Early Risers: St. Peter's, Monmouth Benefit From ESPN Exposure

Monmouth-St. Peter's Game At 6:00am ET On ESPN Gets Programs Precious Exposure Time

St. Peter’s College and Monmouth Univ. yesterday got “two hours of precious national exposure” when the schools’ men’s basketball teams played a 6:00am ET game on ESPN as part of the net’s 24-hours College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon, according to Dave Caldwell of the N.Y. TIMES. Neither team received money for participating, but St. Peter’s AD Patrick Elliott said that ESPN “covered the production costs,” which is “not always the case for midmajor teams who want their basketball games televised.” Monmouth coach Dave Calloway: “I would do it again, and I’d love for it to be a rematch at our place. Same Bat time, same Bat channel” (N.Y. TIMES, 11/18). St. Peter’s coach John Dunne: “It was a great idea. But when I woke up at 3 o’clock (Tuesday) morning I was like, ‘Ugh’” (NYDAILYNEWS.com, 11/17). In New Jersey, Steve Politi notes the crowd of 1,246 at St. Peter’s Yanitelli Center was “large for the school,” which was making its first appearance on ESPN since '79.  While marquee matchups Gonzaga-Michigan State and Memphis-Kansas filled ESPN's primetime slots last night, and West Coast teams took care of Tuesday's overnight slots, “some school had to play [at] 6 a.m., a time slot that had never once been filled by a college basketball team” (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 11/18).

CLASS DISMISSED: Liberty Univ. Associate AD Kevin Keys said 5,380 of the roughly 7,000 students at the school attended yesterday’s game against Clemson Univ., which tipped off at 10:00am. In Virginia, Chris Lang notes Liberty’s administration “allowed students to miss their 9:15 and 10:50 a.m. classes to attend” the game. Students were “given passes that had to be time stamped at the Vines Center exits, and not one could leave until the game was over.” Total attendance at the game was 8,143, the “ninth largest in Vines Center history and the second time the arena has exceeded its 8,085-seat capacity since seating was reduced from 9,000 several years ago” (LYNCHBURG NEWS ADVOCATE, 11/18).