Big West Announces 2009 Basketball Television Schedule On ESPN And Fox

Files associated with this release:
2009 Big West Basketball Television Schedule
10/9/2008

Commissioner Dennis Farrell today unveiled the 2009 Big West Conference basketball television package, featuring 21 games on ESPN and Fox platforms.
   
The package includes five nationally televised men's basketball regular season conference games on ESPN2 and ESPNU, and eight regionally televised regular season Saturday games on FSN PRIME TICKET and FSN WEST.
   
In addition, live broadcasts of four games from the 2009 Big West Basketball Tournament in March at the Anaheim Convention Center will be showcased.  ESPNU carries the two men's semifinal games on Friday, March 13 and ESPN2 airs the men's championship at 9:00 p.m. (Pacific) on Saturday, March 14.  FSN PRIME TICKET provides women's championship game action at 1:00 p.m. (Pacific) on March 14.
  
Four additional national telecasts will be featured in the package.  Cal State Fullerton will appear three times on ESPN2 or ESPNU in the 76 CLASSIC, the annual eight team Thanksgiving men's basketball tournament hosted by the Big West at the Anaheim Convention Center.  The Titans open the tournament with Wake Forest in a Thanksgiving Day tussle on ESPN2.  On Friday, November 21, last year's Final Four runner-up North Carolina travels to UC Santa Barbara's Thunderdome for a non-conference showdown on ESPNU.
   
Additional ESPN exposures are potentially available on ESPNU Bracket Busters, a two-day men's basketball extravaganza pitting NCAA Tournament hopefuls from 17 NCAA Division I conferences against one another.  Twenty-six schools will be selected, largely based on their RPI at the end of January, to compete in 13 televised games on either ESPN2, ESPNU or ESPN360.com.  All nine Big West schools are included in the pool of 102 teams.
  
"This season's television schedule represents the most extensive broadcast package for the Big West Conference in over a decade, as it includes eight guaranteed national broadcasts on the ESPN platform, not counting the North Carolina at UC Santa Barbara game," said Farrell.  "The conference also maintains a strong presence in our regional footprint with eight men's regular season games and women's tournament championship game on FOX.  This is an excellent opportunity for our schools to showcase their basketball programs."
   
All nine Big West schools will appear at least once in the television package and games will take place from seven different campus sites.
   
The conference package tips off on Thursday, January 8 as defending Big West tournament champion Cal State Fullerton travels to Cal Poly for an 8:00 p.m. ESPNU contest.  The Titans then head down the central coast to UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, January 10 for an FSN PRIME TICKET matchup of 2007-08 regular season champions.  Cal State Fullerton hosts Pacific for an ESPN2 audience on Saturday, January 17.  The Titans appear one more time on the package, facing UC Irvine on FSN WEST on Saturday, March 7 in a precursor to the Big West Tournament, which featured the two cross-county rivals in last year's championship contest.
   
Cal State Northridge, a 2007-08 regular season tri-champion, makes its package debut on Thursday, January 29 at UC Santa Barbara on ESPNU.

2009 BIG WEST BASKETBALL TELEVISION SCHEDULE