The Most No Duh Thing In The World: There's A Push To Get Better College Hoops Games After Football Ends And Even Bring Back BracketBusters

[Source] - And according to a report by Jon Wilner of The Mercury News on Thursday, ESPN is thinking about ways to create more of these late-season non-conference tilts.

ESPN senior vice president for college sports programming Nick Dawson appeared at a forum in December to discuss adding more of these games. “Is there more space in the calendar to organize non-conference opportunities in the middle of the conference season that, in a way, for me, allow a peak of interest in the sport, something different, something that might excite fans?” he posed.

Wilner also notes that playing marquee non-conference games after the football season winds down makes a lot of sense from a viewership perspective. It could even be a vehicle to bring back a staple of ESPN’s college basketball programming circa the mid-2000s: BracketBusters, where teams were scheduled against each other based on current standings to help differentiate quality.

Oh would you look at that. It's almost like anyone with a brain knows this is a good decision. It's almost like people have been screaming this forever

We used to have the SEC/Big 12 Challenge in January. We used to have Bracket Busters. Everyone who watches this sport screams we need more of this, especially once football ends. We get more eyes on the sport and look at this weekend. For the fifth time ever the top-4 teams in the country are playing each other

My only complaint is Duke/Michigan isn't on campus. It's being played in Washington DC which is as dumb as it gets. Play these games where fans actually are and let's give us something good here. But back to Bracket Busters. If you're old enough you remember those days. You remember these mid-majors getting primetime games, actually able to move up in tournament talk and all that. Imagine if we got like Miami (Ohio) vs Yale this weekend. Sign me the fuck up for that. 

There's nothing better than a big time college game. I don't care the sport, obviously we're talking college hoops here, but the anticipation for a top-5 game is better than anything else. Make teams keep this weekend open and assign matchups after rosters are set. Let's see more of this. It's the easiest decision in the world.