Michigan State's Tom Izzo said it is "kind of weird" to play such a high-profile game on election nightgetty images
The State Farm Champions Classic tips off tonight on ESPN featuring "three of the country’s top four teams," but it also begs the question of "who in their right mind decided to schedule such a great pair" of games on election night, according to Joe Lucia of AWFUL ANNOUNCING. Michigan State-Kansas and Duke-Kentucky are a "pair of fantastic non-conference games to start the season," but "so much attention and focus" will be on tonight’s political returns. ESPN, which owns and operates the event, announced that the games would air on election day back in January, and it was "actually moved up a week from recent years." Lucia: "By putting the Champions Classic on Election Night, you risk alienating viewers from all across the spectrum" (AWFULANNOUNCING.com, 11/1). In Michigan, Tim Staudt wrote the fact that this doubleheader will be staged on election night is a "shame." Staudt: "Why not another night when it can get more exposure?" These matchups are "too good" to "waste on this date, especially this year" (WILX.com, 11/5). In Omaha, Dirk Chatelain writes, "Not sure who had the bright idea to kick off college basketball on election night" (OMAHA WORLD-HERALD, 11/6).
HAD TO PICK A DATE: In Michigan, Graham Couch notes the college tip-off colliding with the midterms is an "unintended but understood consequence of moving the college basketball season start date up from this Friday to this Tuesday each year." It "won’t always conflict with Election Day," but the two dates do "collide again" in '22 and '28. MSU coach Tom Izzo: "It’s kind of weird a little bit. That’s a pretty important night in our country.” ESPN VP/College Programming Nick Dawson: "We were aware when we had that discussion that this conflict would come up every so often. … But we felt, at least in our minds, that it was more important to establish that this event was synonymous with the start of college basketball.” He noted the event could not have been held tomorrow night due to "other programming commitments." Dawson: "When the NCAA started to discuss coming off the typical Friday night launch to the season and moving it into the midweek somewhere, clearly our desire was, ‘If we don’t do this, someone’s going to create a great event on opening night of the season,’ and given that we feel like we already have a great event here, we felt like putting it on opening night was just an opportunity we couldn’t pass up" (LANSING STATE JOURNAL, 11/6).
