Southern Illinoise University Athletics
ESPN Bracket Buster Field announced
09/15/2005 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
Sept. 15, 2005
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - All 10 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball programs will compete in the fourth annual Bracket Buster Saturday series, which will be televised on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU on Saturday, February 18, Commissioner Doug Elgin announced today.
"ESPN's continued support of this event is a testimony to the strength of the college basketball that is played in the 18 conferences that will be participating," said Elgin, who is in his 18th year with The Valley and is a former member of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee. "We're excited to have this opportunity to showcase the outstanding teams and players that will be featured in the Bracket Buster Saturday series."
In all, a total of 100 teams will compete in the 50-game, one-day event. The pool of teams -- which includes MVC members Bradley, Creighton, Drake, Evansville, Illinois State, Indiana State, Missouri State, UNI, Southern Illinois and Wichita State -- features 12 teams from the Mid-American Conference, 11 from the Ohio Valley Conference, 10 from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, nine from the Horizon League and Western Athletic Conference, eight from the Big West Conference and Colonial Athletic Association, four from the Big Sky and Sun Belt Conferences, three from the Big South Conference, two from the America East, Mid-Continent, Southern, Southland and West Coast Conferences, and one from the Northeast and Patriot Conferences.
Eleven of the 50 match-ups pitting potential NCAA Tournament hopefuls against each other will be televised nationally, highlighted by a total of six games on ESPN or ESPN2. An additional five games will be aired on ESPNU -- ESPN's collegiate sports network which launched on March 4, 2005.
Last year in the third Bracket Buster Saturday series event, 64 teams representing a total of 13 conferences played in the one-day event. The Valley posted a 5-4 record -- Creighton whipped Chattanooga (100-68), Drake defeated San Jose State (73-57), Loyola (Ill.) slipped past Evansville (68-64), UNI beat Western Michigan (86-75) and Oral Roberts bested Missouri State (86-76) in MVC home games, while Western Kentucky defeated Bradley (75-60), Illinois State edged UW-Green Bay (79-69), Southern Illinois outlasted Kent State (65-54) and Miami (Ohio) bested Wichita State (65-58) in Valley road games.
In the second Bracket Buster Saturday series event in 2004, 46 teams representing a total of 11 conferences played in the one-day event. The Valley posted a 6-4 record -- Bradley topped Northern Illinois (76-67), Illinois State edged Loyola-Chicago (77-71), Buffalo defeated Indiana State (64-51), No. 20 Southern Illinois beat Hawai'i (66-62) and Wichita State outlasted Austin Peay (62-47) in MVC home games, while Kent State defeated Creighton (70-55), Drake edged Akron (82-78 in OT), Central Michigan defeated Evansville (90-73), UNI beat Wisconsin-Green Bay (82-75) and Miami (Ohio) slipped past Missouri State (75-66) in Valley road games.
In the inaugural Bracket Buster Saturday series event in 2003, 18 teams representing a total of seven conferences participated in the one-day challenge. The Valley was the only multiple-participant conference to go undefeated (4-0), as Creighton defeated Fresno State (67-66) and Southern Illinois topped Wisconsin-Milwaukee (66-64) in MVC homes games, and Illinois State (57-53 at Marshall) and Northern Iowa (76-71 at Louisiana Tech) both won on the road.
"One of the really important by-products of this format is that it provides strong non-conference scheduling opportunities for all teams in the field," said Elgin. "There is excellent delivery for college basketball audiences by giving them the chance to see great match-ups with games that wouldn't normally be scheduled in February."
While each conference selects their participating teams prior to the beginning of the season, the match-ups for the Bracket Buster Saturday series will be determined by ESPN in conjunction with the conferences approximately three weeks prior to the event (Sunday, January 29, 2006). As part of the agreement, home teams will play a "return" game at the home facility of their Bracket Buster Saturday series opponent in November or December of the following season.
The pool of teams in the 2006 Bracket Buster Saturday series represents five Sweet Sixteen squads and a regional finalist from the last five NCAA Tournaments. Kent State advanced to an Elite Eight game in the 2002 NCAA Tournament, while Kent State, Southern Illinois (2002), Butler (2003), Nevada (2004) and UW-Milwaukee (2005) have made Sweet Sixteen appearances. In all, the 2006 Bracket Buster Saturday pool boasts a total of 71 team appearances in the last five NCAA Tournaments.
From the Missouri Valley Conference, Creighton, Northern Iowa and Southern Illinois qualified for the 2005 NCAA Tournament, marking only the third time -- including the 1985 and 1999 NCAA Tourneys -- in league history that the Conference sent three teams to the Big Dance, with SIU advancing to the second round in 2005. In fact, the Missouri Valley Conference has sent at least two teams to the NCAA Tournament for the last seven seasons.
"The wild-card aspect of the pairings adds an extra layer of anticipation for fans of competing teams," said Elgin. "Having these 11 games on national television, at this critical time of the regular season, provides a stage for those teams that will be considered for postseason play. Teams can actually play their way into national television exposure via their performance through the end of January."
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. This campaign, two regular-season Missouri Valley Conference games will appear on ESPN2. Southern Illinois -- an NCAA Tournament participant in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 -- will square off against Creighton -- NCAA Tournament qualifier from 1999 to 2003 and 2005 -- in a regular-season match-up in Omaha, Neb., on Saturday, February 11 (1 p.m. Central), while on Saturday, February 25, Northern Iowa -- an NCAA Tournament participant in 2004 and 2005 -- visits Southern Illinois in the regular-season finale (1 p.m. Central) for both teams at the SIU Arena in Carbondale, Ill.
"The national exposure that ESPN has provided our teams has been critical to the continued success of the Missouri Valley Conference," Elgin said. "The entire country has been able to see the caliber of our coaches and players on a first-hand basis. The great success of our teams in the NCAA Tournament has validated what we've known for years -- that our league has coaches and student-athletes who can compete with the best in the nation."
