of Companies holds the title sponsorship to the men's and women's 2009-2010 Southwestern Athletic Conference basketball tournaments. The agreement includes coverage of the 10 colleges and universities in the SWAC.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080605/LATH062)

There will be hundreds of games throughout the 2009-2010 season for both men's and women's basketball, 14 of which are slated to air on ESPN2 or ESPNU and will include a new Farmers "True Stories" commercial.

"Farmers is proud to be the title sponsor of the men's and women's basketball championship tournament to be held March 10 - 13, 2010 in Shreveport, LA. The men's and women's championship games are scheduled to air on ESPNU on March 13, 2010," explained Faye McClure, Farmers Vice President of Strategic Marketing.

"Farmers' state offices in Alabama, Arkansas and South Texas are engaging the university administration at their respective SWAC historically black colleges and universities to increase awareness of the partnership and find additional ways to support the goals of both the universities and Farmers," McClure added.

"In addition, our sponsorship means that Farmers is the 'official insurance and financial services provider' of the SWAC," McClure said., "The partnership is a Farmers tradition of reaching out to communities and young students in today's world and letting them know we support them not only in athletics, but in all they do academically and in their future endeavors."

The SWAC is a mid-major college athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of HBCUs in the southern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I for all sports.

Farmers is a trade name and may refer to Farmers Group, Inc. or the Farmers Exchanges, as the case may be. Farmers Group, Inc., a management and holding company, along with its subsidiaries, is wholly owned by the Zurich Financial Services Group. The Farmers Exchanges are three reciprocal insurers (Farmers Insurance Exchange, Fire Insurance Exchange and Truck Insurance Exchange), including their subsidiaries and affiliates, owned by their policyholders, and managed by Farmers Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries. For more information about Farmers, visit our Web site at www.farmers.com.

Founded in 1920 by eight visionary leaders, the Southwestern Athletic Conference has evolved into one of the leading sports associations in the world of collegiate athletics. The SWAC consists of 10 member institutions in five states (Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas) and sponsors 18 championship sports (10 women, 8 men) with over 4,000 student-athletes. For more information on the Southwestern Athletic Conference, visit the official website at www.swac.org.

    Contact:  Jerry Davies
              213-400-4459
              Jerry.davies@farmersinsurance.com

SOURCE Farmers Insurance Group

Back to top

RELATED LINKS
http://www.farmers.com/
http://www.swac.org/