ESPNU BracketBusters Men's Basketball Pairings Announced

- Event to Feature 14 Games with NCAA Tournament Hopefuls February 22-24
- Matchup Highlighted by #15 Drake at #11 Butler

February 4, 2008 -- Pairings for the sixth annual O’Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters – a multi-day men’s basketball event matching NCAA Tournament hopefuls against each other on Friday, Feb. 22, Saturday, Feb. 23 and a special telecast on Sunday, Feb. 24 -- were announced today. The selections are highlighted by #15 Drake (20-1 record) at #11 Butler (19-2), in a showdown between two teams with the best records and highest rankings in event history. ESPNU will offer a special half-hour selection show breaking down the matchups this evening at 6:30 p.m. ET.

ESPN2 will televise six ESPNU BracketBusters contests, ESPNU will televise five, ESPN360.com, ESPN’s customized broadband service, will offer coverage of two and for the first time, ESPN Classic will televise one. Game times and network assignments for the 14 matchups will be announced Monday, Feb. 11. The 28 ESPNU BracketBusters teams were selected from a pool of 100 schools. This year’s event will mark the first time games will be televised over three days. The event began televising games over two days in 2006, while the first three years featured every game on a Saturday.

ESPNU BracketBusters event pairings:

UC Santa Barbara at Utah State (Friday night telecast)

Davidson at Winthrop (Friday night telecast)

#15 Drake at #11 Butler

Kent State at #23 Saint Mary’s

Virginia Commonwealth at Akron

Marist at Cleveland State

Siena at Boise State

Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Bradley

Rider at Cal State Northridge

George Mason at Ohio

Creighton at Oral Roberts

Nevada at Southern Illinois

Miami (Ohio) at Valparaiso

Wright State at Illinois State (Sunday telecast)

This year’s 28 ESPNU BracketBusters teams represent 11 conferences and:

* Three ranked teams: #11 Butler, #15 Drake and #23 Saint Mary’s.
* Six in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) top 50, including Drake at eighth, and 22 in the top 100.
* Ten 2007 NCAA Tournament participants, including two Sweet Sixteen (Butler and Southern Illinois) teams.
* Seventeen with 15 or more overall wins and three undefeated in conference play.

The ESPNU 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 prior to the season and the matchups for the event were determined by ESPN in conjunction with the conferences.

ESPNU BracketBusters is an example of ESPN college basketball franchise programming. Others include Rivalry Week Presented by Cisco, Feast Week Presented by Lowe’s, Judgment Week Presented Jockey, Student Spirit Week Presented by EAS and Championship Week Presented by Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Sports: ESPN

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