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ESPN’s Family of Networks College Football Games For Week 14

This Saturday for all intents and purposes ends college football before we head to the inexorable bowl season leading to the BCS and the debates whether it’s a viable system.

But before we get to all that, there’s the Conference Championship Games. The ESPN Fam will air the MAC, Conference USA and ACC Championships. ABC also airs the annual Bedlam Game between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State that will decide the Big 12 Championship.

In addition, the ESPN3.com will stream the NCAA Division I Football Championship featuring schools in the Football Championship Subdivision. Yes, the NCAA holds a Division I Championship while the BCS schools are mired in the muck and malarkey that’s the bowl system which just provides debate and more questions.

Anyway, here’s the schedule.

Conference Championships, Four Matchups between Ranked Teams & Complete NCAA Division I Second Round Coverage

ESPN’s college football schedule this week includes four conference championships, four games between ranked teams and all eight of the second-round NCAA Division I Football Championship matchups.

ABC and ESPN will each televise a conference title game between ranked teams Saturday, December 3:

• Conference USA Championship at noon on ABC: No. 24 Southern Miss vs. undefeated No. 6 Houston
• ACC Championship Game at 8 p.m. on ESPN and ESPN3: No. 5 Virginia Tech vs. No. 20 Clemson

On Friday, Dec. 2, ESPN2 and ESPN3 will carry the MAC Championship pitting Ohio against Northern Illinois at 7 p.m.  In addition, ESPN Radio will broadcast the inaugural Pac-12 Championship featuring UCLA vs. No. 9 Oregon at 8 p.m.

ABC will broadcast two Big 12 games between ranked teams Saturday, December 3: No. 22 Texas at No. 17 Baylor at 3:30 p.m. followed by No. 10 Oklahoma at No. 3 Oklahoma State at 8 p.m., which will determine the Big 12 champion.

ESPN3 will offer exclusive coverage of the entire second round of the NCAA Division I Football Championship on Saturday, December 3 beginning at 1 p.m.

Date	Time (ET)	Game/Commentators	Network
Thu, Dec 1	8 p.m.	No. 23 West Virginia at South Florida Rece Davis, Craig James, Jesse Palmer & Jenn Brown	ESPN/ESPN3/ESPN 3D
Fri, Dec 2	7 p.m.	MAC Championship: Ohio vs. Northern Illinois Joe Tessitore, Rod Gilmore & Jeannine Edwards	ESPN2/ESPN3
	8 p.m.	Pac-12 Championship Game: UCLA at No. 9 Oregon Dave Flemming, David Norrie & Ian Fitzsimmons	ESPN Radio
Sat, Dec 3	Noon	Conference USA Championship: No. 24 Southern Miss at No. 6 Houston Mike Patrick, Craig James & Lisa Salters	ABC
		Connecticut at Cincinnati Dave Pasch, Chris Spielman & Quint Kessenich	ESPN/ESPN3
		Syracuse at Pittsburgh Dave Lamont & Mike Bellotti	ESPN2/ESPN3
	1 p.m.	NCAA Division I Football Championship: Old Dominion at No. 3 Georgia Southern Doug Bell & John Bunting	ESPN3*
	2 p.m.	NCAA Division I Football Championship: Maine at Appalachian State John Sadak & Rene Ingoglia	ESPN3*
		NCAA Division I Football Championship: Central Arkansas at No. 4 Montana Ryan Rose & Adam Archuletta	ESPN3*
	3 p.m.	Troy at Arkansas State	ESPN3
		NCAA Division I Football Championship: New Hampshire at Montana State Trey Bender & Jay Taylor	ESPN3*
		NCAA Division I Football Championship: Stony Brook at No. 1 Sam Houston State Dan Gutowsky & Warrick Dunn	ESPN3*
	3:30 p.m.	No. 22 Texas at No. 17 Baylor Sean McDonough, Matt Millen & Samantha Steele	ABC
		Utah State at New Mexico State	ESPN3
		NCAA Division I Football Championship: Lehigh at Towson Bob Picozzi & John Gregory	ESPN3*
	4 p.m.	Idaho at Nevada	ESPN3
		NCAA Division I Football Championship: James Madison at No. 2 North Dakota State Jim Barbar & Jay Walker	ESPN3*
	5 p.m.	NCAA Division I Football Championship: Wofford at No. 5 Northern Iowa Shawn Kenney & Rob Harley	ESPN3*
	7:30 p.m.	BYU at Hawaii Carter Blackburn & Brock Huard	ESPN2/ESPN3
	8 p.m.	No. 10 Oklahoma at No. 3 Oklahoma State Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge & Holly Rowe	ABC
		ACC Championship Game: No. 5 Virginia Tech vs. No. 20 Clemson ESPN: Brent Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit & Heather Cox ESPN Radio: Bill Rosinski, Danny Kanell & Joe Schad	ESPN/ESPN3/ESPN 3D/ESPN Radio

* ESPN3 exclusive.

And College GameDay will end its travel around the country just as it began, in Atlanta in SEC country this time for the SEC Championship.

College GameDay at SEC Championship in Atlanta

ESPN’s Emmy Award-winning College GameDay will originate from the SEC Championship in Atlanta, on Saturday, Dec. 3, in advance the title game between the Eastern Division champion No. 12 Georgia and the Western Division champ No. 1 LSU. The GameDay set will be in Centennial Olympic Park and will air from 9-10 a.m. on ESPNU and 10 a.m.-noon on ESPN.

GameDay will be visiting the SEC Championship for the fourth time, and the third time in the last four years. Alabama takes part for the third time this season, the second straight week and the 22^nd time overall, while Georgia will be appearing for the 12^th time.

That’s it.

ESPN’s College Basketball Announcing Teams

We have the ESPN college basketball announcing teams for the 2011-12 season. Dan Shulman and Dick Vitale will be the top announcing team. Sean McDonough, Jay Bilas and Bill Raftery return to call Big East games on Big Mondays. Brent Musburger and Bob Knight are back to do the Big 12 portion of Big Monday.

Coming over from the NBA as it’s still in lockout are Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Tirico. Tirico will call Big Ten games on Tuesday nights with Dan Dakich. Breen and Van Gundy will call selected games in November and could be assigned to more games if the lockout extends to December and beyond.

For ESPNU’s new Sunday Night ACC Basketball series, Jon Sciambi will be teamed with Hubert Davis and sideline reporter Allison Williams.

We have your press release from ESPN below.

ESPN 2011-12 Men’s College Basketball Commentators

ESPN’s 2011-12 men’s college basketball game and studio telecasts – the most extensive in network history with more than 1,450 games – will include the return of top commentators, including Basketball Hall of Famers Dick Vitale and Bob Knight, and the addition of several announcers.

Hall of Famers:

• Dick Vitale, entering his 33rd season with ESPN, will work top games from various conferences and the weekly Saturday Primetime Presented by DIRECTV series, primarily with Dan Shulman.
• Bob Knight will call the weekly Big Monday Big 12 game with Brent Musburger and reporter Holly Rowe as well as various non-conference games.

Sampling of Returning Analysts and Announcer Teams:

• Jay Bilas, entering his 17th season with ESPN, will work ESPN’s Big Monday BIG EAST telecasts with Sean McDonough and veteran analyst Bill Raftery, top games across various days, select Saturday Primetime telecasts, and the weekly Saturday College GameDay show.
• Fran Fraschilla, entering his 10th season with ESPN, will primarily work Big 12 and BIG EAST telecasts and provide studio analysis.
• Sean Farnham, who joined ESPN last year, will work games across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU from various conferences, including West Coast and Big 12.
• Brad Nessler and Jimmy Dykes will return to work SEC telecasts as part of ESPN’s Super Tuesday series and on Saturdays.
• Carter Blackburn and LaPhonso Ellis will pair up for a third season to work ESPNU’s Wednesday night action, primarily involving the BIG EAST.

