By Madhuri Dey
Alaska, Nov. 26, (THAINDIAN NEWS) The Great Alaska Shootout is about to return for it’s 2010 installment. This time, the tournament is down to a measly eight teams. It is being hosted by the University of Alaska-Anchorage, the only university to still operate the 32 year old full format tournament that is held early in the season. All the other universities have dropped out of the schedule, shrinking the number of teams to six. The Shootout and the Maui Invitational used to be the signature events of the game, but they ceased to be big after ESPN refrained from renewing their contract in 2007.

Earlier, Steve Cobb, the director of athletics at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, had declared that only six teams would return to the tournament. He also expressed quite a lot of bitterness regarding the loss of the contract. He commented that ESPN had taken the step as there were no more barrier’s in it’s way of owning tournaments now. However, he shocked the world when he announced on Wednesday that eight, instead of six teams will be returning to take part in the tournament. He made the announcement, smiling with obvious pleasure, at the pre-tournament lunch that is thrown at the Sheraton Hotel.

The teams that would be taking part in this year’s Great Alaska Shootout are Seawolves, Southeast Louisiana, Southern Utah, Houston Baptist, Arizona State, Drake, St. Johns and Ball State. Cobb confessed that he was grateful to the Chancellor of the UAA, Frank Ulmer, without whom it would not have been possible to bring the teams together, and the commitment of the teams, who could have walked away from this lackluster tournament but didn’t.