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)

Posted by Awful Announcing- at 11:16 AM

10 Comments:

This is ESPN's way of saying "[shrug] No fuckin' clue. Maybe we'll have one by January."

Aug 24, 2007, 12:09:00 PM  

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".

Vegas Watch said...
Aug 24, 2007, 12:22:00 PM  

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.

Jarrett said...
Aug 24, 2007, 12:24:00 PM  

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?

Anonymous said...
Aug 24, 2007, 1:49:00 PM  

There are more bracketbuster games then the ones just on the ESPN Networks.

Brett said...
Aug 24, 2007, 3:46:00 PM  

WOOOOO Miami Redhawks baby!!!

GMoney said...
Aug 24, 2007, 3:51:00 PM  

Throw out the record books when Zips of Akron take on the Skyhawks of Tennessee-Martin!

Anonymous said...
Aug 24, 2007, 3:59:00 PM  

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.

Morgan Wick said...
Aug 24, 2007, 4:56:00 PM  

"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

Anonymous said...
Aug 24, 2007, 5:01:00 PM  

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.

Anonymous said...
Aug 24, 2007, 6:22:00 PM  

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