UNI and everyone else dances to ESPN's tune

I don't understand why Northern Iowa would agree to play at St. Mary's in northern California next Monday at 11 p.m. Pacific time (1 a.m., Central time).

It's part of ESPN's 25-hours of continuous telecasts of live college basketball games. Some are good games like Duke-Michigan State and Kentucky-Kansas. Some aren't so glamorous, like Drexel-Rider, which tips off at 6 a.m., Eastern time.

UNI is flying to the West Coast for this one game. The ESPN exposure? Is some recruit really going to say to himself, "Hey, Northern Iowa is playing in the middle of the night on ESPN. That tips the scales for me. Cedar Falls, here I come!"

Let's hope the game doesn't go double-overtime. Or let's hope it does. That way, some Iowans can watch the tail end of it as they're waking up Tuesday morning.