New to College Hoops this Season:

• Mike Tirico, One of ESPN’s versatile commentators and the voice of Monday Night Football will work the weekly Big Ten Super Tuesday game with second-year analyst Dan Dakich.
• Mike Breen, Primary voice of ESPN’s NBA game telecasts will call select non-conference games in November. He will begin with Duke’s first two games of the season as head coach Mike Krzyzewski attempts to tie the Division I men’s all-time wins record on November 11 (Belmont at 9 p.m. ET on ESPNU) and November 12 (Presbyterian at 4:30 p.m. on ESPNU). He will work with analyst Doris Burke on both telecasts.
• Jeff Van Gundy, ESPN’s lead NBA game analyst will work select non-conference games in November, including Rhode Island at Texas in the Legends Classic with Breen on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 4 p.m. on ESPN and ESPN3.

Double-Duty Analysts Who Work Men’s and Women’s Games:

• Doris Burke, a top analyst on ESPN’s women’s and men’s coverage, will work on Thursday and Saturday BIG EAST telecasts.
• Kara Lawson, a leading voice of ESPN’s women’s college basketball coverage, will begin her second season working men’s games, primarily on SEC Network telecasts as well as select contests across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU.

New Sunday Night Basketball Telecast:

• Game and studio analyst Hubert Davis will work ESPNU’s new weekly Sunday Night ACC Basketball series (at 6 p.m. beginning January 8^{thJon Sciambi and reporter Allison Williams.}

College GameDay and Studio Analysts:

• Rece Davis will return to host College GameDay with analysts Digger Phelps, Bilas and Hubert Davis. The two-hour weekly Saturday show will air on ESPNU at 10 a.m. and continue at 11 a.m. on ESPN. A one-hour evening edition leading into the Saturday Primetime game will begin at 8 p.m. on ESPN.
• Analysts making regular studio appearances throughout the season on ESPN and ESPN2 include Stephen Bardo, Adrian Branch, Dakich, Hubert Davis, Dykes, LaPhonso Ellis, Farnham, Fraschilla, Doug Gottlieb, Andy Katz, Phelps, Miles Simon, Dereck Whittenburg and Jay Williams.
• Dari Nowkhah or Anish Shroff will host ESPNU’s studio coverage with Branch, Dino Gaudio or Miles Simon. In addition, ESPN Regional Television will produce studio shows for games on the SEC Network (host Nowkhah with Barry Booker or Kyle Macy) and Big 12 Network (host Doug Bell with Bryndon Manzer).

Commentators appearing in regular weekly ESPN and ESPN2 time slots — Big Monday, Super Tuesday, Wednesday Night Hoops and Thursday Night Showcase– plus Saturdays throughout the season (conference assignments can vary):

Various Days

Network	Conference	Play-by-play	Analyst
ESPN or ESPN2	Select Games	Dan Shulman	Dick Vitale

Monday

Network	Conference	Play-by-play	Analyst	Reporter
ESPN	BIG EAST (Big Monday)	Sean McDonough	Jay Bilas and Bill Raftery
ESPN	Big 12 (Big Monday)	Brent Musburger	Bob Knight	Holly Rowe
ESPNU	Big 12	Dave Flemming	Sean Farnham

Tuesday

Network	Conference	Play-by-play	Analyst
ESPN	Big Ten (Super Tuesday)	Mike Tirico	Dan Dakich
ESPN	SEC (Super Tuesday)	Brad Nessler	Jimmy Dykes
ESPN2	Various Conferences	Jon Sciambi	Doug Gottlieb
ESPNU	ACC	Rob Stone	Jay Williams
ESPNU	SEC	Dari Nowkhah	Dino Gaudio

Wednesday

Network	Conference	Play-by-play	Analyst
ESPN or ESPN2	ACC (Wednesday Night Hoops)	Dan Shulman	Dick Vitale or Jay Bilas
ESPN or ESPN2	BIG EAST(Wednesday Night Hoops)	Bob Wischusen	Fran Fraschilla, Doug Gottlieb or LaPhonso Ellis
ESPN or ESPN2	Big 12 (Wednesday Night Hoops)	Jon Sciambi	Fran Fraschilla, Doug Gottlieb or Sean Farnham
ESPNU	Big 12	Mitch Holthus	Miles Simon
ESPNU	BIG EAST	Carter Blackburn	LaPhonso Ellis

Thursday

Network	Conference	Play-by-play	Analyst	Reporter
ESPN or ESPN2	ACC (Thursday Night Showcase)	Mike Patrick	Len Elmore	Jeannine Edwards
ESPN or ESPN2	Big Ten (Thursday Night Showcase)	Dave O’Brien	Stephen Bardo
ESPN or ESPN2	SEC (Thursday Night Showcase)	Rece Davis or Brad Nessler	Hubert Davis, Jimmy Dykes or Kara Lawson
ESPN2	West Coast (Thursday Night Showcase)	Dave Flemming	Sean Farnham or Miles Simon
ESPNU	Various	Anish Shroff	Adrian Branch

Friday

Network	Conference	Play-by-play	Analyst
ESPNU	MAAC	Doug Sherman	Tim O’Toole
ESPNU	Horizon	Jim Barbar	David Kaplan

Saturday

Network	Conference	Play-by-play	Analyst
ESPN	Saturday Primetime	Dan Shulman	Dick Vitale
ESPN or ESPN2	BIG EAST	Dave Pasch	Doris Burke
ESPN or ESPN2	Big Ten	Dave O’Brien	Dan Dakich
ESPN or ESPN2	Big 12	Mark Jones	Fran Fraschilla
ESPN or ESPN2	ACC	Mike Patrick	Len Elmore
ESPN or ESPN2	SEC	Brad Nessler	Jimmy Dykes
ESPNU	BIG EAST	Beth Mowins	Tim Welsh
ESPNU	Various	Mike Crispino	Bob Valvano
ESPNU	Various	Adam Amin	Brooke Weisbrod
ESPNU	Various	Justin Kutcher	Dickey Simpkins

Sunday

Network	Conference	Play-by-play	Analyst	Reporter
ESPNU	ACC Sunday Night Basketball	Jon Sciambi	Hubert Davis	Allison Williams
ESPNU	Missouri Valley	Mitch Holthus	David Kaplan

In addition to regular assignments on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, ESPN Regional Television will produce and syndicate an extensive schedule of games from the SEC, BIG EAST and Big 12:

SEC Network	Play-by-play	Analyst
Wednesday and Saturday	Carter Blackburn, Clay Matvick or Dave Neal	Kara Lawson or Joe Dean, Jr.

Big 12 Network	Play-by-play	Analyst
Saturday and select weekdays	Dave Armstrong, Mitch Holthus or Brad Sham	Reid Gettys, Jon Sunvold or Stephen Howard

BIG EAST Network	Play-by-play	Analyst
Saturday and select Sundays	Mike Gleason	Bob Wenzel

That will do it.

ESPN’s 2011-12 College Basketball Schedule In Its 9,533 Word Glory

Well, ESPN sent a very long press release on its 2011-12 men’s college basketball schedule. It was originally 11,143 words. I edited some unnecessary wordage and got it down to 10,744 words, but then I really went at it and cut it down to 9,533 which is what you’ll see here. We will definitely use a page break. The first 1,399 words will be seen before the jump.

Overall, at least 1,450 college basketball games will be aired on various ESPN platforms, whether it be the Mothership, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3, ESPN Regional Television (Big East Network, Big 12 Network or SEC Network) or ABC. This doesn’t include ESPN 3D. That schedule will be announced at a later date.

So here in its edited glory is the entire ESPN press release on the 2011-12 men’s college basketball schedule.

