PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The American Athletic Conference has released its 2015-16 men’s basketball schedule, which will be watched by large audiences on television industry leaders ESPN and CBS Sports.
The 2015-16 schedule calls for each team in The American to play 18 conference games. Each team will play eight opponents twice and two opponents once.
For the third straight year, at least 90 league games will be nationally televised. Ninety-one of the 99 conference games (92-percent) will be carried on national television. Fifteen conference games will be carried either on ESPN or ESPN2, many as part of ESPN’s Thursday Night Showcase series.
Twenty-six more will be seen on ESPNU, with 24 scheduled for ESPNEWS. CBS Sports will televise one conference game – SMU at Cincinnati on March 6 – while CBS Sports Network will carry 25.
Conference play begins Tuesday, Dec. 29 with three American Athletic Conference games. Two of the three holiday matinees – Temple at Cincinnati and SMU at Tulsa – will air live on ESPN2 at 3 p.m. ET and 5 p.m. ET, respectively. The SMU-Tulsa tilt is a rematch of last year’s regular-season finale. The two teams entered the last day of the 2015 schedule tied for the league’s regular-season crown.
The American also announced select non-conference games with additional telecasts to be added in the future. Included in the national TV slate are matchups during ESPN’s College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon (Oklahoma at Memphis, Nov. 17) and a contest between Villanova and Temple during ESPN’s Rivalry Week on Feb. 17. Two conference tilts – SMU at UConn (Feb. 18) and UConn at Cincinnati (Feb. 20) – will also air during ESPN’s Rivalry Week. The league will have five appearances on CBS, including three non-conference matchups. The American plays three top-10 teams from the final USA Today Coaches Poll with the Owls playing two of the three opponents in Wisconsin (Dec. 5, CBS) and Villanova. USF takes on 2015 Final Four opponent Kentucky during the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic on Nov. 27 (ESPN), while UConn and Maryland face off at Madison Square Garden in the Jimmy V Classic on Dec. 8 on ESPN. Other nationally televised non-conference games include SMU hosting Gonzaga on Feb. 13 (ESPN2), Cincinnati squaring off with Butler and Iowa State on Dec. 2 (CBSSN) and Dec. 22 (ESPN2), respectively, and UConn traveling to Texas for a matchup with the Longhorns on Dec. 29 (ESPN2). The Huskies will host a pair of non-conference opponents on CBS in Ohio State (Dec. 12) and Georgetown (Jan. 23).
All of the games included in the ESPN package (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPNEWS) will also be available via WatchESPN, accessible online at WatchESPN.com, on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app, and streamed on televisions through Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox 360 or Xbox One to fans who receive their video subscription from an affiliated provider. CBS Sports also will stream on CBSSports.com and the CBS Sports mobile app the four games that air on CBS.
The 2016 American Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Championship will take place March 10-13 at the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla. Similar to last year, ESPN networks will provide live coverage of every game of the tournament, including the March 12 semifinals on ESPN2 and the March 13 final on ESPN.