Courtesy of Atlantic10.com
Newport News, Va. – The Atlantic 10 Conference announced its 2014-15 Women’s Basketball schedule on Thursday, which includes 32 national television appearances by A-10 teams across three major media partners. The league’s 14 members will play a 16-game conference schedule in the upcoming season, which allows teams to face each opponent once and three teams twice.
ESPN Networks will feature three women’s games; two regular season contests and the 2015 A-10 Championship Final from the Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, Va., on March 8. ESPN will air the A-10 championship finale for the 18th straight year. CBS Sports Network will televise an additional 10 games; eight during the regular season and the two semifinals at the Atlantic 10 Championship on March 7. NBCSN will produce three regular season conference games in the month of January.
The A-10’s three national media partners combine for over 200 million subscribers nationwide. Atlantic 10 institutions reside in states that comprise 33.3 million television viewers, 28.8 percent of the total national market. There are eight A-10 institutions in the top 25 media markets in the country.
The Atlantic 10 will start the New Year and the conference schedule with a full slate of games during the first weekend of 2015. Three games on Saturday, Jan. 3, tip-off the conference schedule, followed by four games including a national television tripleheader on Sunday Jan. 4. George Mason will host Saint Louis at 2:00 p.m. on NBCSN, Richmond visits Fordham at 3:30 p.m. on CBSSN and George Washington travels to Dayton for a 3:30 p.m. game on ESPNU.
The 2015 Atlantic 10 Women’s Basketball Championship will take place March 4–8 in Richmond with each of the A-10’s 14 teams taking part in the championship. A pair of opening round games starts the five-day event on Wednesday evening followed by four, first-round games on Thursday and four quarterfinal matchups on Friday. Semifinal Saturday tips off at 11:00 a.m. live on CBSSN, followed by the second semifinal at 1:30 p.m. also on CBSSN. Sunday’s finale on March 8 will be aired live on ESPNU at 1:00 p.m.
Last season, Fordham captured its first-ever conference crown when it knocked off top-seeded Dayton in the 2014 A-10 Championship Finals at the Richmond Coliseum. The Rams earned the A-10’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament where they were joined by Saint Joseph’s and Dayton which earned its fifth straight NCAA berth. SJU, which was making its second straight NCAA Tournament appearance, knocked off Georgia in the first-round before falling to eventual National Champion UConn.
Duquesne, George Washington, St. Bonaventure and VCU were all selected to take part in the WNIT, giving the A-10 at least seven teams in postseason play for the fifth consecutive year.
The A-10 has now seen at least 50 percent of its membership participate in postseason play in five of the last six seasons. The league earned three NCAA Tournament bids in six of the last nine years and 17 times overall. Last season, the Conference had seven teams with 20 or more wins for the first time since the 2010-11 season and its members combined for its highest winning percentage in non-conference play since the 2002-03 season.
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