The Capital Classic is now a two-night event to be played Jan. 17 by the women’s teams at WVU and Marshall and then Jan. 18 by the men’s teams at the respective schools.

The two-decade-old doubleheader tradition is no more and I’m curious how someone is going to blame the demise of women’s basketball attendance and the waning cocktail hour at the Embassy Suites on Oliver Luck.

For me, it’s great news. No more games starting near 9 p.m. and ending right around deadline. The Herd and the Mountaineers have played some pretty good men’s games in recent seasons — and Marshall may be right up there with WVU’s best non-conference opponents this season — that have deserved more attention than the time constraints have allowed.

Negatives? For the men, I can’t find one. Maybe — maybe — people won’t be staying overnight now and booking hotel rooms because they think they can get back home, wherever home is, without needing an overnight stay. Then again, the people that stay are generally the people who make an event out of it and make the most of the night, so an earlier start isn’t going to thin that crowd. Figure, if anything, more business for bars and restaurants before and after the game.

Now, you do lose the student section for the women’s games, in all likelihood, and whatever slight attendance bump the doubleheader may have otherwise produced. That said, even with the doubleheader, they weren’t selling that game out or even packing sections so the crowd would look good on camera. At the worst, or perhaps at its best, the new setup gives the women a night to call their own and the marketing wizards a way to capitalize on that.