5-hour ENERGY® and ESPN announced an agreement establishing the dietary supplement as the title sponsor of the 2011 Puerto Rico Tip-Off. An early-season men’s basketball tournament played at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in the cosmopolitan Hato Rey district of San Juan. The 5-hour ENERGY® Puerto Rico Tip-Off runs Thursday, Friday and Sunday, Nov. 17, 18 & 20, teams playing in the fifth-annual event are Alabama, Colorado, Iona, Maryland, Purdue, Temple, Western Michigan and Wichita State.

“Serving as the title sponsor provides us a great opportunity to reach a wide variety of college basketball fans,” said Lynn Petersmarck, 5-hour ENERGY® advertising director.

“5-hour ENERGY®’s sponsorship serves to strengthen an event that once again will entertain college sports fans from one of the great destinations in the Caribbean,” said Dan Shoemaker, ERT vice president, collegiate development.

5-hour ENERGY® Puerto Tip-Off Teams

• Ranked in an early preseason poll by ESPN.com’s Andy Katz – Alabama is No. 14 and Purdue, Temple and Wichita State are all listed under teams to consider;
• Seven of the eight-team field advanced to postseason play in 2011:
  • Both Purdue and Temple reached the third round of the NCAA Championship;
  • Wichita State topped Alabama in the NIT championship game, while Colorado was a semifinalist;
  • Iona earned a berth to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, advancing to the title game, and Western Michigan reached the second round.

Ticket and Travel Information
The family-friendly tournament and resort destination of Puerto Rico host the teams to three days of play, practices and immersion into the Puerto Rican culture and landscape. Additional information, including travel packages, can be found on the 5-hour ENERGY® Puerto Rico Tip-Off Web site at www.puertoricotipoff.com.

The 5-hour ENERGY® Puerto Rico Tip-Off is owned and operated by ESPN Regional Television, Inc. (ERT), a subsidiary of ESPN.

ESPN Regional Television
The nation’s largest syndicator of collegiate sports programming, ESPN Regional Television (ERT) annually produces more than 1,200 sporting events. Content includes action from NCAA football, basketball and Olympic sports, NHRA and professional and amateur golf, accounting for more than 3,400 live and/or original hours of programming. ERT’s owned and operated events reach over a million fans a year and provides more than 200 additional hours of programming.

In addition to event ownership, ERT is the production headquarters for ESPNU; syndication rights-holder and producer of national, regional and local shows for college conferences (SEC, BIG EAST, Big 12, Mid-American, WAC) and manages the Big 12 Corporate Partner Program.

ESPN Regional Television markets and/or owns several sporting events:
Collegiate Football
Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl St. Petersburg; Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl (Dallas-Fort Worth); BBVA Compass Bowl (Birmingham, Ala.); MAACO Bowl Las Vegas; Gildan New Mexico Bowl (Albuquerque); Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl (Honolulu); Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas (Houston); MEAC/SWAC Challenge presented by Disney (Orlando, Fla.) and The Home Depot ESPNU College Football Awards

Collegiate Basketball
76 Classic (Anaheim, Calif.); State Farm Champions Classic (Madison Square Garden; debuts 2011); DIRECTV Charleston Classic presented by Foster Grant (S.C.); Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic (Honolulu); Old Spice Classic (Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Fla.); 5-hour ENERGY® Puerto Rico Tip-Off (San Juan); All-College Basketball Classic (Oklahoma City) and BracketBusters

Collegiate Lacrosse
ESPNU Warrior Classic 

Additional Events
Hawaiian Islands Invitational (Soccer) and ESPN National Golf Challenge

For more information, visit ESPNPlus.com.

About 5-hour ENERGY
Introduced, in 2004, 5-hour ENERGY® is the original liquid energy shot. It contains a blend of B-vitamins and amino acids, zero sugar and four calories. It is available at retail outlets in the United States and Canada as well as throughout the U.K., Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and the Caribbean.

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