SAM HOUSTON TO HOST TOLEDO Feb 18 in BRACKETBUSTERS
The Toledo Rockets will be the opponent for Sam Houston State in the Sears BracketBusters game Saturday Feb. 18 at 2 p.m. at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum in Huntsville.
All 12 Southland teams will play in this year’s expanded field, which is highlighted by 13 nationally televised games on either ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU or ESPN3.
The tournament schedule was announced on a BracketBusters special Monday night on ESPNU.
The 10th annual event features 142 teams from 16 conferences, the largest pool in the event’s history and includes two teams that reached last year’s Final Four.
UT Arlington visits Weber State on Saturday, Feb. 18. The game will be available exclusively on ESPN3. Lamar also will play on ESPN3 at George Mason, which reached the NCAA Final Four in 2006.
Other Southland BracketBuster road games include UTSA at Georgia State, Central Arkansas at Louisiana Tech,A&M-Corpus Christi at Central Michigan and Texas State at South Dakota.
Sam Houston is one of six Southland teams playing at home.
Northwestern State will host Campbell, McNeese State plays Southeast Missouri State, Stephen F. Austin meets High Point, Nicholls State hosts IUPUI and Southeastern Louisiana takes on Tennessee-Martin.
Sam Houston State, just two years removed for an NCAA tournament appearance in 2010, is playing Toledo, a Mid-American Conference member, for the first time.The Bearkats are 8-13 overall and 2-5 in the West Division, while the Rockets are 10-11 overall and 2-5 in the MAC. This will be the first meeting between the schools.
Sears BracketBusters, named because of the success of the teams in NCAA tournament play, will provide the 26 televised teams an opportunity to play other top non-conference opponents three weeks before Selection Sunday.
The 71-game event features 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.
Teams participating this season in Sears BracketBusters have produced 87 appearances in the last six NCAA Championships.
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 following year.
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.
Southland Conference Games in 2012 Sears BracketBusters
Toledo at Sam Houston State.................................... 2 p.m.
Lamar at George Mason (ESPN3).............................. 3 p.m.
Southeast Missouri State at McNeese State.............. 3 p.m.
Central Arkansas at Louisiana Tech....................... 3:30 p.m.
Campbell at Northwestern State.............................. 4 p.m.
Tennessee-Martin at Southeastern Louisiana........... 6 p.m.
High Point at Stephen F. Austin................................. 6 p.m.
UTSA at Georgia State.............................................. 6 p.m.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Central Michigan.......... 6 p.m.
Texas State at South Dakota..................................... 7 p.m.
UT Arlington at Weber State (ESPN3)........................ 7 p.m.
IUPUI at Nicholls State................................................. TBA
