UCSB will play former Big West rival Utah State in an ESPNU O’Reilly BracketBusters game on Feb. 22, ESPN announced.
The game, to be played in Logan, Utah, will be one of 14 BracketBuster games televised on one of the ESPN networks. ESPN2 (six games), ESPNU (five games), ESPN Classic (one game) and ESPN360.com (two games) are participating in the broadcasting of the event. Station assignments will be announced Friday.
UCSB and Utah State were two of 28 schools selected from a pool of 100 teams for televised games. The teams have played 59 times in a series that dates back to 1971. Utah State holds a 37-29 all-time edge, but the team’s have not met since the 2004-05 season, the Aggies’ last as a member of the Big West Conference before moving to the Western Athletic Conference. Utah State is currently in first place in the WAC with an overall record of 15-6 and a league mark of 6-1. UCSB is 16-5 overall, 5-3 in the Big West.
UCSB hosts Cal State Fullerton at the Thunderdome at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Bill Mahoney is UCSB‘s assistant athletics director.