Last season, the men’s basketball team received unprecedented national attention during its remarkable 23 game winning streak and run into the third round of the NCAA Tournament.
ESPN announced its schedule of televised OVC games, and the national spotlight will remain on the Racers in 2012-13. As part of the terms of the television deal between the conference and ESPN, seven regular season OVC matchups, plus the conference championship tournament in March, will be aired on one of the ESPN family of networks.
The Racers have been selected to appear in at least four of these seven games. The televised games will appear on ESPNU and include two road games: SEMO on Jan. 5 and Tennessee Tech on Jan. 24. Additionally, two home games against Austin Peay on Feb. 2 and Belmont on Feb. 7 will be aired on the national network.
ESPN also scheduled a ‘wild card’ game, which will be selected from the six OVC matchups on March 2 and will air on ESPNU. The Racers host SEMO that evening.
The regular season OVC matchups, however, will not be the only televised games for the Racers. ESPN will air each game from the Racer’s early season tournament, the Charleston Classic, as well as several games from the OVC Tournament.
Murray State’s first round Charleston Classic matchup is with Auburn and its second round matchup is against either St. Johns or the College of Charleston. If they win both of those games, the Charleston Classic championship match will likely air on one of ESPN’s main networks (ESPN or ESPN2).
With at least four regular season matchups, plus games from the Charleston Classic OVC Tournament and perhaps the NCAA?Tournament, the Racers could appear on national television more than 10 times.
The Racer TV Network has yet to announce its schedule, but will feature several Murray State home and away games.
With a highly anticipated season right around the corner, Racer fans from all over the country will be able to watch their team all season long.
Staff report