Introducing The Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Rob Dauster July 29, 2025
[email protected]

The Field of 68 is partnering with Visit York County at the Rock Hill Sports & Event Center as well as Sanford Sports and the Sanford Pentagon to launch a new, innovative event on the opening day of the college basketball season. On Nov. 3, 2025, the Field of 68 will be broadcasting “The Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon,” a six-game, all-day event featuring three showcase games in each venue.

The Marathon features the following matchups:

In Rock Hill, SC:
(All times ET)

• Queens vs. Winthrop, 8 am

• Bradley vs. St. Bonaventure, 11 am

• High Point vs. Furman, 6:30 pm

And in Sioux Falls, SD:
(All times ET)

• Murray State vs. Omaha, 1:30 pm ET

• Drake vs. Northern Arizona, 4 pm ET

• South Dakota State vs. Merrimack, 9 pm ET

Tickets go on sale at Sept. 5 at ticketmaster.com for the games in Sioux Falls and at TicketReturn for the games in Rock Hill.

The games will be broadcast on The Field of 68’s YouTube Channel and X.com feeds, and the network’s popular After Dark show will be broadcast live with a set at both venues.

“We are honored to be involved in this event, which has some of the elite programs in the country that exist outside the sport’s traditional power structure,” Field of 68 founder Rob Dauster said. “This is a great opportunity for us to be able to provide more coverage for these teams that frankly don’t get enough. What we do at the Field of 68 is try and give teams at all levels the coverage they deserve.”

“We are excited to welcome the Field of 68 Opening Day Showcase back to the Sanford Pentagon,” said Jesse Smith, vice president of Sanford Sports. “Last year’s inaugural event was a tremendous success featuring great teams and matchups. This year’s slate of games is even better with several local ties to South Dakota, including Mitchell native Ryan Miller’s head coaching debut for Murray State, Eric Henderson’s return to the Rushmore State as the head coach for Drake and Bryan Petersen’s debut as head coach with South Dakota State. The Field of 68 has done an incredible job growing this event and we can’t wait to tip off another college basketball season!”

“Visit York County is excited to partner with the Field of 68 Media Network to host six top collegiate basketball programs, including our very own Winthrop Eagles,” said Andy Clinton, the president of Visit York County. “It’s very rewarding to see a relationship built with Jeff Goodman and Rob Dauster a few years ago evolve into a national event to kick off the college basketball season. Visiting teams and spectators will stimulate our local economy while York County will also be in the national spotlight for three intriguing matchups on the Field of 68 Media Network.”

The Marathon will kick off with a matchup between local rivals Queens and Winthrop, the first game of the 2025-26 college basketball season.

“It’s an unbelievable way to represent a local rivalry,” Queens coach Grant Leonard said. “I appreciate Coach Prosser playing the game every year. The fact that we’re able to do it in this type of setting is great for both of our programs, so we’re really excited about it.”

This is the fourth year that Queens has been a Division I program, and they are coming off of a 20-win season where they played in the CBI. Winthrop has against Queens in each of the last two seasons.

“I’ll probably have to have a couple cups of coffee that morning, maybe one the night before preparing for those guys,” Winthrop coach Mark Prosser said. “We’ve had great games up to this point the last couple of years. It’ll be a challenge whenever it is, and if it’s 8 o’clock on the first day, it will be 8 o’clock on the first day.”

Furman has been one of the best programs in the SoCon under Bob Richey, reaching the second round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, while first-year coach Flynn Clayman takes over a High Point team that dominated the Big South in two seasons under Alan Huss.

“For the health of college basketball, in November, you have to go and challenge yourself,” Richey said. “The more games like this, where great programs that have won at a high level get together, there’s no downside to it. To be here in Rock Hill, at this great facility, we are thrilled to be a part of it.”

“I love challenging our team right away,” Clayman said. “Opening night, there’s gonna be a ton of excitement, I expect this place to be absolutely rocking by tip-off. It’s a first-class area and facility in Rock Hill. And it’s an elite place for a college basketball game.”

Bradley is one of the best programs in the Missouri Valley, having won the regular season title in 2023 and finishing at least four games over .500 in the league in each of the last four seasons. They will be taking on St. Bonaventure and Mark Schmidt, who is widely regarded as one of the best X’s-and-O’s coaches in college basketball.

“When you play a good team in the first game of the season, you have your guys’ attention more,” Bradley coach Brian Wardle said. “It gives you extra juice heading into that first week. We’re so excited about this event. It’s a great location, great city… and it’s gonna be a high-level game that we’re thrilled to be a part of.”

“We’re really excited to be the second game of the season, play in Rock Hill and face a great opponent,” Schmidt said. “Coach Wardle does a great job, does it the right way, and his teams are well-coached. They lost a lot of guys, we lost a lot of guys. Our guys are excited to play a great program, a successful program, very similar to us - a little under the radar. Great venue, our alumni will come to the game and we’re very excited about it.”

The triple-header in Sioux Falls will feature a pair of homecomings.

Murray State’s Ryan Miller, whose family is from Mitchell, an hour down the road, will be coaching his first game as a Division I head coach in the state where he’s basketball royalty.

“When Rob and Jeff called me about playing my first game as a Division I head coach in Sioux Falls, an hour away from my hometown, it was an honor,” Miller said. “There’s a lot of emotion and sentimentality with most of my family living in Sioux Falls. I appreciate the opportunity.”

The Racers will face-off with Omaha, a team coming off of a viral run to the 2025 NCAA Tournament that featured a long-term feud with local trash cans.

“It’s a regional game for us and it’s a great opponent,” Omaha coach Chris Crutchfield said. “We feel like it gives a chance for our fans to come see us play in a great venue, and we like you guys!

Eric Henderson, Drake’s new coach, took part in the inaugural Field of 68 Opening Day Showcase, leading South Dakota State to a win over McNeese State in the Pentagon.

“Last year was such a great event, it was run extremely well, the games were awesome and the excitement around the whole event was huge,” Henderson said. “Coming back to South Dakota, it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.”

Henderson will lead Drake up against Shane Burcar’s Northern Arizona program.

“With baseball and the NFL, the Opening Day is a big deal, and with college basketball we’re missing a little bit of that,” Burcar said. “I brought it up to our players this summer: Would you like to play a non-D1 opening night or go play Drake, and without hesitation, our guys said Drake.”

The final game of the day will pit Merrimack, an NEC power that is finally eligible for the NCAA Tournament, against the Jackrabbits of South Dakota State, who are looking to win on the Field of 68 platform for the second consecutive Opening Day.

“We’re fired up to be at the Pentagon and to be in the Field of 68 Opening Day marathon,” new SDSU coach Bryan Peterson said. “We experienced it last year and our players absolutely loved the event.”

“When we got the call from you guys, we were honored,” Merrimack coach Joe Gallo said. “For you guys to invite us and to be mentioned with some of the other programs playing in this event is just awesome.”