GJGood Posted February 11, 2014 Report Share Posted February 11, 2014 It was always right about this time of year that we would learn the Zips opponent in the BracketBusters game. I, for one, miss that event. I remember when ESPN announced they were cancelling the event that they may bring it back in the future in some other form. I hope they do, as long as it is done fairly and with teams like Akron and conferences like the MAC in mind.Anybody else miss BracketBusters? If the event ever did come back, what format would you like to see? Would you keep it February so that there was a good idea of how teams had performed all season? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP1 Posted February 11, 2014 Report Share Posted February 11, 2014 It was a nice event in the middle of conference season to add a little spice to the year.I'd like the mid major conferences come together and develop a format for a game like this in the future.Don't let ESPN have control over it. Schedule some good games and let ESPN decide if they want quality on TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoZips Posted February 11, 2014 Report Share Posted February 11, 2014 The Zips have been on ESPN eleven times this season with more games to come. Do we really need the BracketBuster which was a money losing propisition fo most schools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zippy5 Posted February 11, 2014 Report Share Posted February 11, 2014 The Zips have been on ESPN eleven times this season with more games to come. Do we really need the BracketBuster which was a money losing propisition fo most schools.Yeah, those were the best OOC games we usually had on our schedule. VCU 4X came from it, Creighton, NDSU, Valpo.. I miss it, we don't seem to schedule those ones on our own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z.I.P. Posted February 12, 2014 Report Share Posted February 12, 2014 The Zips have been on ESPN eleven times this season with more games to come. Do we really need the BracketBuster which was a money losing propisition fo most schools.Why YES, Mr Go Zips, we do! That game generated more publicity than just about any other nationally televised game. Thanks BTW for mentioning the eleven. I think the OU game makes 12. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave in Green Posted February 12, 2014 Report Share Posted February 12, 2014 As I recall there was some hint that ESPN might at some point reinstitute some form of BracketBusters on a smaller scale. It originally began on a small scale and then grew into monster, much as the original few football bowl games eventually grew into a monster where almost every team with a 6-5 regular season record ended up bowling. If everyone's doing it, it's not special. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Kangaroo Posted February 12, 2014 Report Share Posted February 12, 2014 From a fan's perspective, at least the real fan's perspective, the Bracket Buster event was one of the best things to happen to Zips basketball scheduling. It allowed us to get home games vs. upper-echelon teams that otherwise would never have set foot in the state of Ohio. Loved seeing Nevada, VCU, Creighton, Oral Roberts etc at the JAR. Love the concept of the home-n-home 2-game series.Unfortunately, the Zips never took advantage of their Bracket Buster opportunities. We blew every chance to beat a "biggie" and grab some spotlight. Our Bracket Buster wins were never marquee ones: Oral Roberts sans Dominique Morrison, Creighton in an off-year, Valpo, some Dakota school, Drake? etc.I miss the Bracket Buster. Especially this year, when we'd likely be pitted against a mediocre Horizon League opponent, and get a win. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP1 Posted February 12, 2014 Report Share Posted February 12, 2014 The Zips have been on ESPN eleven times this season with more games to come. Do we really need the BracketBuster which was a money losing propisition fo most schools.When did universities start to worry about losing money with college athletics? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP1 Posted February 12, 2014 Report Share Posted February 12, 2014 As I recall there was some hint that ESPN might at some point reinstitute some form of BracketBusters on a smaller scale. I hope this doesn't happen. ESPN looks out for the interests of ESPN. An agreement between the MAC and other MAClike conferences has the potential to produce better results if they would just stop letting ESPN lead them around by the noses. National TV should not be the consideration at this point because so many games are on national TV. Producing the best games possible should be the primary goal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJGood Posted February 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2014 I also liked the fact that it became a home-and-home series. That certainly helped in scheduling. By the way, when do the Zips go to Fargo? Next year?I heard a suggestion once that a Bracketbusters event should be more conference based. For example, it would be determined before the season that a conference like the MAAC would be playing at the MAC, then they would play each other based on standings in their conferences a week or 10 days before the actual game date. In this example first place in the MAAC would play at first in the MAC, second in MAAC at second in MAC, etc... with any leftover teams just getting an off weekend. The following year the home conference could be reversed with something like the MAC at the MAAC. After that second season the conferences competing with each other could be switched. That is just an example but I think its an interesting concept as long as leagues of relative equal caliber were placed against each other.Not even sure ESPN would have to be involved if some conferences just wanted to get together and do it themselves, although having a big television platform would certainly help in terms of popularity and visibility.Any thoughts? I can see some potential issues with teams ending up playing somebody they already had played earlier in the season but how big of an issue would that really be? The Zips did play South Carolina back-to-back this year after all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP1 Posted February 12, 2014 Report Share Posted February 12, 2014 Not even sure ESPN would have to be involved if some conferences just wanted to get together and do it themselves, although having a big television platform would certainly help in terms of popularity and visibility.I think if the leagues get together and put on a quality event with good teams/games, ESPN will cover it. If they don't want to, there are now plenty of sports networks on TV that would be happy to televise the event and ESPN can continue to excite America with games like Wake Forest vs. NC State. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jalapeño Zippy Posted February 12, 2014 Report Share Posted February 12, 2014 I would love to see the Mid-Major Top 25 incorporated into this new format. Take those teams and the others receiving votes to round it out and have fewer games with better competition. I think that would be huge and receive quite a bit of interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sportsjunkie330 Posted February 18, 2014 Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 The Zips have been on ESPN eleven times this season with more games to come. Do we really need the BracketBuster which was a money losing propisition fo most schools.You could say the same about bowl games in football too and they don't eliminate those. And ESPN3 doesn't count as being on ESPN since we can't even get it in Akron! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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