2011-12 Men’s College Basketball Schedule Sets Record, More than 1,450 Games across Multiple Platforms

First Year of New Deal with ACC, Inaugural Champions Classic, Fourth Annual College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon Nov. 15, Record 1,100 Games on ESPN3, Special Events, Franchise Programming & More

ESPN’s record-breaking 2011-12 men’s college basketball schedule will include with more than 1,450 regular-season and Championship Week games across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3, ABC, ESPN Regional Television (ERT), ESPN Mobile TV and ESPN FULL COURT. The schedule surpasses last year’s previous high of approximately 1,200 matchups.

In addition, the second year of the ESPN Buzzer Beater network will offer live cut-ins and highlights from numerous top college basketball games Saturdays from noon ET to 11 p.m. and Wednesdays from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. beginning January 7. ESPN Buzzer Beater is currently available to Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Verizon FiOS TV customers.

Viewers can also watch live ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3 and ESPN Buzzer Beater game action online at WatchESPN.com and on smartphones and tablets through the WatchESPN app. The service – available to video subscribers of Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Verizon FiOS TV – gives fans the ability to watch ESPN’s live networks, no matter where they are.

ESPNU will tip off the season Monday, Nov. 7, with a doubleheader from the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic: William & Mary at St. John’s at 7 p.m. followed by Valparaiso at Arizona at 9 p.m. It will mark the seventh consecutive year ESPNU has presented the first nationally televised games of the season. The action will conclude with ESPN’s 27th consecutive season of Championship Week wall-to-wall conference tournament coverage March 1-11.

New ACC Agreement
The schedule will include the first year of a 12-year agreement with the Atlantic Coast Conference for exclusive rights to every conference game. As part of the deal, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3 will combine to offer the most ACC games ever across the ESPN networks. Highlights:

• Full national telecasts on all games televised on an ESPN platform (had been local blackouts on handful of telecasts), including of both regular-season matchups of the storied Duke-North Carolina rivalry each year and all 11 games of the ACC Tournament.
• The new weekly ACC Sunday Night Basketball franchise on ESPNU as well as the continuation of ACC action on ESPN’s Super Tuesday, Wednesday Night Hoops, Thursday Night Showcase and Saturdays.

Schedule Highlights

• Telecasts of at least one team from all 31 conferences on an ESPN network.
• Michigan State will take on North Carolina on the USS Carl Vinson in San Diego in the Carrier Classic on Friday, Nov. 11, at 7 p.m. on ESPN. It marks the first men’s college basketball game to be played on the deck of a United States military aircraft carrier.
• The new three-year Champions Classic event will showcase four of the sport’s winningest programs squaring off at a neutral site. This year’s event on Tuesday, Nov. 15, pits Duke vs. Michigan State at 7 p.m. followed by Kentucky vs. Kansas at 9 p.m. from Madison Square Garden.
• ESPN will televise two conference challenges showcasing 12 games from each: the 13th annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge November 29-30 and the inaugural BIG EAST/SEC Challenge December 1-3.
• ESPN3 will offer a record 150 original productions and more than 1,100 total games, including simulcasts of every ESPN and ESPN2 telecast and ESPN FULL COURT pay-per-view game.
• The fourth annual College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon will celebrate the start of the season with 21 live matchups – 19 men’s and two women’s – in a minimum of 25 hours on Tuesday, Nov. 15. ESPN highlights include 11 game telecasts and a special one-hour College GameDay from Madison Square Garden in New York, site of the Champions Classic.

College GameDay and Saturday Primetime
ESPN’s College GameDay, the eight-week Saturday morning and evening college basketball program originating from the site of ESPN’s Saturday Primetime telecast, will return for its eighth season beginning Saturday, Jan. 14, at 10 a.m. from the campus of Florida State University in Tallahassee, Fla.  In a one-time only switch, the season debut will be on ESPN with the second hour on ESPNU. Most other weeks, a two-hour show will start at 10 a.m. on ESPNU, continuing at 11 a.m. on ESPN with a one-hour edition at 8 p.m. on ESPN (except for Jan. 28 and March 3). The Saturday Primetime game-of-the-week series will generally be aired at 9 p.m. (exceptions noted below).

Date	GameDay Site	Show Times (ET)	Game	Game Time (ET)
Jan 14	Tallahassee, Fla.	10 a.m. & 11 a.m.*	North Carolina at Florida State	2 p.m.
Jan 21	Pittsburgh, Pa.	10 a.m. & 8 p.m.	Louisville at Pittsburgh	9 p.m.
Jan 28	Tucson, Ariz.	10 a.m. & 6 p.m.	Washington at Arizona	7 p.m.
Feb 4	Columbia, Mo.	10 a.m. & 8 p.m.	Kansas at Missouri	9 p.m.
Feb 11	Nashville, Tenn.	10 a.m. & 8 p.m.	Kentucky at Vanderbilt	9 p.m.
Feb 18	Ann Arbor, Mich.	10 a.m. & 8 p.m.	Ohio State at Michigan	9 p.m.
Feb 25	Storrs, Conn.	10 a.m. & 8 p.m.	Syracuse at Connecticut	9 p.m.
Mar 3	Durham, N.C. or Lawrence, Kan.^	10 a.m. & 6 p.m.	North Carolina at Duke or Texas at Kansas	7 p.m. or 9 p.m.

* ESPNU will televise the first hour of College GameDay with ESPN continuing coverage at 11 a.m. except Jan. 14 when ESPN will televise the first hour and ESPNU will continue coverage at 11 a.m. ESPN will televise the evening edition each week, except Jan. 14 when there is no evening show.
^ Site for March 3 will be determined and announced on the Feb. 25 morning GameDay show

Franchise Programming
Five of ESPN’s franchise weeks consisting of top matchups around notable times in the schedule will return:

• Feast Week (Nov. 21-27)
• Holiday Hoops (Dec. 17-24)
• Rivalry Week (Feb 6-13)
• Judgment Week (Feb. 20-26)
• Championship Week (March 1-11)

Events and Tournaments
Special tournaments and events include:

• Big Ten/ACC Challenge (Nov. 29-30)
• BIG EAST/SEC Challenge (Dec. 1-3)
• Jimmy V Classic(Dec. 6)
• BracketBusters (Feb. 17-19)
• Puerto Rico Tip-Off (Nov. 17-20)
• Charleston Classic (Nov. 17-20)
• Old Spice Classic (Nov. 24-27)
• 76 Classic (Nov. 24-27)
• Diamond Head Classic (Dec. 22-25)
• All-College Basketball Classic (Dec. 17)
• Coaches vs. Cancer Classic (Nov. 7-18)
• CBE Classic (Nov. 13-22)
• NIT Season Tip-Off (Nov. 14-25)
• Maui Invitational (Nov. 14-23)
• Legends Classic (Nov. 13-21)
• Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off (Nov. 19-20)
• Las Vegas Invitational (Nov. 25-26).

ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU Day-by-Day Lineup
ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU will combine to offer top games throughout the season, including many in regular time slots beginning Tuesday, Jan. 10, highlighted by (conference assignments can vary):

• Monday: ESPN’s weekly Big Monday doubleheader will feature the BIG EAST and Big 12 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., respectively. In addition, for the first time, ESPNU will offer a regular schedule of Monday night games, primarily involving the Big 12 and BIG EAST;
• Tuesday: Super Tuesday will highlight an ESPN Big Ten and SEC doubleheader as well as a weekly ESPN2 prime-time matchup featuring the ACC, Big 12 or BIG EAST. Tuesday will also include a doubleheader on ESPNU at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. showcasing the ACC and SEC;
• Wednesday: Wednesday Night Hoops will feature Big 12, ACC and Big East games on ESPN or ESPN2. A Wednesday ESPNU doubleheader at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. will feature action from the BIG EAST, Big 12 and others;
• Thursday: The Thursday Night Showcase will include the second season of a weekly SEC game joining the Big Ten telecast, as well as games from the ACC, BIG EAST and Pac-12 on ESPN or ESPN2 at 7 p.m. or 9 p.m. In addition, ESPN2 and ESPNU will offer consistent West Coast Conference games;
• Saturday: Afternoon and evening games across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU from top conferences including ACC, BIG EAST, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, Atlantic 10, Missouri Valley, Colonial and more. Saturday Primetime, a 9 p.m. game of the week on ESPN, and site of the weekly College GameDay series, will return for an eighth season.
• Sunday: The new ESPNU ACC Sunday Night Basketball series will feature a weekly game from the conference at 6 p.m.

