JERSEY CITY, NJ – Saint Peter's College Men's Basketball and ESPN has announced that on November 17th at 6am, the Peacocks will face Monmouth University in a game to be televised live on ESPN at the Yanitelli Center in Jersey City. The Peacocks and the Hawks will face off as part of ESPN's 24-hours of College Basketball Tip-off Marathon.
"We are excited to be playing on ESPN in front of a national audience against Monmouth as part of their 24 hours of college basketball marathon," said Saint Peter's head coach John Dunne. "Playing this game is very big for our program as it gives Saint Peter's a chance to play in front of a worldwide audience and gives our team a big challenge early in the season."
The Peacocks will join Niagara and Siena as the three MAAC schools that have been selected to play in the 24-hour basketball marathon. This is the second year that ESPN has produced the marathon, but the first time that a game will be played in the 6am EST time slot. This year, there will be 19 games from 20 conferences across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU & ESPN360.com with ESPN airing live college hoops for 24 consecutive hours. Saint Peter's appeared on ESPN in the Yanitelli Center during the network's first season back in 1979 when they faced Holy Cross. ESPN has also televised high school contests from the Yanitelli Center. College games have also been televised on ESPN2 and ESPNU on campus.
"Saint Peter's College is extremely honored to be a part of ESPN's programming and to be chosen to play in this historic game," stated Director of Athletics Patrick Elliott. "Playing this game in this time slot gives us the unique opportunity to bring the Saint Peter's College community together to tip-off the basketball season and showcase the tradition of the College and our men's basketball program on a global level."
ESPN, Inc., The Worldwide Leader in Sports, is the leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company featuring the broadest portfolio of multimedia sports assets with over 50 business entities. ESPN surpassed 90 million households on June 1, 2005; currently in more than 98 mm. Programming hours include more than 5,100 live and/or original hours of sports programming presented annually in more than 65 sports.
Tickets for the 2009-2010 season, including tickets for the historic November 17th game will go on sale soon. Check out www.spc.edu/athletics for more ticket information or call 201-761-7327.
