Oh boy. After last year’s early morning away game against St. Peter’s College was aired on ESPN, the Monmouth University men’s basketball team is getting ready to get some more early morning national exposure from The Worldwide Leader in Sports. Late last week I popped over to GoMUHawks.com and looked up the men’s basketball schedule for the coming season. Turns out that not only will the Hawks be playing another 6:00am game on ESPN, but this time they’ll be home playing against Stony Brook University… and it’s the home opener!

That’s pretty crazy.

This, of course, means that I’ll be at that game in my first row seats bright and early at 6:00am. It also means that I’ll be getting up at about 4:30am that morning so I can be at the Varsity Club pregame area by 5:00am when it opens. Then from the game I’ll walk over to Bey Hall, teach the 8:30am course that I’m teaching this semester, and then head over to Trenton to go to work until I head back to Monmouth in the evening to teach my 6:00pm class. Talk about a full day!

These early morning games are pretty fun and a good way to get national exposure. However, as a big supporter of college athletes (and student athletes at all levels of education, really), I know that these games add an extra layer of stress to the players. Forget about the fact that the game is being broadcast on ESPN and, thus, all around the world; these students are waking up at an unreal hour and prepping themselves to get ready to play against some stiff competition. Add on the fact that it’s going to be the home opener and the pressure only continues to mount. I wish these guys the best of luck.

Anyway, I’ll be nice and bitter by the time I get to that 6:00pm class at night!