As a tease to the announcement of the full 2016-17 Big East men’s basketball schedule on Tuesday, the league announced the lineup for the 2017 Big East Men’s Basketball Marathon on Monday afternoon.
While in the past it has been a New Year’s Eve related event, due to the College Football Playoff occupying Saturday AND New Year’s Eve at the same time this year, the Big East will be holding a marathon on Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, which is January 16, 2017. The existence of a work holiday for a majority of people means there’s an audience for 12ish hours of basketball on television, and thus makes that a prime day to hold the marathon.