Game times and telecast outlets for the sixth annual O’Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters ? a multi-day men’s basketball event matching NCAA Tournament hopefuls against each other on Friday, Feb. 22 through Sunday, Feb. 24 -- were announced today. Utah State will open the O’Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters for the WAC hosting UC Santa Barbara on Friday, Feb. 23 at 7:00 p.m. MT on ESPNU. On Saturday, Feb. 24, Nevada will take on Southern Illinois at 1:30 p.m. PT, while Boise State will host Siena at 8:00 p.m. MT on ESPN360.com.
Utah State and UC Santa Barbara will be meeting for the 59th time ever with the Aggies owning a 36-22 all-time advantage. The last time the two teams met was during the 2004-05 season when both teams were members of the Big West Conference as USU notched an 80-70 win in Logan and an 80-50 win in Santa Barbara. In fact, Utah State has won each of the last four games played in the series and 10 of the last 12 overall.
Boise State is 17-6 on the season, including an 8-3 Western Athletic Conference record, while Siena is 16-8, including 11-3 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Boise State hosts Nevada on Thursday and Fresno State on Saturday this week. Siena hosts Loyola (MD) on Saturday and travels to Manhattan next Monday.
Nevada looks to continue its BracketBuster success. Last season, the Wolf Pack defeated Northern Iowa, 79-64 in Reno.
The selections are highlighted by #15 Drake (22-1 record) at #10 Butler (21-2), in a showdown between two teams with the best records and highest rankings in event history, and Kent State at #21 Saint Mary’s (20-3), both on ESPN2 Saturday, Feb. 23, at 5 p.m. ET and 11:59 p.m., respectively.
All 14 ESPNU BracketBusters contests will be available nationally with ESPN2 televising six, ESPNU televising five, ESPN360.com offering coverage of two and for the first time, ESPN Classic televising one.
The 28 ESPNU BracketBusters teams were selected from a pool of 100 schools. This year’s event will mark the first time games will be televised over three days. The event began televising games over two days in 2006, while the first three years featured every game on a Saturday.
ESPNU BracketBusters Schedule:
Friday, February 23
UC Santa Barbara at Utah State, 7:00 p.m. MT -- ESPNU
Saturday, February 24
Nevada at Southern Illinois, 1:30 p.m. PT -- ESPNU
Siena at Boise State, 8:00 p.m. MT -- ESPN360.com
ESPNU BRACKETBUSTERS
The ESPNU BracketBusters concept, named because of the success of teams from these conferences in NCAA Tournament play over the past years, provides
participating programs with an opportunity to play top non-conference opponents approximately three weeks prior to Selection Sunday. Each conference selected their participating teams prior to the season and the matchups for the event were determined by ESPN in conjunction with the conferences.
ESPNU BracketBusters is an example of ESPN college basketball franchise programming. Others include Rivalry Week Presented by Cisco, Feast Week Presented
by Lowe’s, Judgment Week Presented Jockey, Student Spirit Week Presented by EAS and Championship Week Presented by Dick’s Sporting Goods.
ESPNU
ESPNU was launched on March 4, 2005. The network features extensive studio programming and live coverage of games, including college football, college basketball and other Olympic sports from over 20 Division I conferences. The network also has a wide-ranging, long-term agreement with the NCAA calling for enhanced coverage of 22 NCAA Championships, showcasing sports from each of the three collegiate seasons. ESPNU also has re-air rights to games on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Regional television programming.
In addition, ESPNU.com, the companion to the ESPNU college sports television network, is the online destination for college sports content, including news, information, extensive online video and audio and more.
ESPNU currently reaches approximately 20 million homes through secured distribution agreements with Charter, Cox, DIRECTV (Channel 609), EchoStar’s DISH Network (Channel 148), AT&T, Insight Communications, Mediacom, Time Warner, Verizon, hundreds of smaller affiliates and is close to distribution agreements with many others.
ESPN360.com
ESPN360.com, ESPN's signature 24/7 sports broadband network, delivers more than 2,500 live global sports events per year. The service offers a mosaic of screens that allow users to follow multiple events simultaneously, and expanded controls including live-event pause, rewind and fast forward. ESPN360.com is available at no additional charge to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection from an affiliated service provider. It has more than doubled its distribution since November 2006, and is available in more than 20 million households nationwide via more than 20 Internet service providers around the country including AT&T, Verizon, RCN, Frontier, Cavalier, Charter, Mediacom, Conway, Grande Communications and more.
Consumers wanting more information about ESPN360.com, which high speed Internet services currently provide it, and how they can get it should go to www.espn360.com.