NATCHITOCHES -- Northwestern State, expected to be one of the top basketball teams in the Southland Conference again this year, could earn a national television appearance with its participation in the 10th annual Sears BracketBusters, a three-day men's college basketball event pitting potential NCAA Championship hopefuls against each other Feb. 17-19.
 
The Demons (18-14 last year with a second-place finish in the SLC) will play a home game that weekend against an opponent to be selected, and will return the game in one of the next two seasons. Northwestern has played in two previous BracketBusters events, drawing a televised game at Utah State in 2006 and visiting Tennessee Tech in 2007.
 
After down-to-the-last-second BracketBusters losses at Utah State (66-63, 2006) and Tennessee Tech (85-84 in overtime, 2007), the Demons beat both teams at home in Prather Coliseum the following season. Northwestern ripped Utah State 88-71 to open the 2006-07 season and smacked Tennessee Tech 96-76 early in the 2007-08 campaign.
 
The 2012 event will feature 13 nationally televised games – on either ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU or ESPN3. The NCAA hopefuls will be selected from a pool of 142 teams from 16 conferences, the largest Sears BracketBusters pool in the event's history, including 2011 Final Four participants Butler and Virginia Commonwealth.
 
The 13 Sears BracketBusters matchups will be announced Monday, Jan. 30 with dates, times and networks. The television matchups are selected by ESPN, while a committee of conference commissioners determines the additional non-televised games.
 
If the Demons are chosen for a TV game, it would be the 16^th nationally-televised contest for NSU in 13 seasons under coach Mike McConathy, and the 14^th on either CBS or ESPN's family of networks.
 
Sears BracketBusters, named because of the success of the teams in NCAA Championship play, will provide the 26 televised teams an opportunity to play other top non-conference opponents three weeks before Selection Sunday. The 116 teams not selected for Sears BracketBusters will compete against each other through the same three days.
 
The 142-team field will feature teams from 16 conferences: 12 each from Colonial Athletic Association, Mid-American Conference and Southland; 11 each from Ohio Valley Conference and Big South; 10 each from Horizon League, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Missouri Valley and Summit League; nine each from America East, Big Sky and Big West; eight from the Western Athletic Conference including Louisiana Tech; four from the Southern Conference; three from the MEAC; and two from the West Coast Conference.
 
All 12 Southland Conference teams will participate in the event this season. League teams with home games in this year's BracketBusters along with NSU are McNeese State, Nicholls State, Sam Houston State, Southeastern Louisiana and Stephen F. Austin. The other eight teams, including Central Arkansas, Lamar, Texas-Arlington, Texas-San Antonio, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Texas State, will have road games.