UT Basketball Is Headed to China

UT men’s basketball will participate in a historic game this weekend: the first regular season game of any American sport overseas, which will tip off in China.

By Hady MawajdehNovember 13, 2015 4:48 pm

Tomorrow the very first regular season game of any American sports league will be tipped off in Shanghai, China. The two teams making history will be University of Washington and the University of Texas men’s basketball teams.

Now, you might assume that the main reason these two teams are venturing to China to broaden the reach of their basketball programs or to sell more merchandise, but as ESPN Senior Writer Mina Kimes reports in the upcoming issue of ESPN the magazine that these programs may actually be trying to attract new students that pay higher tuition.

What you’ll hear in this segment:

– How this game came into fruition and why it could be really important to the programs

– What’s appealing to the Pac-12 commissioner about taking his teams west

– The reasons behind building a fanbase overseas, including how they aim to gain fan of both the university and a sports program

– Other moves that universities are making to take their footprint worldwide