The Big East Conference is getting a jump start on the college basketball season.
In a move to enhance its digital content and get fans thinking about college basketball year-round, the conference is introducing a weekly live show called “Big East Shootaround” that will focus on the Big East schools’ men’s basketball programs. The show will air weekly on Thursdays and will debut today.
Interested viewers can stream the show on the FOX Sports GO app, as well as via the Big East’s Facebook and Twitter accounts; it is also available in podcast format on iTunes, the Google Play Store, and Stitcher, it was announced. (Fox Sports aired the 2017 Big East Tournament and other Big East games and programming throughout the 2016-17 season.)
“BIG EAST Shootaround is designed to provide coverage of BIG EAST Basketball all year round, not just during basketball season,” Rick Gentile, the conference’s senior associate commissioner in charge of broadcasting, said in a statement. “Our schools’ basketball programs don’t take off from April through October, and our supporters are eager to keep up with off-season stories and developments. We aim to fill the void in media coverage during that period with news, interviews and updates from each of our campuses and reach all of our audiences in all places.”
The Big East is known for its basketball prowess. Its member schools are perennial NCAA tournament participants; seven of the 10 colleges and universities played in this year’s Big Dance. Often, Villanova and Xavier specifically are contenders for the national championship — ‘Nova won the championship in 2016, and Xavier made it to this year’s Elite Eight.
With the addition of this show to its roster of digital programming available on Fox Sports Go and YouTube, the Big East joins the Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference, also home to numerous basketball powerhouse programs, in offering year-round basketball-oriented content. The ACC runs a number of apps, including one for virtual reality, and the SEC has its own digital network and cable channel that is owned by ESPN.
The show will take viewers behind the scenes and provide deeply reported feature stories revolving around the Big East’s member schools. Today’s debut will focus on Seton Hall; whether coincidental or not, the show’s host, John Fanta, is a Seton Hall alumnus, according to the announcement. The first guests, a group of senior basketball players, are also from Seton Hall.
Coaches, basketball players, journalists, and basketball insiders will appear regularly on the show, which will take place, at least today, in the Big East’s Manhattan office. Viewers can ask questions of the host and guests via Twitter and Facebook Live by using the #BEshootaround hashtag.
“Big East Shootaround” looks to fill the void college basketball fans feel during the summer months. The college basketball season will tip off in early November, with many Big East schools again poised to make a run at the NCAA Tournament.
