ESPN Considers Almost 1/3rd Of All Division One College Basketball Teams To Be A "Bracket Buster"
Friday, August 24, 2007
I can't really decide if this is overkill or not because too much College Basketball is never a bad thing. Buuuut....having this many teams eligible for only 14 Bracket Buster games might be overdoing it.
The games will be on February 22nd and 23rd on either ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN 360, or ESPN Classic. Why Classic is running a game is beyond me. Here are all the "eligible" teams/matchups according to the Leader....
| HOME | AWAY |
| Mid-American | Mid-American |
| Akron | Ball State |
| Buffalo | Bowling Green |
| Eastern Michigan | Central Michigan |
| Northern Illinois | Kent State |
| Ohio | Miami (Ohio) |
| Toledo | Western Michigan |
| | |
| Ohio Valley | Ohio Valley |
| Austin Peay | Morehead State |
| Eastern Illinois | Samford |
| Eastern Kentucky | Southeast Missouri State |
| Jacksonville State | Tennessee-Martin |
| Murray State | Tennessee State |
| | Tennessee Tech |
| | |
| Missouri Valley | Missouri Valley |
| Bradley | Creighton |
| Illinois State | Drake |
| Missouri State | Evansville |
| Northern Iowa | Indiana State |
| Southern Illinois | Wichita State |
| | |
| Metro Atlantic Athletic | Metro Atlantic Athletic |
| Canisius | Fairfield |
| Iona | Marist |
| Loyola (Maryland) | Niagara |
| Manhattan | Rider |
| Saint Peter’s | Siena |
| | |
| Horizon | Horizon |
| Butler | Illinois-Chicago |
| Cleveland State | Loyola (Illinois) |
| Detroit | Wisconsin-Milwaukee |
| Valparaiso | Wright State |
| UW-Green Bay | Youngstown State |
| | |
| Western Athletic | Western Athletic |
| Boise State | Hawaii |
| Fresno State | Idaho |
| Louisiana Tech | Nevada |
| New Mexico State | San Jose State |
| Utah State | |
| | |
| Big West | Big West |
| Cal-State Fullerton | Cal Poly |
| Cal-State Northridge | Long Beach State |
| UC Irvine | UC Davis |
| UC Riverside | UC Santa Barbara |
| Pacific | |
| | |
| Colonial Athletic | Colonial Athletic |
| Drexel | Delaware |
| James Madison | George Mason |
| UNC-Wilmington | Georgia State |
| Old Dominion | Hofstra |
| Towson | Northeastern |
| William & Mary | Virginia Commonwealth |
| | |
| Southern | America East |
Elon | Albany |
| Appalachian State | Binghamton |
| | Boston University |
| Atlantic Sun | Vermont |
| East Tennessee State | |
| Southern | |
| Big Sky | Davidson |
| Northern Arizona | Georgia Southern |
| | |
Big South | Big Sky |
| Winthrop | Portland State |
| | |
Patriot | Big South |
| Holy Cross | High Point |
| | |
| Summit League | Patriot |
| Oral Roberts | Bucknell |
| | |
| West Coast | |
| Saint Mary’s | |
Not a bad list, and it's never too early for College Basketball news right?
(Source: ESPN Press Release)
10 Comments:
What, exactly, is the point of them releasing this in August? Why not just release nothing, and if anyone asks who's eligibile, just say "Well, pretty much everybody".
When, oh when will they show love to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference?
They've only pulled of two huge first round upsets in the past 15 years.
Here's an idea. Show them occasionally outside of this one weekend. Or do I really need to see THAT many Duke and Texas Tech games?
There are more bracketbuster games then the ones just on the ESPN Networks.
WOOOOO Miami Redhawks baby!!!
Throw out the record books when Zips of Akron take on the Skyhawks of Tennessee-Martin!
Why Classic is running a game is beyond me. You're kidding right? You really have noticed the multitude of live events running on Classic by this point, right? I mean, it's practically on the fast track to becoming ESPN3.
Also, the teams that don't get picked for the TV games get paired off to play games anyway, but no one cares about them, least of all ESPN, which loves to pretend those games don't exist or aren't part of BracketBusters.
"They should copy the format that they showed last night for the WNBA playoffs:
Show the same game on both ESPN Classic AND ESPN2. Because, when it comes to watching the very same WNBA playoff game, you never can decide which channel to watch the very same broadcast on.
Good one."
- Mensa society
The major conferences would never go for it, but BracketBuster weekend should be schools from the Horizon, CAA, MVC, etc. against schools from the SEC, Big 10, ACC, etc. at neutral sites.
That would make BracketBuster Saturday own.
This is ESPN's way of saying "[shrug] No fuckin' clue. Maybe we'll have one by January."