Wednesday, August 18, 2010

BRISTOL, Conn. - Belmont's season-opening contest with Tennessee on November 16 will air on ESPNU at part of ESPN's College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon.

ESPN’s celebration of the opening of the college basketball season will include 20 live games – 19 men’s and one women’s — in a minimum of 25.5 hours across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU.

Highlights include:

◦A minimum of 21 conferences will be represented: ACC, Atlantic Sun, Atlantic 10, America East, Big Ten, Big 12, BIG EAST, Conference USA, Colonial, Great West, Horizon, Metro Atlantic Athletic, Mid-American, Missouri Valley, Mountain West, Northeast, Pac-10, SEC, Summit, Western Athletic and West Coast. The Big West Conference could be added if Pacific meets UCLA, the host site, in the Dick’s Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off.

◦Eight of the top 10 teams in ESPN.com senior college basketball writer Andy Katz’s early men’s preseason top 25 poll will participate: No. 1 Duke, No. 3 Michigan State, No. 4 Baylor, No. 5 Kansas State, No. 6 Ohio State, No. 8 Villanova, No. 9 Gonzaga, No. 10 Florida, No. 18 Tennessee, No. 19 Memphis, No. 20 Butler, No. 22 Virginia Tech and No. 24 San Diego State. The schedule will feature three matchups between teams ranked in Katz’s poll: No. 22 Virginia Tech at No. 5 Kansas State (at 4 p.m.) and No. 6 Ohio State at No. 10 Florida (at 6 p.m.) on ESPN, and No. 24 San Diego State at No. 9 Gonzaga (at 11 p.m.) on ESPN2.

◦ESPNU will offer a quadruple-header featuring four marquee programs — Duke, Tennessee, UCLA and Villanova — beginning at 5:30 p.m.

◦ESPN’s coverage will include games from four different United States time zones — Eastern, Central, Pacific and Hawaii-Aleutian – and from 17 states: California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.