CSNbbs

Austin Peay / Akron,

ODU / Toledo

Ohio / N. Mx. State

Kent State @ George Mason

Two CAA/MAC games.

I am really disappointed with this draw. Last week we crushed WMU and lost spots in the RPI, now we play a team with a lower RPI than WMU. A win is not going to help our RPI and a loss would kill it all together.

On a different note, the Zips are getting 5 points in the AP top 25 poll.

zipsfan Wrote:I am really disappointed with this draw. Last week we crushed WMU and lost spots in the RPI, now we play a team with a lower RPI than WMU. A win is not going to help our RPI and a loss would kill it all together.

On a different note, the Zips are getting 5 points in the AP top 25 poll.

Since the BCS schools have refused to participate, the Bracketbuster will not do anything to help a "mid-major" get into the tournament. It just the mid-majors playing each other with the chance for an dditional loss with no upside on the RPI side. The concept has become a joke. Entertaining games, absolutely. Help in getting in the tournament, none.

HuskieDave Wrote:

zipsfan Wrote:I am really disappointed with this draw. Last week we crushed WMU and lost spots in the RPI, now we play a team with a lower RPI than WMU. A win is not going to help our RPI and a loss would kill it all together.

On a different note, the Zips are getting 5 points in the AP top 25 poll.

Since the BCS schools have refused to participate, the Bracketbuster will not do anything to help a "mid-major" get into the tournament. It just the mid-majors playing each other with the chance for an dditional loss with no upside on the RPI side. The concept has become a joke. Entertaining games, absolutely. Help in getting in the tournament, none.

That's not true at all. If G. Mason doesn't win @ Witchita State last year, they don't get the at-large bid in the tournament and don't go to the Final 4.

zipsfan Wrote:I am really disappointed with this draw. Last week we crushed WMU and lost spots in the RPI, now we play a team with a lower RPI than WMU. A win is not going to help our RPI and a loss would kill it all together.

On a different note, the Zips are getting 5 points in the AP top 25 poll.

Payback for a bad non-conference schedule. I think Akron is a good team, but I can't figure out why Dambrodt had such a weak non-conference schedule.

7 Wrote:

HuskieDave Wrote:

zipsfan Wrote:I am really disappointed with this draw. Last week we crushed WMU and lost spots in the RPI, now we play a team with a lower RPI than WMU. A win is not going to help our RPI and a loss would kill it all together.

On a different note, the Zips are getting 5 points in the AP top 25 poll.

Since the BCS schools have refused to participate, the Bracketbuster will not do anything to help a "mid-major" get into the tournament. It just the mid-majors playing each other with the chance for an dditional loss with no upside on the RPI side. The concept has become a joke. Entertaining games, absolutely. Help in getting in the tournament, none.

That's not true at all. If G. Mason doesn't win @ Witchita State last year, they don't get the at-large bid in the tournament and don't go to the Final 4.

Well, it is true in virtually ever case. I do not agree that mid-majors playing mid-majors helps much in getting into the tournament. All those games to marginally help one school? However, I would agree that George Mason was marginally helped last year. The original concept of the Bracketbuster has not been maintained and far more teams are hurt by an additional loss than helped by another mid-major win.

they updated the official bracket buster web page

http://www.oreillyespnubracketbusters.com/

People get hung up on the name, Bracket Buster. It's best practical function is to give good mid-major teams two things:
1. TV exposure and some national discussion they would not otherwise get this time of year.
2. A good return game the next year against a quality opponent when it's hard to schedule those kind of games.
As for all the non-TV teams, it is, I grant, a non-event, but for most of those teams the whole season is a non-event anyway. This has no bearing either way.

HuskieDave Wrote:

zipsfan Wrote:I am really disappointed with this draw. Last week we crushed WMU and lost spots in the RPI, now we play a team with a lower RPI than WMU. A win is not going to help our RPI and a loss would kill it all together.

On a different note, the Zips are getting 5 points in the AP top 25 poll.

