SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Led by defending Sacramento champion and 2010 Professional Bull Riders World Champion Renato Nunes, the PBR Built Ford Tough Series returns to California's capital on Saturday, Jan. 28, and Sunday, Jan. 29, for the Ariat Invitational at Power Balance Pavilion.

Fans attending on Saturday will be able to witness history when the inaugural PBR 15/15 Bucking Battle will be held. Featuring the Top 15 riders in the world competing against the 15 highest-ranked bulls at the event, PBR 15/15 Bucking Battle will take place following Round 1. The PBR 15/15 Bucking Battle will be broadcast in its entirety on NBC at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Jan. 29.

Round 1 followed by the PBR 15/15 Bucking Battle will start at 6 p.m. on Saturday, while Round 2 and the Built Ford Tough Championship Round will be at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Each of the Top 40 bull riders in the world will ride in Round 1 and Round 2. Following Round 2 on Sunday, the riders with the 10 highest cumulative scores will advance to the championship round, where they will each compete with one more bull. The overall event winner will be the rider with the highest combined score from all three regular-format rounds.

Tickets are available at the Power Balance Pavilion box office, www.Ticketmaster.com, and by telephone at (800) 745-3000 or (916) 928-6900. It is the eighth season in a row, and the ninth time overall, that the BFTS has visited Sacramento.

Power Balance Pavilion, home of the 2012 Ariat Invitational, Jan. 28-29.

The premier matchup in the PBR 15/15 Bucking Battle will be 2011 PBR World Champion Silvano Alves against 2011 reserve champion bull Asteroid. Asteroid made his season debut on Jan. 15 in Anaheim, Calif., and won the Pabst Blue Ribbon Bull Award for being the highest marked bull of the event. Asteroid was the reserve world champion last year, with two of the Top 10 bull scores in 2011, and was the high-marked bull at four consecutive events in Tulsa, Okla.; San Antonio; Springfield, Mo.; and Milwaukee.

Alves is the only rider in history to win the PBR World Championship immediately after winning PBR Rookie of the Year.

The field in Sacramento features six PBR World Champions, including the past four winners, with Alves (2011), Nunes, Kody Lostroh (2009), and Guilherme Marchi (2008). Two-time PBR World Champion Chris Shivers (2000 and 2003), and 2004 PBR World Champion Mike Lee are also scheduled to compete.

CBS Sports Network will air the action this Sunday, Jan. 29, at 6 p.m. ET, with an encore airing later that night at 10 p.m. ET. There will also be encore showings on Monday, Jan. 30, at 9 p.m. ET, and Tuesday, Jan. 31 at 12 a.m. ET.

Sacramento is the fourth stop on the BFTS, which opened the 2012 season on Jan. 6-8 with capacity crowds at Madison Square Garden in New York. The BFTS will make 28 stops in 23 states before the Built Ford Tough World Finals in Las Vegas on Oct. 24-28, 2012. The World Finals are where the PBR World Champion will be crowned and awarded the coveted championship buckle and a $1 million bonus. The richest bull riding event in the world, the World Finals has a total purse of more than $2 million.

The BFTS is televised every week on CBS, CBS Sports Network, NBC, NBC Sports Network, and YouTube. BFTS telecasts are produced for the PBR under a multi-year agreement with David Neal Productions, a Los Angeles-based production company led by 34-time Emmy® Award winner and Peabody Award winner David Neal, who serves as executive producer.