Murray State University Athletics
Racers to host Bracket Buster game in 2006
9/15/2005 11:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The Murray State men's basketball program learned today that they will indeed be a host team for the fourth annual Bracket Buster Saturday event, a one-day college basketball extravaganza pitting potential NCAA tournament hopefuls against each other on February 18.
The pairings will be announced January 26.
Last season, the Racers traveled to Houston and defeated Rice in their first appearance in the Bracket Buster.
The 2006 event will feature 11 nationally televised games selected from an expanded pool of 100 teams representing 18 conferences.
All 11 of of the members of the Ohio Valley Conference are in the field. Murray State, Austin Peay, Eastern Illinois, Eastern Kentucky and Jacksonville State will be hosting games. Morehead State, Samford, Southeast Missouri, Tennessee-Martin, Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech will play road 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.
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.
