MAAC Announces 2014-15 ESPN Basketball Television Schedule
MAAC Sports
EDISON, N.J. – The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s 2014-15 men’s and women’s basketball television schedule will feature 47 nationally televised games on the ESPN networks, which include 37 contests during the regular season and 10 contest at the 2015 MAAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships at the Times Union Center in Albany, New York.
The schedule features some of the MAAC’s premiere rivalry matchups, and culminates with 10 televised games in the MAAC Basketball Championships on March 5-9. The MAAC Women’s Championship Game will be televised on ESPNU on March 9 at 4:30pm, and the Men’s Championship Game will be televised later that night at 9:00pm, on either ESPN or ESPN2.
“The MAAC brand of highly competitive NCAA Division I basketball continues to be televised nationwide because of the relationship with ESPN,” notes commissioner Richard J. Ensor, Esq. “The relationship is a great asset of the conference and highly prized by the league’s member schools which look forward to another season of games across ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3.”
The MAAC television schedule will feature an all-time high of 11 wildcard games during the 2014-15 season. The wildcard format allows ESPN to pick any game on schedule for the selected date to be air on the designated platform (ESPN2, ESPNU, or ESPN3). ESPN will announce which game has been selected for the wildcard telecast 21 days out. The format enables the MAAC and ESPN flexibility to showcase the best possible matchups.
The first telecast of the 2014-15 season will be shown on ESPN3 and features Canisius at Niagara for the annual “Battle of the Bridge” on Dec. 6 at 3:00 p.m. The two rivals will meet again on Feb. 24, this time including the women as part of a double-header at Canisius.
The season’s first double-header will be hosted at the TD Bank Sports Center, in Hamden, Conn. on Jan. 15 when Quinnipiac’s women host Fairfield at 5:00 p.m. and the men host Rider at 8:00 p.m. both on ESPN3.
Among the featured regular season matchups for the men is the Feb. 13 contest when the previous two MAAC champions and New York City rivals Iona and Manhattan meet in Riverdale at Draddy Gymnasium on ESPNU at 10:00 p.m. The hOURglass Rivalry between the New Jersey schools of Monmouth, Rider, and Saint Peter’s will appear on ESPN3 broadcast starting with Saint Peter’s hosting Rider on Jan. 29. On Feb. 19 Saint Peter’s will host Monmouth and on Feb. 26 Monmouth will host Rider. Rivals Marist and Siena will meet on Feb. 12 at McCann Arena on ESPN3. The last featured matchup for the men will put Connecticut in-state rivals Fairfield and Quinnipiac against each other on Feb. 13 on ESPN3.
The women’s television matchups to be highlighted include both meetings of the 2013-2014 MAAC Regular Season co-championship Marist and Iona. The February 20 meeting in Poughkeepsie, NY will be shown on ESPNU while ESPN3 will carry the January 31 meeting in New Rochelle, NY. On Feb. 12, Quinnipiac will travel to the McCann Arena to face Marist in a rematch of last year’s women’s title game. Iona will host Quinnipiac on Feb. 22 in a rematch of the 2014 championship semifinals.
Of the 47 game television slate, 36 will be on ESPN3, nine will be on ESPNU, one regular season game will be on ESPN2, and the men’s tournament championship game will be on either ESPN or ESPN2. There will be 33 men’s games and 14 women’s game televised on ESPN networks.