Michael Perez - AP

Villanova guard Corey Fisher (10) will look to score an unfathomable amount of points in the NIT Season Tip-Off this season. (AP Photo/Michael Perez)

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The 16 teams invited to take part in the 2010 NIT Season Tip-Off have been known for a few weeks. Today, the road to Madison Square Garden became clear with the announcement of the bracket. I have more about the field of 16, and ESPN's third annual season opening marathon (which I'm likely to try to survive again), after the jump.

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More photos » Don Ryan - AP

FILE - Durrell Summers, left, and Kalin Lucas, right, will lead Michigan State into this season's Maui Invitational, the most loaded early season tournament. (AP Photo/Don Ryan, File)

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On Thursday, ESPNews aired a half-hour special to announce many of the early season tournament brackets. You could consider it a mini-Selection Sunday, except for the fact the event took place during the early afternoon/late morning hours of a weekday...and the fact that no bubbles were burst.

Thursday was a nice reminder of what's to come, especially as we're in the midst of the silliest of silly seasons in recent memory. Three long months still remain until the second best time of the year tips off (intriguing matchups at neutral sites will always be high on my list), but the season IS moving ever so closer.

Before I get more into early season event talk, I have a few housekeeping matters to address.

On the SBNation front, we have a new college blog and a new name for an old favorite, so it's time to update your bookmarks.

First, head over to Cowboys Ride For Free, our new Oklahoma State blog, and give Samuel and his cohorts a hearty welcome. The SBN roster for the Big 12 (soon to be minus two) is almost complete now, as only Baylor is missing.

Secondly, our Seton Hall blog has a new name (but the same management). Gonzo Ball is dead. Long live South Orange Juice! I must say I love the simplicity of the new logo, even though it looks like Otto meeting a cruel end.

As for this site, I have a new Twitter address. You can still follow me @ChrisDobbertean for my general tweets, but @CDobb_BtB_SBN is the new home of Blogging The Bracket on Twitter. With football season around the corner, expect a third account focused on that sport in the coming weeks.

In terms of the actual blog, expect things to be quiet for the next few weeks. Thanks to seemingly everyone else at my day job going through significant life changes at the same time, my team of technical editors, which stood at four on July 22, will be down to just one (yours truly) effective next Thursday, for at least a few weeks.

Since this change coincides with what's typically a busy time of year at the office, and it takes quite awhile to get new folks hired and working, my posting will be even more sporadic than it normally is during the offseason. Remember last year's epic season preview series? A reprise is not likely to happen this season.

That's enough angst for one post. After the jump, I'll have some thoughts on Bracket Thursday and a whole slew of schedule links for the upcoming season.

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It's been awhile since I last posted (which may be a theme for the next few weeks, as I'm encountering significant staffing issues at my regular job), so I wanted to share with you a whole bunch of scheduling links for the upcoming season that have been on my radar.

Early season tournament pairings are slowly trickling out, as are full schedules. Plus, there are even a couple pieces of conference tournament news that are worth a mention. I'll go through all of these after the jump.

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There was a lot of schedule news while I was out watching bad baseball and enjoying the Seattle weather (then returning back to the DC humidity, getting sick, and catching up at work), so let me get right to it.

The Big East revealed the conference opponents for each of its 16 teams. (Big East, could you get the link on your own website to work, please.) It's not easy (or fair) to come up with an 18-game slate for a 16-team conference without divisions. In general, it looks like the schedule makers struck a decent balance based on last year's results. Powers (Syracuse, Pitt, Villanova, West Virginia) have two power teams as home-and-home partners, more often than not, while non-powers (Cincinnati, DePaul, Rutgers, St. John's) face two other strugglers twice.

Here are those home-and-home partners for each team.

Cincinnati: DePaul, Georgetown, St. John's
Connecticut: Louisville, Marquette, Notre Dame
DePaul: Cincinnati, USF, West Virginia
Georgetown: Cincinnati, St. John's, Syracuse
Louisville: Connecticut, Providence, West Virginia
Marquette: Connecticut, Notre Dame, Seton Hall
Notre Dame: Connecticut, Marquette, St. John's
Pittsburgh: USF, Villanova, West Virginia
Providence: Louisville, Rutgers, USF
Rutgers: Providence, Seton Hall, Villanova
St. John's: Cincinnati, Georgetown, Notre Dame
Seton Hall: Marquette, Rutgers, Syracuse
USF: DePaul, Pittsburgh, Providence
Syracuse: Georgetown, Seton Hall, Villanova
Villanova: Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse
West Virginia: DePaul, Louisville, Pittsburgh

It's good to see Syracuse-Georgetown twice, among the numerous Orange road trip opportunities on the slate. As Sean over at Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician wrote,

 "Seems like the conference finally realized this is a non-negotiable thing that needs to happen. Why bother having a Big East otherwise?"

The three Louisville home-and-homes jump out at me for different reasons: UConn because Pitino vs. Calhoun is always interesting TV (which is a big reason for this whole business), Providence for the sentimentality angle, and West Virginia because of that pre-Big East 2005 West Regional Final, the first of four games in what will always be in my estimation, the greatest Elite Eight ever.

After the jump, I'll have some other scheduling news.

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Editor's Note: For more on the impending Realignmentageddon that appears to be in the cards for college sports, visit SB Nation. The mothership has you covered with StoryStreams (TM) covering the Pac-10 and Big Ten, with more on the way as necessary. Plus, they'll let you know if Tom Izzo is staying at Michigan State or going to Cleveland.

