|
 CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Akron Zips, Ohio Bobcats and Buffalo Bulls have been chosen to participate in nationally televised games as part of the Sears BracketBusters event. In addition, nine non-televised non-conference matchups involving MAC programs were also announced and will be played on Saturday, February 18th - with the exception of Miami who will play Tennessee State on Sunday, February 19th.
The 13 televised match-ups were announced by ESPN on Monday night. Buffalo (12-6, 5-2 MAC) starts off this year’s televised games for the MAC when it heads to South Dakota State (17-6, 9-2 Summit League) to take on the Jackrabbits at 1 p.m. on ESPNU. Akron (14-7, 6-1 MAC) will travel to Tulsa, Okla. to take on Oral Roberts (20-4, 12-0 Summit League) at 2 p.m. on ESPN/ESPN2, while Ohio (17-4, 5-2 MAC) will host UNC-Asheville (16-7, 11-1 Big South) later that evening at 7 p.m. on ESPN3.
MAC-related pairings are as follows:
Saturday, February 18th
*Buffalo at South Dakota State (ESPNU, 1 p.m.)
*Akron at Oral Roberts (ESPN/ESPN2, 2 p.m.)
*UNC-Asheville at Ohio (ESPN3, 7 p.m.)
College of Charleston at Kent State
Western Michigan at North Dakota State
Eastern Michigan at Green Bay
Southern Illinois at Ball State
Morehead State at Bowling Green
Toledo at Sam Houston State
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Central Michigan
Northern Illinois at SIU Edwardsville
Sunday, February 19th
Tennessee State at Miami
This marks the fifth time the Zips have been selected for a television game, while the Bobcats and Bulls will be playing in their fourth nationally televised contest as part of BracketBuster weekend. It’s also marks the first time since 2008 that the MAC had more than two teams playing in the televised games.
A charter member of the BracketBusters event (10th season), the MAC is one of only four conferences that has seen one of its participating teams reach the Regional Final (Kent State in 2002; George Mason reached Final Four in 2006, Davidson in 2008; Butler reached National Championship in 2010 & 2011).
Last year, only one Mid-American Conference team (Kent State) was featured in ESPN BracketBusters-branded games (contests aired on the TV package).
For more information on the event, please visit http://www.espnbracketbusters.com
|
