| Penguins to Participate in Bracket Buster |
| Wednesday, September 8 2004 |
| Courtesy of: |
| Youngstown -- As part of the third annual Bracket Buster Saturday event pool announced on Wednesday afternoon by ESPN, the Youngstown State men's basketball team will be one of 32 host schools for a game at the Beeghly Center on Saturday, Feb. 19. This year's Bracket Buster will feature 11 nationally-televised games selected from an expanded pool of 64 teams representing 13 conferences. Last year’s field included a potential 46 teams (vying for 10 Bracket Buster Saturday games) while the inaugural event in 2003 featured 18 teams (nine Bracket Buster Saturday games). Possible opponents for the Penguins at the Beeghly Center on Feb. 19 include: Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Western Michigan, Bradley, Illinois State, Southern Illinois, Wichita State, Arkansas-Little Rock, New Orleans, San Jose State, SMU, UTEP, Vermont, Northern Arizona, Portland State, Weber State, Cal State-Northridge, Virginia Commonwealth, Drexel, Manhattan, Niagara, Oral Roberts, Valparaiso, Austin Peay, Murray State, Georgia Southern and Chattanooga. Last year, Youngstown State played at Bowling Green on Feb. 21 during the Bracket Buster event. 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, ESPN Pay-Per-View’s out-of-market pay-per-view service. 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 64 schools) an opportunity to play other top non-conference opponents three weeks prior to Selection Sunday. The 42 teams not selected for Bracket Buster Saturday will compete against each other on the day. The 64-team field will feature 12 teams from the Mid-American Conference; 10 from the Western Athletic Conference; nine from the Missouri Valley Conference and Horizon League; four from the Sun Belt and Southern Conference; three from the Big Sky, Colonial Athletic and Metro Atlantic Athletic; and two from the Big West, Mid-Continent and Ohio Valley Conferences; plus Vermont from the America East Conference. Three new conferences join the pool this year: America East, Big Sky and Mid-Continent. While each conference selects their participating teams prior to the beginning of the season, the 11 match-ups for Bracket Buster Saturday will be determined from the pool of 64 teams by ESPN in conjunction with the conferences approximately three weeks prior to the event (this year – January 30, 2005). As part of the agreement, all 11 of the Bracket Buster Saturday home teams, as well as the remaining 21 home squads, will play a “return” game at the home facility of their opponent in November or December of the following season. |