Division II Basketball Showcase tips off Nov. 24

NCAA Division II announced 28 regular-season men’s and women’s basketball games that will be highlighted on ESPN3 or NCAA social media as part of an effort to promote the division on several platforms throughout the academic year.

An additional eight games as part of four flex doubleheaders will be finalized in February. The games are expected to highlight premier and pivotal matchups toward the end of the regular season.

Now in its second year, the division’s media agreement features two distribution models for basketball and football. For basketball, 18 games will stream exclusively on ESPN3, available on espn.com and the ESPN App.

Eighteen additional games are part of the hybrid model, and they have the flexibility to be distributed on TV and online. The division will work with the TV partners of participating conferences and schools on the opportunity to air games on TV. These games also will be distributed online through NCAA social media accounts — specifically, Division II Facebook (facebook.com/ncaadivisionii) and Twitter (@NCAADII) — and could be distributed through conference and school digital networks.

“The basketball season is off to an exciting start,” said Terri Steeb Gronau, vice president of Division II. “We’re looking forward to another great Division II Basketball Showcase that highlights our student-athletes’ achievements on and off the court. Before we know it, we’ll be celebrating the women’s Elite Eight in Birmingham and the men’s national championship game in Atlanta as part of combined championships with Divisions I and III.”

The current showcase schedule, which spans November through February, features 14 of the 23 basketball-sponsoring conferences in Division II and was created from a pool of conference nominations.

The basketball showcase begins Nov. 24 with a doubleheader between East Stroudsburg and Indiana (Pennsylvania) in the hybrid model. The women’s game begins at 1:05 p.m. Eastern time, with the men’s game scheduled to start at 3:05 p.m. The ESPN3 portion of the schedule opens Dec. 14 with Southern Nazarene hosting Southeastern Oklahoma State in a doubleheader, starting with the women’s game at 2:05 p.m. Eastern time.

ESPN3 is ESPN’s live multiscreen sports network, a destination that delivers thousands of exclusive sports events annually. It is accessible on espn.com and the ESPN App across computers, smartphones, tablets and connected streaming devices. The network is available at no additional cost to fans who receive a pay TV subscription from an affiliated provider. The network is also available at no cost to U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel via computers, smartphones and tablets connected to on-campus educational and on-base military broadband and Wi-Fi networks.

Full schedule (all times Eastern):