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December 1, 2008
ESPN Announces Teams for 2009 Old Spice Classic Field
ESPN Regional Television, Inc. (ERT), a subsidiary of ESPN, announced today seven of the eight teams in the field for the 2009 Old Spice Classic, to be held on Thanksgiving weekend at the Milk House at Disney’s Wide World of Sports® Complex near Orlando, Fla.
The field for the fourth annual Old Spice Classic will include Alabama, Baylor, Creighton, Iona, Marquette, Michigan and Xavier. The eighth team will be announced at a later date.
Three of the seven teams announced reached the 2007 NCAA Tournament: Baylor, Marquette and Xavier.
The 2009 Old Spice Classic will feature 12 games in three days, November 26, 27 and 29. Sponsors include Old Spice, ESPNU and Disney’s Wide World of Sports. The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) will serve as the event’s sponsoring conference for the fourth straight year.
Each team will compete in one game per day, advancing through a bracket-tournament format. The two teams that remain undefeated throughout will face off in a championship match Sunday, Nov. 29.
The tournament is a weekend-long affair at the Walt Disney World Resort and participating teams are invited to the Walt Disney World Resort Theme Parks and other event functions.
Additional information, including travel packages, can be found on the Old Spice Classic Web site at www.oldspiceclassic.com. For more information on Disney’s Wide World of Sports, visit www.disneysports.com.
ESPN Regional Television/Event Ownership
The nation’s largest syndicator of collegiate sports programming, ESPN Regional Television (ERT) annually produces more than 900 sporting events. Programming includes football, basketball, NCAA events, golf and NHRA events accounting for more than 2,200 live and/or original hours of programming. In addition to event ownership, ERT is the production headquarters for ESPNU, the 24-hour college sports network; syndication rights-holder and producer of national, regional and local shows for college conferences (e.g. – BIG EAST, Big 12, Mid-American, Sun Belt, WAC).
ESPN Regional Television markets and/or owns several other sporting events, including collegiate football events: the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl; The Home Depot College Football Awards; the MEAC/SWAC Challenge; the New Mexico Bowl; the Papajohns.com Bowl; the Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl; the Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl; and the St Petersburg Bowl; collegiate basketball events: the Anaheim Classic (Calif.); the Charleston Classic (S.C.); the Old Spice Classic (Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Fla.); the O’Reilly Auto Parts All-College Basketball Classic (Oklahoma City); the O’Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tip-Off (San Juan); the O’Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters; and the SEC/BIG EAST Invitational; as well as the ESPN National Golf Challenge presented by Callaway. For more information, visit www.espnplus.com.
Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex
Opened in 1997 at Walt Disney World Resort, Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex is a leading sports and entertainment venue for amateur and professional sports in the United States. The sprawling 220-acre state-of-the-art complex features the Milk House, a 165,000-square-foot field house which seats 5,500 for basketball; the 9,500-seat Champion Stadium ballpark; the Hess Sports Fields, which include multiple baseball, softball and soccer fields; and the Jostens Center, an 80,000 square foot multi-sport field house. In addition, the complex has 11 tennis courts, including a stadium court, and a track and field complex. The complex is home to more than 180 amateur and professional sports and entertainment events each year, including the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers training camp, the Major League Baseball Atlanta Braves spring training, a Tampa Bay Rays regular-season series, the Pop Warner Super Bowl, Chelsea Football Club events, the Special Olympics Florida Summer Games and the AAU National Championship events. Please visit www.disneysports.com for more information.
Media Contact:
Jenny Zimmerman, ESPN Communications, (407) 566-2213 or jennifer.j.zimmerman@espn.com
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