Ball State University Athletics
Men's Basketball To Host Tennessee State Feb. 18
January 31, 2006 | Men's Basketball
MUNCIE, Ind. -- As a result of participating in the fourth annual BracketBusters presented by eBay pool, The Ball State University men's basketball team will host Tennessee State Feb. 18 at 4 p.m. at Worthen Arena.
Tennessee State, located in Nashville, Tenn. and a member of the Ohio Valley Conference, improved to 8-10 overall and 7-5 in the OVC with an 83-80 win Monday over Jacksonville State. The Tigers are coached by former South Carolina State coach Cy Alexander who was named to the post in 2003. TSU was 14-17 overall and 9-7 in the OVC a year ago.
The 26-team, 13-game national televised schedule was announced on Monday. This 26 BracketBusters teams were selected from a pool of 100 schools representing 18 conferences. Last year's field included a potential of 64 teams representing 13 conferences (vying for 11 BracketBusters games).
ESPN and ESPN2 will combine to televise six BracketBusters contests, ESPNU, the 24-hour college sports network, will televise five and ESPN360 will offer coverage of the remaining two. Game times and network assignments for the 13 matchups will be announced Tuesday, Feb. 7. This year's event will mark the first time games will be televised over two days. The first three years of BracketBusters, previously branded as Bracket Buster Saturday, featured every game on a Saturday.
"The BracketBusters event continues to show remarkable year-to-year growth with this year's field featuring the deepest pool of quality matchups," said Burke Magnus, vice president and general manager, ESPNU. "The expanded coverage on ESPNU and ESPN360 will provide additional national exposure for potential bracket-busting teams and allow fans to follow more teams as they prepare for an NCAA Tournament run."
The 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 months prior to the season and the matchups for the event were determined by ESPN in conjunction with the conferences.
BracketBusters is an example of ESPN college basketball franchise programming. Others include Rivalry Week, Feast Week, Judgment Week and Championship Week.
Following the Ball State men's contest versus Tennessee State, the BSU women's basketball team will take the court at Worthen Arena for a 7 p.m. Mid-American Conference matchup versus Western Michigan. Fans who purchase a ticket to the men's game will receive free admission to the women's game.
NATIONAL BracketBustersevent pairings:
Bucknell at #24 Northern Iowa
George Mason at Wichita State
Missouri State at Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Louisiana Tech at Southern Illinois
Buffalo at Iona
Fresno State at Creighton
Akron at Nevada
Butler at Kent State
Marist at Old Dominion
Northwestern State at Utah State
Samford at Ohio
Albany at Virginia Commonwealth
Northern Arizona at Western Kentucky
