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Eyes on Robert
Morris vs. Quinnipiac

These mid-major conference teams face off on ESPN2

By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Mar 10, 2010

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When you see Robert Morris playing Quinnipiac in primetime on ESPN2, you know it must be championship week.

This is the week the mid-major conferences wrap up their men's basketball tournaments and the finals usually air on ESPN or ESPN2.

With the mid-majors nearly done, that clears the way for the major conferences to crown their champions this weekend, culminating in the March Madness bracket unveilings Sunday night on CBS.

Either the Bobcats or the Colonials, who square off at 7 p.m., will join nearly a dozen teams that have already earned automatic NCAA bids, including Old Dominion University from the CAA, Saint Mary's from the WCC, and Siena from the MAAC.

For those who plan to enter their office NCAA pools, these are the games to pay attention to. Like many of the teams that have already earned bids, Robert Morris or Quinnipiac will be looking at an 11 seed or lower, meaning they'll have to play a team seeded sixth or better like Kansas, Wisconsin or Duke.

But these mid-majors are also the ones that can pull the exciting first-round upsets that get everyone talking, like the shockers pulled by 11 seeds VCU and Winthrop a few years ago.

Tonight's game won't draw anywhere near the 2.5 million viewers who tuned in for Saturday night's Duke-North Caroline game, the most-watched college basketball game of the week, but viewership for the major-conference tournaments will start picking up over the next few days as ESPN becomes a round-the-clock college basketball channel.

And by this time next week, college basketball fans will be well acquainted with either Robert Morris or Quinnipiac as they try to decide who can pull off the big upsets.

A look at this week’s top TV draws
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10
Time	Network	Program	Description
8 p.m.	CW	“America’s Next Top Model” (R)	Season premiere. Thirty-two models are cut to 20, then 12, and then they move to New York.
8 p.m.	Fox	“American Idol” (R)	The top eight male semifinalists take their turn on the stage.
9 p.m.	ABC	“Modern Family” (C)	Phil finds an old girlfriend on Facebook and then invites her over, always a good idea.
9 p.m.	CBS	“Criminal Minds” (D)	A truck driver who abducts women is on the loose.
9 p.m.	Syfy	“Ghost Hunters” (R)	The guys examine Fort Ticonderoga in New York.
10 p.m.	NBC	“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (D)	Murder cases that took place 20 years apart have many similarities.
10 p.m.	E!	“Chelsea’s Big Interview Special” (A)	Chelsea Handler chats with Demi Moore, Robin Wright and Bradley Cooper.
THURSDAY, MARCH 11
Time	Network	Program	Description
8 p.m.	Fox	“American Idol” (R)	The 12 finalists are revealed when two more guys and two more gals are cut.
9 p.m.	NBC	“The Office” (C)	How will ratings hold up after last week’s baby episode?
9 p.m.	ABC	“Grey’s Anatomy” (D)	Derek ponders whether Richard or Owen should perform an operation.
9 p.m.	CBS	“CSI” (D)	The murder of a young boy might be connected to another case.
10 p.m.	NBC	“The Marriage Ref” (R)	Larry David, Madonna and Ricky Gervais all appear.
10 p.m.	FX	“Archer” (C)	Malory tries to get Archer back after he takes a higher-paying job at another agency.
FRIDAY, MARCH 12
Time	Network	Program	Description
8 p.m.	CBS	“Ghost Whisperer” (D)	Melinda tries to save a child’s ghost who's been trapped in a house.
8 p.m.	NBC	“Who Do You Think You Are?” (R)	Former football star Emmitt Smith looks up his family history.
9 p.m.	Disney Channel	“Phineas and Ferb” (K)	The boys battle a superhero when they’re mistaken for superheroes themselves.
9 p.m.	CBS	“Medium” (D)	A flashback episode looking at Allison and Joe’s wedding day.
10 p.m.	Discovery Channel	“American Loggers” (R)	To make up for lost time the crew tries to cut down 3,000 trees in one week.
10 p.m.	CBS	“Numb3rs” (D)	Season, and likely series, finale. Charlie and Amita help Don find a missing gun.
SATURDAY, MARCH 13
Time	Network	Program	Description
2 p.m.	NBC	“PGA Golf” (S)	Third round coverage of the WGC-CA Championship from Doral Golf Resort in Miami.
6 p.m.	CBS	“College Basketball” (S)	The Pac 10 championship game from Los Angeles.
8 p.m.	Fox	“Cops” (R)	Cops in Florida set up an undercover sting to catch a drug suspect.
9 p.m.	ESPN	“College Basketball” (S)	The Big East title game from Madison Square Garden in New York.
9 p.m.	Lifetime	“Who Is Clark Rockefeller?” (M)	New movie starring Eric McCormack should draw plenty of female viewers.
11:30 p.m.	NBC	“Saturday Night Live” (S)	Jude Law is the guest host and Pearl Jam performs.
SUNDAY, MARCH 14
Time	Network	Program	Description
1 p.m.	CBS	“College Basketball” (S)	The ACC championship game from Greensboro, N.C.
3 p.m.	NBC	“PGA Golf” (S)	Final round of the WGC-CA Championship, won by Phil Mickelson last year.
6 p.m.	CBS	“NCAA Basketball Championship Selection Show” (S)	The 65-team field is laid out so we can finally get our office pools going.
8 p.m.	Fox	“The Simpsons” (C)	Bart gets into trouble for skipping out on his homework.
9 p.m.	HBO	“The Pacific” (D)	Series premiere. First of a 10-part miniseries about the U.S. fighting Japan in World War II.
9 p.m.	NBC	“Celebrity Apprentice” (R)	Season premiere. Sinbad, Sharon Osbourne and Rod Blagojevich are among this season’s contestants.
A = awards show or special, C = comedy, D = drama, DD = daytime drama, G = game show, K = kids, M = movie, N = news/documentary, R = reality, S = sports, T = talk/variety show.