ESPN to Televise up to Six Purdue Men’s Basketball Games This Season
By Mathew Muncy
It looks like the Purdue men’s basketball team will get a chance to shine up to six times on ESPN and CBS this upcoming season. On Thursday, ESPN announced their college basketball schedule and the Boilermakers will be seen on the ESPN networks at least fives time, with a possible additional appearance on CBS later in the season.
For those of you with cable, and the Big Ten Network (BTN), you will be able to see the Boilers 14 times throughout the season. I’m going to guess that number will be higher since most cable providers also offer several “extra” Big Ten Network channels that typically show different games.
The team’s first game on ESPN will come on Jan. 17 when they travel to Penn State. Exactly two weeks later they will travel to Northwestern which will be televised on ESPNU. On Feb. 12 the Boilers will travel to Rutgers – first ever Big Ten matchup between the two schools – and it will also be televised on ESPNU.
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Feb. 19 the Boilermakers will travel to Indiana University to take on the hated Hoosiers. That game will wind up on either ESPN or ESPN2, guessing based on how these two teams look by that point of the season.
Purdue will get their first home game on ESPNU as Rutgers makes their first Big Ten appearance at Mackey Arena. Their last game will be on March 1 at Ohio State and will not be on ESPN, but potentially CBS. It’s a wildcard game for the company and if they choose not to pick it up, then it will air on BTN.
It’s sad to see only one home game making its way to ESPN or CBS, but the last two seasons have hurt them in that regard. Purdue doesn’t draw the numbers like they did when Robbie Hummel, E’Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson were around. The amount of televised games on ESPN or CBS could of course change, I believe, if Purdue was to pull a fast one on everyone and prove to be a solid team out of the gate.
I want to know what you think of the televised scheduling. Do you think they deserve more games on ESPN or CBS? What about televised home game? Did they get the shaft in that regard? Let me know in the comments below.
(Source: Purdue Sports)