Since the BCS schools have refused to participate, the Bracketbuster will not do anything to help a "mid-major" get into the tournament. It just the mid-majors playing each other with the chance for an dditional loss with no upside on the RPI side. The concept has become a joke. Entertaining games, absolutely. Help in getting in the tournament, none.

i agree totally with you, HuskieDave. this bastardized version of the BracketBuster does little, if any, good for the vast majority of "mid-major" schools. George Mason was an anomoly last year. the only way this would do "mid-major" schools any good is if we could get major programs to play us in our own gyms or even in a neutral gym. and we all know the odds of something like that happening!

until then, the BracketBusters is a meaningless non-league game in the middle of a league schedule, and especially meaningless for those teams that are vying for titles in their own conferences. some of the match-ups might make for some good TV, but other than that...eh!

I still like BracketBuster. A quick break from the conference schedule can be beneficial. The TV games also give exposure. Chances are it rarely helps someone in their quest for an at-large bid, but for the upper level MAC teams it is still one of the better non-conference games they will play all year.

The only changes I would make are put more games on ESPN. If you are going to create this, go all out. I would also ease it back down to the the way it was the first year where you only had enough teams involved for the TV slots. Unfortunately, that doesn't allow for flexibility with teams, but the games between 8th place MAC team and 8th place Horizon team are worthless.

KStud Wrote:I still like BracketBuster. A quick break from the conference schedule can be beneficial. The TV games also give exposure. Chances are it rarely helps someone in their quest for an at-large bid, but for the upper level MAC teams it is still one of the better non-conference games they will play all year.

The only changes I would make are put more games on ESPN. If you are going to create this, go all out. I would also ease it back down to the the way it was the first year where you only had enough teams involved for the TV slots. Unfortunately, that doesn't allow for flexibility with teams, but the games between 8th place MAC team and 8th place Horizon team are worthless.

There are very interesting matchups and some excellent games, I just don't think they serve the original purpose of the Bracketbuster concept.

KStud,

yeah i think you're right about paring it down but i don't know if they could go backwards now that they've gone this far with it. but i would like to see all of the televised games on ESPN or ESPN2. i was kind of excited when i saw Ohio was getting a televised game; and then i remembered that we had one last year too against Samford...on ESPN360!

The truth of the matter is, without this event the MAC would have four fewer nationally televised games.

a couple of the mac bracketbuster games are in danger of being on espn360, so no national tv for those

Kent-Mason has a good shot at the Deuce, as does Toledo-ODU. I'd rather Ohio not be on TV at all...

well, looking at the TV lineup, http://www.oreillyespnubracketbusters.co.../index.php) I predict the games to appear like this:

Friday
Winthrop at Missouri State 7pm ESPN2
Albany at Boise State 9pm ESPNU

Saturday
Austin Peay at Akron 1pm ESPNU
Holy Cross at Hofstra 3pm ESPNU
Bradley at VCU 4pm ESPNU
Old Dominion at Toledo 4pm ESPN2
Drexel at Creighton 4pm ESPN360
Kent State at George Mason 6pm ESPN2
Appalachian State at Wichita State 6pm ESPN360
Cal State Fullerton at Wright State 7pm ESPNU
Southern Illinois at Butler 8pm ESPN2
Utah State at Oral Roberts 8pm ESPN360
Ohio at New Mexico State 10pm ESPN2
Northern Iowa at Nevada 12am ESPN2

revised after KStud pointed out the mistake...

You have Utah State and Oral Roberts playing a doubleheader. ;-) Those are some good guesses.

I noticed on the official release that this will be George Mason's Homecoming game.

Homecoming for basketball? There's a novel concept.

Ugh, I don't want to see my team get pounded on ESPN2...

go out guys and subscribe and get ESPN-U (lot of Brackbuster will be there)

This was a paid advertisement.

I paid for DirecTV service and now I advertised DirecTV's programming. lmfao

Seriously, those without ESPN-U will miss a lot of Bracketbusters.

And missed a lot of MAC FB games last fall, etc.

ESPN-U should be a must for serious MAC fans (ones who will watch more then simply his school).

zipsfan Wrote:I am really disappointed with this draw. Last week we crushed WMU and lost spots in the RPI, now we play a team with a lower RPI than WMU. A win is not going to help our RPI and a loss would kill it all together.

On a different note, the Zips are getting 5 points in the AP top 25 poll.

Really though, why does it matter? The MAC has absolutely ZERO chance of getting a second team in the tournament. Win the MAC tourney and you're in, lose and you're out. It's that simple, the bracket buster games are meaningless.