SPARTANBURG, SC -- Two Southern Conference schools have been chosen to participate in the 2006 Bracket Buster Saturday series on February 18, 2006, it was announced today by ESPN. College of Charleston, which tied for second in the South Division last year, has been selected to play in the event for the third straight year, while UNC Greensboro, which tied for second in the North Division, is slated to participate for the first time in 2006.
The fourth annual Bracket Buster Saturday event will feature 11 nationally televised games selected from an expanded pool of 100 teams representing 18 conferences. Last year’s field included a potential 64 teams representing 13 conferences (vying for 11 Bracket Buster Saturday games) while the 2004 event featured 46 teams (for 10 Bracket Buster Saturday games) and the inaugural event in 2003 included 18 teams (for nine Bracket Buster Saturday games).
In addition to the expanded field, this year’s event will also feature five Bracket Buster Saturday games exclusively on ESPNU, the 24-hour college sports network. ESPN and ESPN2 will combine to televise the remaining six contests.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for the Southern Conference to participate again in the Bracket Buster Saturday event,” said Interim Commissioner Geoff Cabe. “It is a great way to showcase the strength of basketball in this league to schools outside of our footprint, and the expanded field will make this event an exciting lead-in to our conference tournament. It also provides our two schools with non-conference scheduling opportunities for not only this year but the following season.”
Bracket Buster Saturday, named because of the success of the teams in NCAA Tournament play over the past few years, will provide the 22 televised teams (selected from the pool of 100 schools) an opportunity to play other top non-conference opponents three weeks prior to Selection Sunday. The 78 teams not selected for Bracket Buster Saturday will compete against each other on the same day.
The 100-team field will feature 12 teams from the Mid-American Conference; 11 from the Ohio Valley Conference; 10 from the Missouri Valley and Metro Atlantic Athletic; nine from the Western Athletic Conference and Horizon League; eight from the Big West and Colonial Athletic; four from the Sun Belt and the Big Sky; three from the Big South; two from the America East, Mid-Continent, Southern, Southland and West Coast; and Bucknell from the Patriot League and Fairleigh Dickinson from the Northeast. Four new conferences join the pool this year: Big South, Northeast, Patriot and Southland. The West Coast conference returns after a one-year absence.
While each conference selects their participating teams prior to the season, the 11 matchups for Bracket Buster Saturday will be determined from the pool of 100 teams by ESPN in conjunction with the conferences approximately three weeks prior to the event (this year ? January 29 2006). As part of the agreement, all 11 of the Bracket Buster Saturday home teams, as well as the remaining 39 home squads, will play a “return” game at the home facility of their opponent in November or December of the following season.
Bracket Buster Saturday is an example of ESPN college basketball franchise programming. Others include Rivalry Week, Feast Week, Judgment Week and Championship Week.
This year’s Bracket Buster Saturday pool features teams with 31 appearances in the last two NCAA Tournaments, including two Sweet Sixteen squads ? UW-Milwaukee (2005) and Nevada (2004).
College of Charleston, 18-10 in 2004-05, is coming off its 14th consecutive season of 18 or more victories. Fourth-year head coach Tom Herrion has averaged 21 victories in each of his first three years and has two starters back from a year ago in Dontaye Draper (12.0 ppg, 2.9 rpg) and Drew Hall (3.6 ppg, 5.1 apg).
UNC Greensboro has three returning starters back from an 18-12 team that advanced to the championship game of the conference tournament. The Spartans are led by 2005 SoCon Freshman of the Year Kyle Hines, who blocked a league-record 106 shots last season. Also back for UNCG is junior guard Ricky Hickman (14.5 ppg), who is the fifth leading returning scorer in the league.
Home and road team designations for those subsequent contests have been determined and are listed below:
Home Teams:
Bradley, UW-Milwaukee, Creighton, Manhattan, Evansville, Saint Peter’s, UNI, Ball State, Southern Illinois, Bowling Green, Wichita State, Central Michigan, Montana, Kent State, Montana State, Miami (Ohio), Winthrop, Ohio, UC Irvine, Western Michigan, Pacific, Valparaiso, UC Riverside, Austin Peay, Cal State Fullerton, Eastern Illinois, Drexel, Eastern Kentucky, Hofstra, Jacksonville State, Northeastern, Murray State, Old Dominion, College of Charleston, Virginia Commonwealth, Louisiana-Lafayette,
Cleveland State, Western Kentucky, Detroit, St. Mary’s (Cal.), UW-Green Bay, Boise State, Canisius, Hawai’i,
Iona, Nevada, Loyola (Ill.), San Jose State, Loyola (Md.), Utah State.
Away Teams:
Drake, Siena, Illinois State, Akron, Indiana State, Buffalo, Missouri State, Eastern Michigan, Albany, Northern Illinois, Vermont, Toledo, Northern Arizona, Oral Roberts, Eastern Washington, Fairleigh Dickinson, High Point, Morehead State, UNC Asheville, Samford, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Southeast Missouri State, Long Beach State, Tennessee-Martin, Cal State Northridge, Tennessee State, UC Santa Barbara, Tennessee Tech, Delaware, Bucknell, George Mason, UNC Greensboro, Georgia State, Stephen F. Austin, Butler, Northwestern State, Illinois-Chicago, Arkansas State, Wright State, New Orleans, Youngstown State, Santa Clara, Fairfield, Fresno State, Marist, Idaho, Niagara, Louisiana Tech, Rider, New Mexico State.