All of the games that will be on ESPN’s schedule will be seen after the jump.

(continue reading…)

Bringing Out The Tuesday Links

Let’s do some links for you now.

First, Sports Business Journal’s editorial team talked with ESPN and NFL executives on the decision to remove Hank Williams, Jr.’s open from Monday Night Football.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today looks at the ratings from the weekend in sports television.

Mike Lopresti of USA Today writes about Turner Sports’ Ernie Johnson’s tough month.

Mike McCarthy of USA Today notes that Hank Williams, Jr.’s new song rips ESPN, Fox News and everyone else in his path.

Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy notes that several ex-NHL fighters plan a response to CBC’s Don Cherry who called them out last week.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch says former Red Sox manager Terry Francona got the job done for Fox in Games 1 & 2 of the American League Championship Series.

Lindsay Powers of the Hollywood Reporter says ESPN’s Monday Night Football game between Chicago and Detroit is the network’s 2nd highest rated game of the year.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News writes that the NBA’s national and local TV partners are now scrambling to find other programming in the wake of the cancellation of the 1st two weeks of the regular season.

Todd Spangler of Multichannel News says YES Network is not happy over Cablevision’s live iPad app.

Adweek’s Anthony Crupi writes that ESPN/ABC and TNT will have to find a way to replace almost a billion dollars in ad revenue if the entire 2011-12 NBA season is lost.

Andrew McMains from Adweek looks at Phoenix Suns star Steve Nash spending the NBA lockout as a pitchman.

Media Life Magazine’s Toni Fitzgerald says the ALCS and NLCS helped to take a chunk out of the network ratings on Monday.

Gary Parrish of CBS Sports says the Big East feels ESPN definitely had a hand in its current inner turmoil.

Glenn Davis of SportsGrid notes a sign in Detroit that made fun of an ESPN NFL analyst on ESPN’s Monday Night Football.

Jason Dachman from Sports Video Group both broadcasters and production companies know they’re going to take a hit with the NBA lockout.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell gets Twitter reaction from real people about the impact of the NBA lockout on their lives.

Richard Goldstein of the New York Times remembers the late ABC, CBS and Fox Sports director Joe Aceti who worked many of sports’ biggest events.

Newsday’s Neil Best feels Joe Buck’s voice is coming back.

Neil says Terry Francona shows potential if he wants to be a full-time TV analyst.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union has the Week 7 college football TV schedule.

From the Washington Post, the DC Sports Bog’s Dan Steinberg has an old picture of Tim Brant and former DC NFL team QB Joe Theismann from a 1980 media guide.

David Teel from the Newport News (VA) Daily Press has Virginia and Virginia Tech athletic officials refuting what Boston College’s athletic director said about ESPN influencing the ACC’s decision to add Pittsburgh and Syracuse.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle has some local football TV ratings.

John Kiesewette of the Cincinnati Enquirer says the Bengals hit their season ratings low on Sunday.

John says Fox Sports Ohio will pick up a good number of Xavier basketball games this season.

Eric Lacy of the Detroit News says preliminary ratings show both the Tigers and Lions pulled big numbers on Monday.

Jo-Ann Barnas of the Detroit Free Press goes behind the scenes with ESPN’s Monday Night Football at Ford Field.

The Free Press has three questions for Fox Sports Detroit MLB analyst Rod Allen.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says NBA broadcasters are officially on lockout watch.

Bob looks at the national numbers for the Green Bay-Atlanta Sunday Night Football game.

Ed Sherman at Crain’s Chicago Business hopes to have the NBA back by Christmas. Good luck.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times’ Company Town blog says NBA labor strife doesn’t help its local and national TV partners.

The Los Angeles Times notes that the USC Trojans have announced their basketball TV schedule.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog asks if Don Cherry went too far.

Sports Media Watch notes that Game 1 of the National League Championship Series hit its lowest ratings ever.

SMW has some various overnight ratings.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media has the final numbers for the NHL opening night on Versus.

Steve also has last Friday’s ratings for the NHL’s Europe game on Versus.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing has the video of Joe Buck’s call of Texas’ walkoff win against Detroit in Game 2 of the ALCS on Monday.

And that’s where we’ll end things for today.

Bringing Out The Monday Links

With this being Columbus Day, it’s a holiday for some of you. Not for me, but for some. I hope you’re able to enjoy the day. Let’s do some links.

Sports Business Journal has a look at some of the important women in sports business.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says former Red Sox manager Terry Francona doesn’t see television in his future.

Reid Cherner of USA Today writes that overzealous NFL agent Drew Rosenhaus is clarifying his “I’m a Golden God”-like comment to “60 Minutes”.

Phil Swann of TV Predictions says it’s a swing.. and a miss for Fox’s HD picture at the American League Championship Series.

Lindsay Powers from the Hollywood Reporter notes that Green Bay-Atlanta steered NBC to a big ratings win on Sunday.

Etan Vlessing at the Reporter writes that Don Cherry is out of step with CBC’s public position on head shots in the NHL.

Laura Martinez of Multichannel News reports that ESPN2 will air two episodes of a Spanish-language ESPN Deportes scripted series following a soccer doubleheader on Tuesday.

Daniel Frankel and Lucas Shaw of The Wrap tell us that ESPN and TNT could stand to lose a lot of revenue if the NBA doesn’t settle its lockout soon.

As the NBC gremlins force YouTube to take down the infamous hot dog thrown at Tiger Woods video, we note that it’s still up at SportsGrid as Dan Fogarty informs us.

Ben Koo of Awful Announcing has video of Gus Johnson’s classic touchdown call from Saturday’s Texas A&M-Texas Tech game.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell speaks with movie director Cameron Crowe on who was really the inspiration for movie character superagent Jerry Maguire. Last night, “60 Minutes” falsely said it was Drew Rosenhaus.

Pat Gordon of Cape Cod Online wishes Hank Williams, Jr. would go away.

Kevin Paul Dupont from the Boston Globe writes that Hank Williams, Jr. got it wrong by invoking Adolf Hitler when speaking of President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner.

Mark Blaudshun of the Globe has Boston College athletic director Gene DeFilippo saying ESPN was behind the Syracuse and Pittsburgh defections from the Big East to the ACC.

Pete Thamel of the New York Times says the college sports upheaval is also effecting mid-major conferences.

From the New York Daily News, Eric Barrow says ESPN NFL analyst Merril Hoge advises how you should tie a tie.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick seems to just get the notion that “You Can’t Predict Baseball.”

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union talks with Andrew Catalon who recently filled in on CBS for an NFL game. Andrew did a very good job, too.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette says a local radio legend has retired.

Ken McMillan at the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says ESPN viewers will get multi-lingual coverage of the Pan American Games.

To the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog where Dan Steinberg notes that Capitals and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis wants to bring cell phone concessions to the Verizon Center.

The Washington Examiner’s Jim Williams says the Nationals’ TV ratings are looking up despite finishing dead last among all MLB teams in 2011.

Tom Jones at the St. Petersburg Times looks back at the weekend in sports television.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says the Texans have signed a long-term extension with CBS Radio.

David says Texans voice Marc Vandermeer took yesterday’s loss to the Raiders quite hard.

