Prepare to alter your sleep schedule, college basketball fans. If you stay up late for Game 7 of the World Series on Halloween night, then wake up early to watch Notre Dame and Villanova open the season at 9:30 a.m. Eastern on Sunday, Nov. 1, you should prepare to spend your football Sunday in a siesta.
That’s because the Field of 68 is organizing a 24-hour marathon of college basketball, bringing back a tradition after nine years away.
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Monday, Nov. 2 will be the best Monday of your year, as you’ll be able to watch college basketball throughout its entirety. Starting at the stroke of midnight, the first minute of permissible competition set out by the NCAA for the season, in Rock Hill, S.C., with a matchup between NCAA Tournament hopefuls High Point and Liberty.
But after that comes the real test of sickos. Matt Majkrzak’s Northern Illinois coaching debut — the team that he coached in a dynasty in NCAA March Madness 2004 — comes against SWAC foe Grambling State. At 3 a.m. Eastern.
I will be hosting a watch party in my apartment for this game, and anybody is welcome. Reach out to me on Twitter (@Sam_Federman) or by email (federmansam@gmail.com) if you’re in the Syracuse area and interested in joining me.
It will be followed by App State vs. Merrimack at 6 a.m., Winthrop vs Queens — a rematch of last year’s 8 a.m. tip-off game — at 9 a.m., and then the scene shifts from Rock Hill to Sioux Falls, S.D. At 11:30, the first of two games at the Sanford Pentagon game tips off, with an extremely talented Murray State team taking on Tennessee State. Then, UTEP will play Northern Kentucky at 2 p.m.
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At 5:30 p.m., the scene shifts back to Rock Hill for the final doubleheader. UAB will play McNeese, and then Furman will play Bethune-Cookman at 8 p.m.
As mentioned, this is something that has happened before. ESPN ran the Tip-Off Marathon for nine straight years from 2008 to 2017. It broadcast college basketball games on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and its other networks all day long. These games gave mid-major programs a national platform, even if it was at an early morning time slot. Those marathons would typically have a blockbuster game anchoring it, like Kentucky vs. North Carolina in the inaugural version.
The marathon was discontinued due to programming challenges. It was a beloved quirk of the college basketball calendar that the Field of 68 has brought back. The media company owned by Jeff Goodman and Rob Dauster often catches a lot of heat on social media but has been met with universal praise for this innovation. Their commitment to serving the college basketball fanbase and promoting the sport cannot be questioned.
Dauster told The Athletic in an interview that he wants to latch onto the unique things that only college basketball can bring.
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Without a big-time network involved, they couldn’t latch onto any major programs, but that doesn’t mean the games won’t be good. Merrimack and App State pits two of the best defensive minds in the country against each other. Grambling’s hectic style seems a fun match for NIU’s scripted gameplay. An early season look at stars Jordan Watford, Larry Johnson, Roman Domon? Count me in! And obviously, the opener, which features a High Point team that will have a chance to push towards KenPom’s Top 50.
The opening day of the college basketball season was already a day where I got nothing done, I just sit there watching games and leave all of my writing to the next day. But having the Field of 68 Tip-Off Marathon — which started with just three games two years ago and expanded to six last year — will suck even more productivity out of me because it drastically alters my sleep schedule. And I’m all for it.
