Field of 68 co-founder Jeff Goodman previews Opening Day Showcase

The Field of 68 is partnering with Sanford Sports and the Sanford Pentagon to host the “The Field of 68 Opening Day Showcase,” an event featuring matchups between six college basketball programs, on Monday.

The Field of 68 is a college basketball media network created by longtime sports reporters Rob Dauster and Jeff Goodman.

The inaugural event will feature matchups between the College of Charleston vs Southern Illinois at 11 a.m., Saint Louis vs Santa Clara at 2 p.m., and McNeese State vs South Dakota State at 5 p.m.

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Before the Opening Day Showcase, Goodman spoke with local media about how this event came together and some of the games’ interesting storylines. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

How did this event come together?

“We’ve wanted to do something like this for a while, because, frankly, college basketball starts off without a bang. I mean, there’s no good games, They’re all buy games. I’ve complained about it for years, and we felt like we could help and get some really good mid-major games together. And that’s what we’ve been fortunate to be able to do. In year one to get these three games is ridiculous, with great storylines, right?

“Scott (Nagy) coming back at Southern Illinois, coming back here, playing College of Charleston, and Chris Mack’s been out for two and a half years. Obviously, the last game is going to be unbelievable. You got Will Wade and McNeese State, they’re a top 25-ish national team coming and playing here against South Dakota State. Give Will Wade a lot of credit. He didn’t care who he played. Didn’t care at all. And then the middle game is going to be terrific. You know Josh Schertz, new Saint Louis head coach with Robbie Avila, one of the best players in the country. They’re a top 25-ish team playing against Santa Clara. That’s been a perennial, you know, top 75 team in the net.

“So we feel like we put together something that actually, like, college basketball fans are going to want to watch, rather than these awful bye games that you’re going to see at night. You know, Duke playing nobody, Carolina, playing nobody. Arizona. Like, there’s no good games so, we felt like the sport needed this and to be able to do it here with three good mid-major games, and the Pentagon has been awesome. I mean, they’re so great to deal with, and the support and everything like that “

(The Pentagon) has kind of made its name on games like these, or getting people’s attention. How hard of a sell was the Pentagon to these programs?

“It was so easy. So easy. I think we can expand this next year. I think we turned away some other teams late that heard about this event, and we could have expanded to five or six games, but I wanted to get the right three games. I didn’t want to water it down. I wanted to have six teams that, again, either had great storylines or really good teams. So I think it speaks for itself in terms of the field.”

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I’m sure that’s going to mean a lot to (Nagy to return here).

“Oh, it should be. I mean, it should be, you know, and again, my guess is he rather have done it maybe in year two with a new program, because he’s trying to rebuild the Southern Illinois program, and they’ve got, I’ve been to Carbondale. I mean, those fans are crazy. So I think he’ll get it going. But in year one, I’m sure he would have liked him to kind of get this thing going.”

I assume you’re going to want to keep this thing at the Pentagon moving forward?

“Heck yea. They love it. We love being here. I mean, again, I talked to both Bruce Pearl and Scott Drew about it. They were just here a couple years ago, and Scott raved about it. And really, my goal would be, can we do it next year? Can we do something similar and then have a big-boy matchup at the end?

“I tried to talk Nate Oats into playing T.J. Otzelberger here this year, but it’s almost a little bit too late. And again, my vision is to start off and do it right, like crush it the first year, with the matchups, with the way everything’s done with the right coaches. I think the access will be unbelievable. You’ll see a different type of broadcast than you normally see. Randolph Childress is going to come down. Me and Rob Dauster are going to do it.

“I vowed when I left ESPN, I probably wasn’t ever going to do sideline again, but I’m going to break that rule for this. And I told Rob he’s got to do at least one game of sideline. I’ll do a couple, but we’re going to have fun. The biggest difference I think you’re going to see in the broadcast is you’re going to find, like, it’ll be informative, but it’ll be entertaining.”

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Field of 68 co-founder Jeff Goodman previews Opening Day Showcase