ESPN Knows Who They Are Dealing With

What the heck is going with ESPN?

Sure they want to create some buzz for college basketball, but is showing 24 hours of college basketball straight on it's main network the smartest idea?

From Monday at midnight until Tuesday at midnight ESPN decided to show 24 hours of college hoops, terminating its regular programs for the day such as Pardon the Interruption and Around the Horn.

While this week is the first week of college basketball play, it seems a bit awkward that ESPN would go out on such a limb and post 24-hours of hoop, straight.

Universities, on the other hand, relished at the opportunity, including ones that hardly ever get exposure. On Tuesday morning, St. Peters College played against Monmouth at 6 am.

Both coaches thought it would be great exposure for its schools; St. Peters coach, John Dunne, thought it would be a great idea because so many people who work out in the early morning before work could watch the game. Monmouth coach Dave Calloway did not seemed to be fazed either, saying his team had played scrimmages at 8 am.

In addition to ESPN’s 24 consecutive hours, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile will offer an extensive lineup of action. Combined, the networks will televise at least 38 total hours of coverage with 19 games -- 17 men’s and two women’s – in a minimum of 25 ½ hours.


This is the second year that ESPN has done this marathon and I can say with confidence that the idea works. According to ESPN.com/mediakit, 66 percent of the people who watch ESPN are between the age of 18-34 and I we can assume that a big chunk of them are college students who want to see there team play. ESPN is so in tune to who watches them that they even show games several times a week from the Mountain West Conference,( a weaker conference with teams in the mid-west, west coast like Colorado and Utah University) even at late hours of the night, because they know that those students will stay up to watch those games.

In all ESPN knows how to create buzz for the college basketball season and most importantly they know who is watching them; an understanding that so many other cable companies would love to acquire.