DENVER The Western Athletic Conference will have five teams participate in ESPNs third annual Bracket Buster Saturday on February 19 as announced today by ESPN. Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, Rice and UTEP will all have their respective games televised by either ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPN Full Court. The times and network televising each game will be announced next Tuesday, February 9.
Fresno State (12-6) will host Buffalo (13-5) from the MAC, Hawaii (12-5) will host Wisconsin-Milwaukee (15-5) from the Horizon League, America Easts Vermont (15-3) travels to Nevada (14-5), Rice (10-7) hosts Murray State (11-7) of the Ohio Valley, and UTEP (17-4) travels to the Big Wests Pacific (15-2).
This is by far the strongest pool of teams that have been in the Bracket Buster group, said WAC Commissioner Karl Benson. The WAC is very fortunate to have five teams in the field of 22. The pairings will give all five schools the opportunity to improve their postseason chances.
ESPN and ESPN2 will combine to televise six of the 11 Bracket Buster Saturday contests. The other five televised games will be produced and distributed in the markets of the competing teams through ESPN Regional Television and will be available nationally on ESPN Full Court, the networks out-of-market pay-per-view service.
A total of 64 teams made up the field for this years Bracket Buster Saturday. The other five schools in the WAC announced their matchups of games that will be played on February 19 not selected for this years event. Boise State hosts Weber State, New Orleans travels to Louisiana Tech, San Jose State plays at Drake, SMU is at Toledo and Tulsa hosts Northern Arizona.
2005 ESPN Bracket Buster Saturday Games*Buffalo at Fresno State
*UW-Milwaukee at Hawaii
*Vermont at Nevada
*Murray State at Rice
*UTEP at Pacific
Illinois State at UW-Green Bay
Wichita State at Miami (Ohio)
Southern Illinois at Kent State
Drexel at Ball State
Western Michigan at Northern Iowa
Arkansas-Little Rock at Bowling Green
Games Resulting from Participation in the Bracket Buster Pool*Weber State at Boise State
*New Orleans at Louisiana Tech
*San Jose State at Drake
*SMU at Toledo
*Northern Arizona at Tulsa
Niagara at Akron
Valparaiso at Butler
Cleveland State at Central Michigan
Virginia Commonwealth at College of Charleston
Chattanooga at Creighton
Ohio at Detroit
Austin Peay at East Tennessee State
Loyola at Evansville
Cal State Northridge at Fairfield
Georgia Southern at UIC
Manhattan at George Mason
Portland State at Middle Tennessee State
Oral Roberts at Southwest Missouri State
Bradley at Western Kentucky
Northern Illinois at Wright State
Eastern Michigan at Youngstown State
*Games involving WAC teams