Fairleigh Dickinson is parlaying its mythical One Shining Moment of a historical NCAA Tournament victory over No. 1 seed Purdue into a couple of shining moments for the 2023-24 season, headlined by means of a “Battle of the Bracket Busters” on Nov. 15 in opposition to fellow New Jersey darling Saint Peter’s. The conflict of latest Cinderellas would be the first televised non convention house sport in FDU historical past and is a part of a landmark eight-game broadcast bundle that FDU will formally announce Monday.
“It’s groundbreaking for schools of our size and caliber,” FDU athletic director Brad Hurlbut advised CBS Sports.Â
FDU’s eight-game deal with the YES Network will lead off with the showdown in opposition to Saint Peter’s and come with a complete of six males’s video games alongside with two FDU ladies’s video games over the season. The deal will put the Knights on the airwaves of a outstanding regional sports activities community that still carries the Brooklyn Nets and New York Yankees to nationwide audiences thru a number of TV suppliers.
“What I feel actually put us excessive was once the notoriety we had now from the March Madness run,” stated FDU director of athletic media members of the family Jordan Sarnoff, a senior at FDU who spearheaded the TV deal.
FDU seizes the instant
Pursuing a partnership YES marked a swing for the fences by means of FDU, and college officers imagine the win over Purdue gave it the vital clout. With one of the most smallest lineups of the trendy generation of Division I basketball, the Knights was simply the second-ever No. 16 seed to overcome a No. 1 seed as they slayed the Boilermakers and 7-foot-4 nationwide participant of the 12 months Zach Edey, surprising the country and striking the college of more or less 2,500 scholars on the nationwide radar.
“If it was this time last year with the YES Network, they probably wouldn’t have been as amenable to our approach,” Hurlbut stated.
While the Northeast Conference has a media rights deal with CBS Sports Network and ESPN that in most cases covers a handful of video games at every faculty, there may be flexibility inside the settlement for NEC participants to pursue TV offers for video games no longer incorporated within the bundle.Â
Sarnoff recognized a chance and took FDU president Michael Avaltroni’s mantra of “seize the moment” to center as he started leveraging trade connections to look how FDU may capitalize on its newfound nationwide profile. The Knights will produce the declares and use the platform to advertise what FDU has to provide past simply basketball.Â
“Looking at the NEC TV deal and talking with the conference, the flexibility we’re afforded is a tremendous asset that nobody has capitalized on,” Sarnoff stated. “There are schools to this day that have RSN arrangements, but they’re just syndicating their in-house feed. Nobody has actually gone out to tell a story.”
The basketball sport must make a compelling centerpiece. Though head trainer Tobin Anderson left for Iona after orchestrating a historical one-year turnaround, the Knights retained the core in their roster after Hurlbut promoted assistant Jack Castleberry to switch Anderson.
FDU got here in 3rd within the NEC preseason coaches ballot as stars from the 2022-23 group reminiscent of Ansley Almonor and Sean Moore go back alongside with a number of different key rotational items.Â
“We’ve got a great nucleus back,” Hurlbut stated. “Everybody that could have returned did return. It says a lot about Jack and the people that Tobin brought in as well.”
The Knights are not likely to retain their name because the country’s shortest group after undersized superstar guards Demetre Roberts and Grant Singleton exhausted their eligibility and 6-10 freshman Jacob Warren enrolled. But 5-8 switch DeVante Jamison is arriving after incomes all-conference honors at within reach Division II program St. Thomas Aquinas, which is similar faculty that produced Anderson, Roberts, Singleton and Moore closing season.
Battle of the Bracket Busters
Landing the TV deal with YES is only one instance of the way the NCAA Tournament modified issues for FDU. The program is in the middle of facility upgrades and lately introduced a brand new athletics branding marketing campaign, amongst different issues.
“It was such a whirlwind,” Hurlbut stated. “You’re so excited and then you get home and you unpack and you’re like ‘wow, so now what are we going to do?’ A lot of the things we’d probably thought about or dreamt about, now we’re able to do. A lot of them were financial type of things.”
FDU’s March second additionally added to this system’s herbal contention with Saint Peter’s. The Peacocks famously defeated No. 2 seed Kentucky within the first spherical of the 2022 NCAA Tournament and was the primary No. 15 seed to ever achieve the Elite Eight. Ironically, their Cinderella run additionally incorporated a win over Purdue.
Separated by means of simply 15 miles, the groups have performed ceaselessly over time. But now they percentage an id as underdog systems from New Jersey who captured the hearts of a country with contemporary incredible runs.
FDU is printing t-shirts for its scholars to commemorate the “No. 16 seed vs. No. 15 seed” fight and has even invited the Saint Peter’s peacock, who can be a unprecedented school basketball mascot showing in a street venue.
“If we can have fun with it, pack the place and have a lively environment with that backyard rumble feel to it, I think it’ll make for a great product on TV,” Sarnoff stated.
No. 18 Texas is the one group ranked within the preseason AP Top 25 scheduled to be in motion on Nov. 15, that means school basketball lovers with a center for the underdogs would possibly not need to leave out any marquee matchups with a purpose to catch the Battle of the Bracket Busters.
“There are so many cool things about this matchup,” Hurlbut stated, “and then to be able to have it showcased nationally on Yes Network is really exciting.”