Tim Twentyman of the Detroit News says Mike Tirico is able to drive his own car to call tonight’s Monday Night Football game instead of flying in ahead of time.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel talks with Brewers TV voice Brian Anderson who’s calling the NLCS on TBS.

Bob says the Brewers and Packers got a lot of national airtime on Sunday.

Bob has the local ratings for the Brewers and Packers.

Ed Sherman from Crain’s Chicago Business speaks with ESPN’s Mike Tirico who gets to call a “home” game tonight.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that embattled announcer Dan McLaughlin has lost one of gigs in the wake of his second DUI arrest.

Dusty Saunders at the Denver Post says Broncos QB Tim Tebow perked up an otherwise moribund sports weekend in the Rocky Mountain region.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says LA was not switched from Raiders-Texans yesterday to join the Chargers as it would have in the past.

Tom has the SoCal sports calendar for this week.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail writes that CBC’s Ron MacLean chose to cover for Don Cherry rather than challenge his comments on fighting from last week.

The Toronto Star’s Raju Mudhar notes that Cherry is doing what he does best, stir the pot.

Sports Media Watch looks at the NBA’s lockout strategy.

SMW says last week’s NASCAR race on ESPN had a slight ratings uptick.

Steve Lepore’s Puck The Media has a profile of Los Angeles Kings Hall of Fame announcer Bob Miller.

Joe Favorito says UFC continues to steadily build its brand.

And we’ll end it there for today.

NESN Signs Deal To Air ACC Syndication Package

This just in from the New England Sports Network a.k.a. NESN. It has signed a deal to air the ACC cable syndication package which means a total of 14 football games and over 30 men’s basketball games. It’s similar to what Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic announced last week. And NESN will air the weekly “ACC All-Access” show. In addition to football and basketball, NESN will have the rights to air conference lacrosse, soccer and baseball games.

We have the press release direct from NESN.

NESN EXTENDS AND EXPANDS ACC MULTI-SPORT RIGHTS AGREEMENT

New Partnership Includes Live Coverage of 14 ACC Football Games Beginning September 3

BOSTON, MA – NESN, New England’s most watched sports network, today announced a multi-year, multi-sport rights agreement to air Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) events. The new agreement expands on the network’s six-year partnership with the conference to include a weekly ACC football game in addition to over 30 men’s basketball telecasts. Also included as part of the agreement will be live coverage of women’s basketball regular season and conference tournament games plus baseball, softball, lacrosse, and the weekly program “ACC All-Access”.  All football and men’s/women’s basketball telecasts will be produced in HD.

“We are excited to expand our partnership with the ACC to include a weekly football game, giving New England sports fans a chance to see some of the best college football in the nation,” said Sean McGrail, NESN’s President and CEO.

NESN’s season-long coverage of ACC football will begin this Saturday, September 3 at 3:30 PM when North Carolina hosts James Madison. Additional matchups scheduled to air on NESN in September include:

September 10 – North Carolina State at Wake Forest – 3:30 PM
September 17 – Kansas at Georgia Tech – 12:30 PM
September 17 – Arkansas State at Virginia Tech – 4:00 PM

Matchups for the remainder of the schedule will be announced on a week-to-week basis.

As part of the new agreement, NESN will also feature live coverage of the 12^th ranked Boston College women’s soccer team on September 22 at 8:00 PM when they travel to 3^rd ranked Maryland.

A full schedule of all the ACC games that will air NESN will be available later this month at NESN.com.

And we have the ACC football schedule that will be aired on NESN throughout the season.

NESN’s 2011 ACC FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Saturday, September 3 – James Madison at North Carolina, 3:30 PM
Saturday, September 10 – North Carolina State at Wake Forest, 3:30 PM
Saturday, September 17  – Kansas at Georgia Tech, 12:30 PM
Saturday, September 17  – Arkansas State at Virginia Tech, 4:00 PM
Saturday, September 24 – Teams TBD, 3:30 PM
Saturday, October 1– Teams TBD, 3:30 PM
Saturday, October 8 – Teams TBD, 3:00 PM
Saturday, October 15 – Teams TBD, 3:00 PM
Saturday, October 22 – Teams TBD, 3:00 PM
Saturday, October 29 – Teams TBD, 3:00 PM
Saturday, November 5 – Teams TBD, 3:00 PM
Saturday, November 12 – Teams TBD, 3:00 PM
Saturday, November 19 – Teams TBD, 3:00 PM
Saturday, November 26 – Teams TBD, 3:30 PM

That will do it.

2012 ESPN’s ACC Men’s Basketball Schedule

Under its new contract with the Atlantic Coast Conference that takes effect this season, ESPN now has the rights to all men’s basketball games. ESPN has sold off some rights to cable syndication of which Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic has signed on. Another package will be given to Raycom Sports under the guise of the ACC Network, but ESPN will keep the majority of the games for itself. That means the old Sunday Night Hoops package that had been with Fox Sports Net will be no more. ESPNU will now do a Sunday Night Basketball game that replaces Sunday Night Hoops.

ESPN will also have full national rights to both Duke-North Carolina matchups as well as all ACC Tournament games. Previously, Raycom would have rights to Duke-North Carolina and the ACC Tournament and have ESPN blacked out in the conference footprint. Now, ESPN’s broadcasts will be seen all over the ACC region without having Raycom broadcasts take precedence.

Here’s the ESPN press release.

ESPN’s ACC Men’s College Basketball Television Schedule

ESPN and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) announced its 2012 men’s college basketball regular-season schedule for ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3.com. ESPN and the ACC are beginning a new 12-year agreement for exclusive rights to every conference game. As part of the deal, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3.com will combine to offer the most games ever across the ESPN networks. Highlights:

• Full national telecasts on all games televised on an ESPN platform (had been local market blackouts on handful of telecasts), including of both regular-season matchups of the storied Duke-North Carolina rivalry each year;
• The new weekly ACC Sunday Night Basketball franchise on ESPNU;
• The continuation of ACC action on ESPN’s Super Tuesday, Wednesday Night Hoops, Thursday Night Showcase and Saturdays;
• The rights to every ACC Tournament game for distribution across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU (with no blackouts).

Through a new sublicense arrangement with ESPN, Raycom Sports will continue its long-standing position as the syndication home of ACC content for over-the-air and regional cable network distribution in the ACC market and beyond. As a result, every regular-season intra-conference game and the entire conference tournament will be produced and distributed via ESPN and Raycom Sports.

