CAA Drops out of Bracketbusters effective 2012-13 season

by **DoubleJayAlum** » April 5th, 2012, 2:38 pm

With Butler apparently leaving for the A10, that leaves Murray St as about the only school worth playing year in and year out.

If it wasn't a joke before, Bracketbusters is a full fledged joke now. I hope those that defended the MVC's involvement can explain to the rest of us exactly who we can look forward to playing now...

With the MWC-MVC challenge entering its final season as well, coaches are going to have to work their asses off to fill a couple more games on the schedule....

**Sponsor**

by **shocktheheart** » April 5th, 2012, 2:41 pm

DoubleJayAlum wrote:With Butler apparently leaving for the A10, that leaves Murray St as about the only school worth playing year in and year out.

If it wasn't a joke before, Bracketbusters is a full fledged joke now. I hope those that defended the MVC's involvement can explain to the rest of us exactly who we can look forward to playing now...

With the MWC-MVC challenge entering its final season as well, coaches are going to have to work their asses off to fill a couple more games on the schedule....

Pathetic that we are locked into this god awful event.

by **DoubleJayAlum** » April 5th, 2012, 2:43 pm

By the way, The Mtn Tv network stops broadcasting May 31, so anybody hoping to catch this year's road challenge game on TV is SOL

by **Jet915** » April 5th, 2012, 2:50 pm

Well, on the bright side, that probably means that 6-7 MVC teams will get television games..........should be changed to "MVC vs. top low major teams around the USA Challenge"

by **BirdmanBB** » April 5th, 2012, 2:50 pm

St. Mary's is still in the bracketbuster right? I would expect them to drop it though.

If you thought the valley got screwed this year with the selections in this thing, just wait until next year. Our top teams will be playing games that will only hurt them.

by **valleychamp** » April 5th, 2012, 2:57 pm

CAA did not drop out. They were kicked out by ESPN for making that deal with NBC.

Either way, this is very bad.

by **Polyfro** » April 5th, 2012, 3:47 pm

valleychamp wrote:CAA did not drop out. They were kicked out by ESPN for making that deal with NBC.

Either way, this is very bad.

That's what it sounds like -- a reporter from the Newport (VA) News tweeted that the league was "uninvited" from the event.

https://twitter.com/#!/davidteelatdp/st ... 8084959233

It leaves the MVC in a tough spot -- there really aren't any marquee names left outside of the Valley, so the league's top teams will be matched up with whoever the "one year wonders" from smaller leagues are. Makes the league seem small-time, because of the leagues commonly referred to as the Valley's peers, the MVC is now the only one still participating.

by **kochhead22** » April 5th, 2012, 4:13 pm

Whats the valley's television contract look like with ESPN (is there a specific valley contract w/ ESPN to air a certain amount of games) or is it just individual teams that have contracts with ESPN to get games aired? Either way i'm afraid if the Valley exits the BracketBusters it will hurt the future contracts made w/ ESPN to air games.

by **MVCfans** » April 5th, 2012, 5:00 pm

I hate the Bracket Buster more and more every day.

My thoughts: The MVC Report - It's time for the MVC to move past Bracket Busters

by **pafan** » April 5th, 2012, 5:25 pm

Our contract with ESPN was negotiated by the league office. It was a new contract in September and it runs through 2015.

Leagues still participating in the Bracketbuster (expiration year) [2011-12 conference RPI]:
America East (2016) [29]
Big Sky (unknown) [25]
Big South (2013) [27]
Big West (2014) [26]
Horizon (2013) [14]
MAAC (2017) [18]
MAC (2017) [17]
Missouri Valley (2015) [8]
Ohio Valley (2013) [21]
Summit (unknown) [16]
Southland (unknown) [28]
WAC (2017) [12]

For reference, the CAA was 15th in RPI this year.

NB: A handful of schools from other conferences (apparently including the MEAC and the WCC) participate in BracketBusters on individual contracts.