Bearkats to play in Sears Bracketbusters
1/28/2012 9:58:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Sam Houston State University will be one of 142 NCAA Division I men's basketball teams participating in ESPN's Sears BracketBusters on Saturday, February 18, 2012.
The pairings for the 2012 Bracket Busters event are expected to be announced next week.
For complete information about Sears BracketBusters go to the ESPN Sear BracketBusters web page.
The 10th annual Sears BracketBusters, a three-day men's college basketball event pitting potential NCAA Championship hopefuls against each other Feb. 17-19, will feature 13 nationally televised games - on either ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU or ESPN3. The NCAA hopefuls will be selected from a pool of 142 teams from 16 conferences, the largest Sears BracketBusters pool in the event's history, which includes two team that reached the 2011 Final Four in Houston.
For the seventh straight year, ESPNU will feature five Sears BracketBusters games, while ESPN or ESPN2 will television up to six and ESPN3 will carry two. The 13 Sears BracketBusters matchups will be announced Monday, Jan. 30 with dates, times and networks. The television matchups are selected by ESPN, while a Committee of Conference Commissioners determines the additional non-televised games.
Sears BracketBusters, named because of the success of the teams in NCAA Championship play, will provide the 26 televised teams an opportunity to play other top non-conference opponents three weeks before Selection Sunday. The 116 teams not selected for Sears BracketBusters will compete against each other through the same three days.
The 142-team field will feature teams from 16 conferences: 12 each from Colonial Athletic Association, Mid-American Conference and Southland; 11 each from Ohio Valley Conference and Big South; 10 each from Horizon League, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Missouri Valley and Summit League; nine each from America East, Big Sky and Big West; eight from the Western Athletic Association; four from the Southern Conference; three from the MEAC; and two from the West Coast Conference.
As part of the agreement, all 13 of the Sears BracketBusters home teams in televised games, as well as the remaining 58 home squads, will play a return game at the home facility of their opponent in November or December of the 2013-14 season.
Sears BracketBusters is part of ESPN's college basketball franchise programming, along with Rivalry Week, Feast Week presented by Lowe's, Holiday Hoops Presented by Kay Jewelers, Judgment Week and Championship Week Presented by Dick's Sporting Goods.
Teams participating this season in Sears BracketBusters have produced 87 appearances in the last six NCAA Championships.
All 12 Southland Conference teams will participate in the event this season. League teams with home games in this year's BracketBusters are McNeese State, Nicholls State, Northwestern State, Sam Houston State, Southeastern Louisiana and Stephen F. Austin. The other eight teams, including Central Arkansas, Lamar, UT Arlington, UTSA, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Texas State, will have road games.
Three Southland Conference teams have previously participated in four BracketBusters games. Northwestern State has previously played in two BracketBusters matchups and rode its first appearance in 2006 at Utah State to a first-round upset over Iowa in the NCAA tournament. The Demons also met Tennessee Tech in a BracketBusters game. Stephen F. Austin also played in the 2006 event and Sam Houston State played in 2007. While the conference is winless in its four previous BracketBusters games, which have all been played on the road, the league won all four of the guaranteed return games the next year.
Sears BracketBusters Home and Away Teams
Matchups announced Jan. 30
|
Home Team |
Visiting Team |
|
America East |
|
|
Albany |
Binghamton |
|
Maine |
Boston University |
|
New Hampshire |
Hartford |
|
Vermont |
UMBC |
|
Stony Brook |
|
|
Big Sky |
|
|
Montana |
Eastern Washington |
|
Northern Arizona |
Idaho State |
|
Northern Colorado |
Montana State |
|
Sacramento State |
Portland State |
|
Weber State |
|
|
Big South |
|
|
Charleston Southern |
Campbell |
|
Coastal Carolina |
High Point |
|
Gardner-Webb |
Liberty |
|
Radford |
Presbyterian |
|
VMI |
UNC-Asheville |
|
Winthrop |
|
|
Big West |
|
|
UC Irvine |
Cal Poly |
|
UC Riverside |
UC Davis |
|
Cal State Fullerton |
UC Santa Barbara |
|
Cal State Northridge |
Long Beach State |
|
Pacific |
|
|
Colonial |
|
|
Delaware |
Drexel |
|
George Mason |
James Madison |
|
Georgia State |
Old Dominion |
|
Hofstra |
Towson |
|
Northeastern |
UNC Wilmington |
|
VCU |
William & Mary |
|
Horizon |
|
|
Butler |
Loyola (Ill.) |
|
Cleveland State |
UIC |
|
Detroit |
Valparaiso |
|
Green Bay |
Wright State |
|
Milwaukee |
Youngstown State |
|
Metro Atlantic Athletic |
|
|
Canisius |
Fairfield |
|
Iona |
Marist |
|
Loyola (Md.) |
Niagara |
|
Manhattan |
Rider |
|
Saint Peter's |
Siena |
|
Mid-American |
|
|
Ball State |
Akron |
|
Bowling Green |
Buffalo |
|
Central Michigan |
Eastern Michigan |
|
Kent State |
Northern Illinois |
|
Miami (Ohio) |
Toledo |
|
Ohio |
Western Michigan |
|
MEAC |
|
|
Morgan State |
Delaware State |
|
Hampton |
|
|
Missouri Valley |
|
|
Bradley |
Drake |
|
Creighton |
Indiana State |
|
Evansville |
Northern Iowa |
|
Illinois State |
Southern Illinois |
|
Missouri State |
Wichita State |
|
Ohio Valley |
|
|
Austin Peay |
Morehead State |
|
Eastern Illinois |
SE Missouri State |
|
Eastern Kentucky |
Tennessee-Martin |
|
Jacksonville State |
Tennessee Tech |
|
Murray State |
Tennessee State |
|
SIU Edwardsville |
|
|
Southern |
|
|
Appalachian State |
College of Charleston |
|
Davidson |
Wofford |
|
Southland |
|
|
McNeese State |
Central Arkansas |
|
Nicholls State |
Lamar |
|
Northwestern State |
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi |
|
Sam Houston State |
Texas-Arlington |
|
Southeastern Louisiana |
Texas-San Antonio |
|
Stephen F. Austin |
Texas State |
|
Summit League |
|
|
UMKC |
IPFW |
|
North Dakota State |
IUPUI |
|
Oral Roberts |
Oakland |
|
South Dakota State |
Southern Utah |
|
South Dakota |
Western Illinois |
|
WAC |
|
|
Idaho |
Fresno State |
|
Louisiana Tech |
Hawaii |
|
New Mexico State |
Nevada |
|
Utah State |
San Jose State |
|
West Coast Conference |
|
|
Loyola Marymount |
St. Mary's (Calif.) |