Off topic, if you're a fan of soccer (like me), they're covering the World Cup backwards and forwards.

It's been a few days since my last schedule piece. In that time, we have news about a conference challenge and the campus site games for one of the Gazelle Group's three events, along with full non-conference slates for a few teams.

I'll talk about these after the jump.

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Things have been a bit busy with my day job over the past couple of weeks (and silly season news has been particularly silly this spring), so I apologize for my limited posts. Things will be pretty quiet over the rest of the month as I work my way to vacation two weeks from today.

After the jump, I have some information about a couple early season tournament fields and some potential, and necessary, conference tournament changes.

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Here's some schedule news for an indifferent Monday evening.

The All-College Classic in Oklahoma City on December 18 will again be a doubleheader featuring the state's two Big 12 schools. Oklahoma State will take on Alabama, while Oklahoma will face Cincinnati in a matchup of two teams who had disappointing 2009-10 campaigns. It's too bad the organizers didn't pit the Crimson Tide and the Sooners against each other, as that game would have pitted two former VCU head coaches--Jeff Capel and Anthony Grant--against one another.

In other Big 12 news, Kansas announced their full non-conference schedule. There's not much here we didn't know already (Ohio and Arizona will be the Jayhawks' opponents in Las Vegas Thanksgiving weekend, Memphis will be their opposition in the Jimmy V Classic), but there are three games against Pac-10 opponents--UCLA in the Hardwood Series, a home game with USC, and a return game at Cal. The Jayhawks close their non-league slate with a game at Michigan on January 9 (guessing that will be on CBS). KU's designated Kansas City game is against Colorado State, but Wichita's new 15,000 seat arena is shut out.

One last piece of non-conference news comes out of Sin City, where UNLV unveiled an intriguing slate that includes a home game against Wisconsin, a trip to play Louisville in their new building, and a return game against Kansas State, that will be played in Kansas City. The Runnin' Rebels (who frankly should lose the 'Runnin'' modifier as long as Lon Kruger is coaching) will not play at the Thomas & Mack Center for nearly a month, a span that includes trips to the 76 Classic in Anaheim and Reno to play Nevada, but they will play one game in town during that time, as they'll take on Boise State at Orleans Arena.

In conference schedule news, the Atlantic-10 announced its league matchups. Each of the 14 members will play a 16-game slate, meaning that each school gets to play three others twice. 

Here's how the likely contenders' scheduling partners shake out.

Charlotte: George Washington, Richmond, Xavier
Dayton: Duquesne, Saint Louis, Xavier
Rhode Island: Fordham, Massachusetts, St. Bonaventure
Richmond: Charlotte, George Washington, St. Joseph's
Saint Louis: Dayton, Duquesne, Xavier
Temple: Fordham, La Salle, St. Joseph's
Xavier: Charlotte, Dayton, St. Louis

If you're associated with Rhode Island, Richmond, or Temple, you're a little bit happier than those affiliated with Saint Louis, Xavier right now.

A few scheduling nuggets, early season and postseason, for your Thursday evening or Friday reading pleasure.

The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier reports that the Charleston Classic field will look slightly different than previous reports (including from the tournament's own January press release) indicated.

Georgetown is in, but Arkansas isn't on the list. (This makes sense as the Razorbacks are penciled into the Chicago Invitational, as listed on my Early Season Events post.)

Charlotte, East Carolina, and N.C State are confirmed, but defending Southern Conference champion Wofford will be the host conference's representative. The Terriers, from Spartanburg on the other side of South Carolina) replace The Citadel, who were listed as the original host.

The Hoyas and what should be an improved Wolfpack team are the star attractions, but watch out for the Terriers, who could grab a marquee win or two.

In other scheduling news, our Syracuse blog, Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician, has a post about a Syracuse-N.C. State home-and-home that will start with the coming season.  That series is just another addition to non-conference schedules for both teams that already include some nice matchups. The Orange play Michigan State in the Jimmy V Classic (sorry, Sean, I'm not going to pump the Cornell game up that much because of all they lost after their Sweet 16 run) and will face two of Georgia Tech, Michigan, and UTEP in Atlantic City for the Legends Classic. The Wolfpack have a road game with Wisconsin in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and a home date with Arizona alongside their three games in Charleston.

The Orange Bowl Classic doubleheader is set for December 18, in Sunrise, just outside of Fort Lauderdale, with Florida and Miami returning to the event. The Gators face Kansas State, coached my Miami's own Frank Martin. These two could have met in the second round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament, had the Gators won their overtime clash with BYU in Oklahoma City. The other game features the Hurricanes, who could contend in the ACC, against UCF, led by new head coach Donnie Jones, a former Billy Donovan assistant at Florida. I may have to arrange my Christmas holiday to check this doubleheader out. 

In a piece of postseason news, the Conference USA Tournament keeps moving West, as Tulsa, 2010's host, gives way to El Paso for 2011. As Eamonn Brennan at ESPN points out, that means the conference championship game, which airs on CBS on Selection Eve at 11:30 Eastern, will tip at 9:30 a.m. local time.  (Be sure to check out Geoff Calkins' Commercial-Appeal column on this decision for some righteous anger and irriration.)

Also, for easy reference, II've finally created new Conference Challenge and Early Season Event pages with information for the upcoming season.