I am very disappointed to hear that the new opening round of the Big East tournament will not be on TV. (It will be streamed online.) Don’t they understand that there are lots of us eager to see if Notre Dame’s late season surge is crushed by a first round loss? Don’t they understand that a Seton Hall vs South Florida elimination game is must-watch material for college hoops junkies?
Also, now that the Big 12 championship game has been moved to the day before Selection Sunday, ESPN had to find a replacement for the Big 12 semifinals in its schedule. The big winner is the SEC which will now have its semifinal games airing on national TV. In a normal year, that sounds exciting, but this isn’t the year to trade two Big 12 games for two SEC games.
But the key development of this move is that there are now more meaningful games on the Wednesday of Championship week. ESPN needs to put the Big 12 opening round on ESPN2 for ideal Wednesday channel flipping. Make it happen ESPN.