We all know about ESPN's East Coast bias. Still, while the Pac-12 is trying to push their network eastward, it'll always be hard to receive just notice on the other side of the Mississippi. And as ESPN released its 2012 College GameDay schedule today, the Arizona Wildcats were lucky to be included in a select group of weekly coverage by the basketball show.
The Jan. 28, 2012 contest against the Washington Huskies will be the only Pac-12 game covered by the traveling crew of Jay Bilas, Digger Phelps, Hubert Davis and Bob Knight. Not only is it the only West Coast game that the crew will hit, it's the only one of eight contests west of Kansas, and even that final game is a toss-up because ESPN might choose to cover North Carolina at Duke instead.
All of the games ESPN will cover have at least one top-25 team from Andy Katz's preseason rankings. Arizona is ranked No. 10 by Katz while the Huskies are listed as considerable mentions. The most interesting part of that game could be incoming freshman point guards Josiah Turner of Arizona and Tony Wroten Jr. of UW, both of whom are top-15 players in the 2011 class and both listed as McDonald's All-American snubs.
A look at the full schedule is after the jump.
Date
GameDay Site
Show Times (ET)
Game
Game Time (ET)
Jan 14
Tallahassee, Fla.
10 a.m. & 11 a.m.*
North Carolina at Florida State
2 p.m.
Jan 21
Pittsburgh, Pa.
10 a.m. & 8 p.m.
Louisville at Pittsburgh
9 p.m.
Jan 28
Tucson, Ariz.
10 a.m. & 6 p.m.
Washington at Arizona
7 p.m.
Feb 4
Columbia, Mo.
10 a.m. & 8 p.m.
Kansas at Missouri
9 p.m.
Feb 11
Nashville, Tenn.
10 a.m. & 8 p.m.
Kentucky at Vanderbilt
9 p.m.
Feb 18
Ann Arbor, Mich.
10 a.m. & 8 p.m.
Ohio State at Michigan
9 p.m.
Feb 25
Storrs, Conn.
10 a.m. & 8 p.m.
Syracuse at Connecticut
9 p.m.
Mar 3
Durham, N.C. or Lawrence, Kan.^
10 a.m. & 6 p.m.
North Carolina at Duke orTexas at Kansas
7 p.m. or9 p.m.