ESPN to air 24-hour Tournament Challenge marathon devoted to brackets

For many Americans, the NCAA Tournament is less about basketball and more about brackets. Conversation around the NCAA Tournament, therefore, is less about which players might break out and which games could be most exciting and more about which 12-seed will beat a No. 5 and which seven-seed could sneak into the Elite Eight.

With that in mind, ESPN has announced a 24-hour marathon beginning the day after Selection Sunday in which the focus will be brackets.

ESPN announces NCAA Tourney Challenge 24-hour marathon — will start Monday after brackets released at 7 p.m., ends Tuesday at 7 p.m.

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 6, 2017

The event will begin Monday at 7 p.m. ET with the women’s selection show and will last through Tuesday evening. It will feature several editions of Tournament Challenge, featuring host Rece Davis along with analysts Jay Bilas, Seth Greenberg and Seth Davis.

“For that two-day span leading up to the First Four, all people want to talk about is who did you take in your bracket, and we will give great insight on how to fill it out,” Davis said in a statement. “It will be a great challenge to keep Jay, Seth and Jay, who are cranky enough when well-rested, on point when they are sleep deprived. But it’s for a good cause – helping people win their group in the Tournament Challenge.”

What makes this most interesting is ESPN’s decision to explicitly market its coverage as bracket-based. The network could easily call its shows College GameDay or something else that centers the actual games, but instead it goes with Tournament Challenge to convey that brackets will drive the coverage. As Davis says, people want to talk about the Tournament not because they love the basketball but because they need to know which teams to pick in their office pools.

We all know that gambling drives March Madness’ popularity, but fascinating—maybe even refreshing—to see ESPN just come out and admit it.