ESPN is eliminating the 24-hour college basketball marathon it has historically used to start each new season.

Network spokesman Josh Krulewitz says the company may explore a return of the marathon concept at some point in the future. He noted that more than 3,500 college basketball games will air on ESPN’s platforms during the 2017-18 season.

People will seem very upset over this change by ESPN, but it is certainly worth noting that few people stayed awake after last call to witness the Club State Pool Cleaners battle the University of Broken Dreams on a weekday.

While ESPN said that format is gone, it didn’t announce whether or not it planned on keeping some of the matinee games in its broadcast schedule.

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The network recently announced it will air a new early-season tournament, the Phil Knight Invitational, which will feature 16 teams playing across two separate brackets from Nov. 23-26. One bracket features Butler, Duke, Florida, Gonzaga, Ohio State, Portland State, Stanford and Texas. The other includes Arkansas, DePaul, Michigan State, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Portland and UConn. That should be fun.

College basketball is in a weird spot during its non-March months. While many claim it to be a niche sport, it is probably a lot more regional (like baseball) than it is national (like the NFL or NBA). It is time the sport’s leaders realize this and adjust appropriately.

Anyway, the only real stunner here is that this was announced only a few weeks before the college basketball season is set to begin.