Date	Time (ET)	Matchup	Network(s)
Sat, Jan 7	Noon	Duke at Georgia Tech	ESPNU
		Virginia Tech at Wake Forest	Raycom / ESPN3.com
	2:30 p.m.	Boston College at North Carolina	Raycom / ESPN3.com
	4 p.m.	Florida State at Clemson	ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
	6 p.m.	Miami at Virginia	ESPNU
Sun, Jan 8	6 p.m.	ACC Sunday Night Basketball: Maryland at North Carolina State	ESPNU
Tue, Jan 10	7 p.m.	Florida State at Virginia Tech	ESPNU
	9 p.m.	Miami at North Carolina	Raycom / ESPN3.com
Wed, Jan 11	7 p.m.	Wake Forest at Maryland	RSN / ESPN3.com
	9 p.m.	Georgia Tech at North Carolina State	RSN / ESPN3.com
Thu, Jan 12	7 p.m.	Clemson at Boston College	ESPN or ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
	9 p.m.	Virginia at Duke	ESPN or ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
Sat, Jan 14	1 or 4 p.m.	North Carolina State at Wake Forest	Raycome / ESPN3.com
	2 p.m.	North Carolina at Florida State	ESPN / ESPN3.com
	3 p.m.	Virginia Tech at Boston College	RSN / ESPN3.com
Sun, Jan 15	1 or 4 p.m.	Georgia Tech at Maryland	Raycom / ESPN3.com
	6 p.m.	ACC Sunday Night Basketball: Duke at Clemson	ESPNU
Tue, Jan 17	9 p.m.	Maryland at Florida State	ESPNU
Wed, Jan 18	7 p.m.	Clemson at Miami	RSN / ESPN3.com
Thu, Jan 19	7 p.m.	Wake Forest at Duke	ESPN or ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
	8 p.m.	Boston College at North Carolina State	Raycom / ESPN3.com
		Virginia at Georgia Tech	Raycom / ESPN3.com
	9 p.m.	North Carolina at Virginia Tech	ESPN or ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
Sat, Jan 21	Noon	Wake Forest at Boston College	Raycom / ESPN3.com
	2:30 p.m.	Georgia Tech at Clemson	Raycom / ESPN3.com
	4 p.m.	Florida State at Duke	ESPN / ESPN3.com
Sun, Jan 22	Noon	North Carolina State at Miami	Raycom / ESPN3.com
	6 p.m.	ACC Sunday Night Basketball: Virginia Tech at Virginia	ESPNU
Tue, Jan 24	9 p.m.	Miami at Georgia Tech	ESPNU
Wed, Jan 25	7 p.m.	Florida State at Wake Forest	RSN / ESPN3.com
	9 p.m.	Duke at Maryland	ESPN / ESPN3.com
Thu, Jan 26	7 p.m.	North Carolina State at North Carolina	ESPN or ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
	9 p.m.	Boston College at Virginia	ESPNU
Sat, Jan 28	Noon	Wake Forest at Clemson	Raycom / ESPN3.com
	2:30 p.m.	Virginia Tech at Maryland	Raycom / ESPN3.com
	8 p.m.	Virginia at North Carolina State	ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
Sun, Jan 29	1 p.m.	Miami at Boston College	Raycom / ESPN3.com
	6 p.m.	ACC Sunday Night Basketball: Georgia Tech at North Carolina	ESPNU
Tue, Jan 31	7 p.m.	Clemson at Virginia	ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
	9 p.m.	North Carolina at Wake Forest	ESPNU
Wed, Feb 1	7 p.m.	Georgia Tech at Florida State	RSN / ESPN3.com
	8 p.m.	Maryland at Miami	Raycom / ESPN3.com
		North Carolina State at Boston College	Raycom / ESPN3.com
Thu, Feb 2	7 p.m.	Duke at Virginia Tech	ESPN or ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
Sat, Feb 4	1 p.m.	Boston College at Georgia Tech	ESPNU
		Virginia at Florida State	Raycom / ESPN3.com
		Wake Forest at North Carolina State	Raycom / ESPN3.com
	4 p.m.	North Carolina at Maryland	ESPN or ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
		Clemson at Virginia Tech	RSN / ESPN3.com
Sun, Feb 5	3 p.m.	ACC Sunday Night Basketball: Miami at Duke	ESPNU
Tue, Feb 7	7 p.m.	Maryland at Clemson	ESPNU
Wed, Feb 8	7 p.m.	Florida State at Boston College	ESPN3.com
	7:30 p.m.	Wake Forest at Virginia	RSN / ESPN3.com
	9 p.m.	Duke at North Carolina	ESPN / Raycom / ESPN3.com
Thu, Feb 9	7 p.m.	North Carolina State at Georgia Tech	ESPNU
	9 p.m.	Virginia Tech at Miami	ESPN or ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
Sat, Feb 11	1 p.m.	Miami at Florida State	Raycom / ESPN3.com
		Virginia at North Carolina	Raycom / ESPN3.com
	4 p.m.	Maryland at Duke	ESPN / ESPN3.com
		Clemson at Wake Forest	RSN / ESPN3.com
Sun, Feb 12	6 p.m.	ACC Sunday Night Basketball: Boston College at Virginia Tech	ESPNU
Tue, Feb 14	7 p.m.	Virginia at Clemson	ESPNU
Wed, Feb 15	7 p.m.	North Carolina at Miami	ESPN or ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
	7:30 p.m.	Georgia Tech at Wake Forest	RSN / ESPN3.com
Thu, Feb 16	7 p.m.	Virginia Tech at Florida State	ESPN or ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
	9 p.m.	North Carolina State at Duke	Raycom / ESPN3.com
		Boston College at Maryland	Raycom / ESPN3.com
Sat, Feb 18	1 p.m.	Florida State at North Carolina State	Raycom / ESPN3.com
		Maryland at Virginia	Raycom / ESPN3.com
	3 p.m.	Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech	RSN / ESPN3.com
	4 p.m.	Clemson at North Carolina	ESPN or ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
Sun, Feb 19	6 p.m.	ACC Sunday Night Basketball: Duke at Boston College	ESPNU
Tue, Feb 21	7 p.m.	Clemson at Georgia Tech	RSN / ESPN3.com
	8 p.m.	Miami at Maryland	Raycom / ESPN3.com
		North Carolina at North Carolina State	Raycom / ESPN3.com
	9 p.m.	Virginia at Virginia Tech	ESPNU
Thu, Feb 23	7 p.m.	Duke at Florida State	ESPN or ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
Sat, Feb 25	Noon	Virginia Tech at Duke	Raycom / ESPN3.com
	1 p.m.	Boston College at Wake Forest	RSN / ESPN3.com
	2:30 p.m.	North Carolina State at Clemson	Raycom / ESPN3.com
		Maryland at Georgia Tech	Raycom / ESPN3.com
	4 p.m.	North Carolina at Virginia	ESPN or ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
Sun, Feb 26	6 p.m.	ACC Sunday Night Basketball: Florida State at Miami	ESPNU
Tue, Feb 28	9 p.m.	Duke at Wake Forest	ESPNU
Wed, Feb 29	7 p.m.	Maryland at North Carolina	ESPN or ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
		Georgia Tech at Boston College	RSN / ESPN3.com
	9 p.m.	Miami at North Carolina State	RSN / ESPN3.com
Thu, Mar 1	7 p.m.	Florida State at Virginia	ESPN or ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
	9 p.m.	Virginia Tech at Clemson	Raycom / ESPN3.com
Sat, Mar 3	Noon	Wake Forest at Georgia Tech	Raycom / ESPN3.com
	2:30 p.m.	Boston College at Miami	Raycom / ESPN3.com
	7 p.m.	North Carolina at Duke	ESPN / ESPN3.com
Sun, Mar 4	Noon	Clemson at Florida State	ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
	2 p.m.	Virginia at Maryland	Raycom / ESPN3.com
	6 p.m.	ACC Sunday Night Basketball: North Carolina State at Virginia Tech	ESPNU

That’s all.

Sirius XM Signs Contracts With 11 College Conferences For Live Sports Action

Through its contracts with IMG College and Learfield Sports, Sirius XM will be able to bring subscribers exclusive game broadcasts featuring some of the nation’s biggest conferences including the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Conference USA, SEC, Pac-12 and WAC. The contracts will not only include football and basketball games, but also coaches shows.

In addition, the contracts allow Sirius XM to air the conference postseason games from football as well as basketball tournaments.

In the opening week of the college football season, Sirius XM boasts that it will have games involving all of the AP’s Top 25 teams. That’s interesting. We have the press release from Sirius XM.

SiriusXM Inks Agreement to Continue as Leader in College Sports Audio

Multi-year broadcasting agreement with IMG College and Learfield Sports gives SiriusXM listeners college football, basketball, baseball, hockey and more from 11 conferences
SiriusXM offers more live college play-by-play than any other broadcaster

NEW YORK – August 29, 2011 – Sirius XM Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI), Learfield Sports and IMG College announced today a multi-year broadcasting agreement that will make live play-by-play broadcasts from 11 conferences available to SiriusXM listeners across the country.

Throughout the 2011-12 season and beyond SiriusXM will broadcast live college football and men’s basketball from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pac 12 and Army, as well as men’s basketball from Xavier, Gonzaga and teams from several mid-major conferences.  In addition, SiriusXM will air live select game broadcasts during the athletic season that includes women’s basketball, baseball, hockey and other sports.

SiriusXM listeners will also get access to post-season football and basketball games involving ACC, Big East and Big Ten teams and post-season basketball from the Missouri Valley, Sun Belt and West Coast conferences.

In addition, weekly shows hosted by football and basketball coaches from many programs around the country will air throughout their respective seasons on SiriusXM College Sports Nation, channel 91, SiriusXM’s 24-hour college sports channel.  Subscribers will hear weekly shows hosted by the nation’s top college football coaches including Oklahoma’s Sooner Sports Talk with Bob Stoops, Ducks Tailgate Tuesday with Oregon coach Chip Kelly, Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher Call In Show, Wisconsin’s Badger Sports Talk with Bret Bielema, Nebraska’s Bo Pelini Show, Missouri’s Tiger Talk with Gary Pinkel and many others.  College basketball coaches’ shows, including those from North Carolina, Kansas, Ohio State, Purdue, Pittsburgh, Indiana and others, will begin airing this fall.

On college football’s opening week, Sep. 1-5, SiriusXM will air 59 college football games, featuring every team in the current Associated Press Top 25 poll.  For a schedule of upcoming games on SiriusXM and channel assignments, visit www.siriusxm.com/collegesports.

SiriusXM is the leading broadcaster of live college sporting events. SiriusXM now offers play by play from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pac 12, SEC, Conference USA, Sun Belt, Missouri Valley, and Western Athletic conferences, plus Notre Dame and others.

“IMG College is pleased to bring dozens of our collegiate partners’ games to SiriusXM, which has become a prime destination for college sports fans to get game broadcasts, news, information and coaches’ shows,” said Joe Potter, SVP Media Operations for IMG College. “With 172 million college sports fans coast-to-coast, SiriusXM College Sports Nation is a vital part of the fan experience.

“We’re thrilled to continue our long-standing partnership with SiriusXM,” said Learfield’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Andy Rawlings. “This is certainly great news for our school partners, who can extend their brands so that fans everywhere may follow their favorite teams as the game action unfolds.”

“We’re very pleased to work with both Learfield Sports and IMG College and their extensive portfolios of colleges and universities to provide fans with the most comprehensive college sports coverage available,” said Scott Greenstein, SiriusXM’s President and Chief Content Officer. “With our unparalleled schedule of live games all year round, coaches’ shows and the daily talk and analysis on our SiriusXM College Sports Nation channel, college sports fans will have exceptional access to their favorite team from anywhere in the country.”

Access to some play-by-play broadcasts may require a subscription to the Sirius Premier or XM Premier (formerly known as “The Best of XM” and “The Best of Sirius”) programming packages.

And that’s all.

Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic Obtains Rights To ACC Sports

This coming in the last few days, Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic has obtained the rights to the Atlantic Coast Conference. This is a cable syndication contract that is part of ESPN’s rights to the conference. As a result, Comcast SportsNet will be able to air a weekly conference football game, 14 in all. It will also have the rights to air up to 59 basketball games, 31 of them focusing in men’s action. And in addition, Comcast SportsNet will have the rights to air ACC baseball, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey and other sports. So this is a big deal and gives Comcast SportsNet some 120 conference events as programming.

We have the press release for you.

COMCAST SPORTSNET MID-ATLANTIC ACQUIRES RIGHTS TO ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL AND BASKETBALL

LONG-TERM AGREEMENT ALSO FEATURES BASEBALL, SOCCER AND LACROSSE

Bethesda, Md. (Aug. 25, 2011) – Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, the region’s leading source for multiplatform sports coverage, has acquired long-term television rights to live Atlantic Coast Conference football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, soccer and lacrosse, as well as other conference events. Through the multi-sport agreement, Comcast SportsNet remains the region’s official sports network of the ACC and will televise up to 120 live conference events annually.

The comprehensive package begins this season and provides Comcast SportsNet with a weekly schedule of live ACC football for the first time since 2004 and significantly expands its lineup of other conference sporting events. The network, which obtained the rights as part of the new ACC Network sublicensed regional package, will deliver this programming exclusively to more than 4.7 million households throughout Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

“Our longstanding relationship with the ACC, its member schools and their many fans throughout the region make our network an ideal partner for the conference and a great home for their exciting product,” said Comcast SportsNet Senior Vice President and General Manager Rebecca Schulte. “This partnership represents a considerable increase in our high-quality programming and confirms our position as the region’s leader in college sports coverage.”

Comcast SportsNet will be the regional rights-holder for 14 ACC football games this season, beginning with James Madison at North Carolina on Sept. 3 at 3:30 p.m. Other match-ups scheduled to air on the network include NC State at Wake Forest on Sept. 10 at 3:30 p.m. and a doubleheader on Sept. 17 featuring Kansas at Georgia Tech (12:30 p.m.) and Arkansas State at Virginia Tech (4 p.m.) The remainder of the football schedule will be announced throughout the season.

Also highlighting the new package of ACC programming is up to 59 basketball games, including up to 31 men’s games – featuring 16 conference match-ups – and 28 women’s basketball games. In addition, Comcast SportsNet now has the rights for up to 20 conference baseball games, including ACC baseball tournament games, and a variety of soccer, lacrosse, volleyball, softball and field hockey. The network will also be home to ‘ACC All Access,’ a weekly half-hour program.

Comcast SportsNet also has established partnerships with the three ACC programs in the region, the University of Maryland, University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. These school partnerships will complement the network’s robust conference programming with special team and coaches’ shows, encore game presentations and marketing and branding elements. The network also has partnerships with other colleges throughout the region, including the University of Richmond, Towson University, Old Dominion, James Madison University and Virginia Commonwealth University.

The new ACC package adds to Comcast SportsNet’s already substantial live-game coverage of college athletics. As the official sports network of the Colonial Athletic Association, the network produces and airs a full schedule of conference football and basketball games and serves as the region’s exclusive provider of syndicated football, basketball and baseball games from the nation’s top conferences, including the Pac-12, Big 12 and Conference USA.

That’s all.

A Pre-Hurricane Friday Megalinks Edition

As the Northeast battens down the hatches for the impending hit of Hurricane Irene this weekend and it’s not a matter of if it’s coming, but when, I’ll probably won’t be blogging much over the next few days. I’ll do my best as long as I have power, but disaster preparation will be high on the priorities the next two days.

For those of you looking for a diversion from Hurricane Irene coverage either on the Weather Channel or local news, I do have the sports and entertainment listings in the Weekend Viewing Picks. If you’re in the projected path or far from it, this will help you find the program you’re looking for.

Let’s get to the links.

National

Bob Velin of USA Today says Floyd “Money” Mayweather is ready for his HBO close-up again as he takes part in another edition of 24/7.

USA Today’s Mike McCarthy says ESPN golf analyst Paul Azinger took a jab at President Obama for playing golf on his vacation while people are out of work.

Mike McCarthy and Michael Hiestand debate the validity of the Longhorn Network.

Sean Gregory of Time says ESPN The Magazine’s story making Michael Vick a white man was wrong on several accounts.

Tim Baysinger of Broadcasting & Cable notes that Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic has secured the rights to ACC sports including football and basketball.

Multichannel News says soccer-centric Gol TV will air the start of Spain’s La Liga following the resolution of a player’s strike this week.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel writes that MSG Varsity will produce local editions of its High School SportsDesk program.

Dan Fogarty at SportsGrid reports that sports media site SportsNewser will be closing up shop at the end of this month. Sad to see. The site was a very good resource for Fang’s Bites. Marcus Vanderberg and Cam Martin from SportsNewser have become good friends and I hope they land on their feet soon.

Wayne Friedman at MediaPost says the New York Jets have become an innovator in their use of social media.

Joe Favorito looks at how sports marketing powerhouse IMG redefined itself into a marketer for college sports.

John Daly in his Daly Planet blog says Hurricane Irene coverage on several local ABC stations may put a crimp for fans who want to watch NASCAR on Saturday.

EPL Talk reports that Fox will air some English Premier League matches including the Chelsea-Manchester United rivalry game live on Super Bowl Sunday.

Sports Business Daily looks at the probability of EPL games airing on Fox.

The Big Lead takes a look at ESPN’s plans for its annual all-day and all-night College Basketball Marathon coming in November.

Brady Green at Awful Announcing notes that Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis did a stab at play-by-play in last night’s game against the DC NFL team.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe notes that fantasy sports can no longer be ignored by the mainstream media and he adds that Friend of Fang’s Bites Jen Royle is a candidate to fill one of three potential vacancies at NESN.

At SBNation Boston, Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch wonders which reporter is apologizing for Patriots defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth.

Newsday’s Neil Best says Entourage tapped New York Giants owner Steve Tisch for an appearance on the HBO show.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post is back from a brief vacation to hate everything in his path.

Justin Terranova of the Post speaks with CBS’ Phil Simms and Boomer Esiason on what they expect from New York’s NFL quarterbacks this season.

Justin has five questions for ESPN2 tennis analyst Brad Gilbert on the U.S. Open.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says due to Hurricane Irene, the Jets and Giants have moved the starting time of their NFL exhibition game to Saturday afternoon.

Pete says Marv Albert is happy to be calling NFL games on television once again.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette says Capital Region fans will have two opportunities to see the Jets-Giants on Saturday.

Ken talks with Versus horse racing host Laffit Pincay, Jr.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call writes about a former area high school athlete who’s doing overnight updates for WFAN in New York.

Richard Rys of Philadelphia Magazine blasts ESPN for airing every game ofthe Little League World Series.

Childs Walker, Jeff Zrebiec and Justin Fenton of the Baltimore Sun says Mike Flanagan’s friends including MASN’s Gary Thorne are still coming to grips with his death.

David Zurawik of the Sun writes that WBAL-TV is standing by its report as to why Flanagan took his own life.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog notes that an original Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic personality said goodbye last night.

Dan has the debut Geico spot featuring DC NFL Team linebacker Brian Orakpo.

Dan says last night’s Washington-Baltimore NFL preseason game set a ratings record in the nation’s capital.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic will split its feed to air pregame shows of both the Baltimore Ravens and DC NFL Team during weeks when they’re programmed simultaneously.

South

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that while Verizon FiOS signed to carry the Longhorn Network, it won’t have tonight’s launch on its system.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says the Longhorn Network is having less than an auspicious launch.

David says despite the low viewership numbers at the start, the Longhorn Network’s staff remains upbeat about its future.

Gary Dinges of the Austin American-Statesman says most Texas fans will probably miss tonight’s Longhorn Network launch barring some miracle cable and satellite pickups.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman also writes about the Longhorn Network’s launch.

Midwest

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says Time Warner Cable will air a slate of high school football games this fall.

Kyle Neddenriep of the Indianapolis Star notes that ESPN is in town to air a couple of high school football games this weekend.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says NBC is going all out for the NFL regular season opener between the Saints and the Packers.

Ed Sherman has his winners and losers in sports business and media.

Paul Christan at the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin says don’t confuse NFL Network with DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket package.

Paul says the Minnesota Vikings without Brett Favre this season won’t be primetime darlings this season.

West

Scott D. Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune says don’t confuse BYUtv with the Longhorn Network.

John Maffei of the North County Times says if the NFL wants a Los Angeles franchise, it shouldn’t poach the Chargers.

T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times tells fans to stay home and watch the games on TV.

T.J. can’t believe the Dodgers are asking fans to evaluate Vin Scully’s performance as a broadcaster.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News writes that Fox Sports West will air one high school football game a week and stream a whole host of them online.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says buyer beware when it comes to Twitter.

That will do it for today. Be safe wherever you are this weekend.

Doing Some Thursday Linkage

Let’s provide links while I can. Trying not to make this a week where links are scarce. Let’s get this done.

First, Jessica E. Vascellaro and Darren Everson of the Wall Street Journal look at how infusions of TV rights money has changed college sports not necessarily for the better.

John Ourand at Sports Business Daily notes that Longhorn Network has picked up its first major cable provider just ahead of Friday’s launch.

Tim Baysinger of Broadcasting & Cable also writes about Longhorn Network’s carriage deal.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News looks at Fox Soccer signing a multiyear deal for the UEFA Europa League.

Emma Bazilian of Adweek says the Bleacher Report has raised $22 million in capital for future expansion of the site.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine explores the rich naming rights deal involving MetLife and the New Meadowlands Stadium.

Dave Kindred at the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center says there are not that many differences between “New School” and “Old School” writers.

Marcus Vanderberg of SportsNewser says the operator of an illegal sports video streaming site was arrested by the Feds yesterday.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell feels Danica Patrick’s popularity has hit the wall.

Dashiell Bennett of the Business Insider’s Sports Page notes that ESPN put up a controversial rendering (now since taken down) of Michael Vick as a white man.

Robert Littal of Black Sports Online has a problem with ESPN’s premise of making Vick a white man.

At ESPN Front Row, PR maven Mike Soltys informs us that the Alleged Worldwide Leader has revised its social networking policy.

Claire Atkinson of the New York Post says any talk of the NFL and Time Warner Cable being close on a deal for NFL Network is just that. Talk.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union notes that TBS has made a change for its Sunday MLB game due to Hurricane Irene.

Ken Schott says a local radio station will have a unique baseball-horse racing on-air schedule this Saturday.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says the MSG Networks will be airing plenty of college football in the fall.

Ken adds that MSG Network will air a prospects hockey tournament next month.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says an area native is doing overnight sports reports on WFAN.

Justin Fenton and Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun report that police have confirmed that former Orioles pitcher and broadcaster Mike Flanagan took his own life outside his home on Wednesday.

Peter Schmuck of the Sun says now is not the time to speculate why Flanagan chose to end his life.

The Sun’s Kevin Cowherd writes that Flanagan made people laugh as a player and as a broadcaster.

In Press Box, Dave Hughes says Flanagan’s death is still a mystery.

Matt Brooks in the Washington Post’s Early Lead blog says Flanagan’s death has hit the Orioles very hard.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner writes that Danica Patrick’s move to NASCAR makes the Baltimore Grand Prix one of her last IndyCar races of her career.

Ken Tysiac of the Charlotte (NC) Observer says thanks to its new ESPN contract, ACC basketball will get plenty of TV exposure.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News has a primer on the Longhorn Network.

Jimmy Burch of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has CBS Sports Chair Sean McManus feeling the SEC will be standing pat for the foreseeable future.

Jimmy says Verizon FiOS will be distributing the Longhorn Network across the country.

The Houston Chronicle says a local TV station will begin airing Thursday night high school football games.

David Barron of the Chronicle writes that the Longhorn Network is ready to launch, but won’t be seen widely in Houston.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business says Notre Dame has renewed a radio rights deal with WLS-AM.

Toni Ginnetti of the Chicago Sun-Times looks at a big reveal from ESPN Films’ documentary on the Steve Bartman 2003 NLCS inc

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has Sports Illustrated saying the beating of a San Francisco Giants fan in the Dodger Stadium parking lot earlier this year sealed the fate of the franchise.

Mason Kelly of the Seattle Times says a local high school gym got a facelift thanks to an ESPN program.

Only Deadspin. It has a spy inside ESPN’s State of the Union meeting with higher ups.

Sox & Dawgs looks at SNY’s UConn football coverage.

The Toronto Sports Media blog notes that long-time Maple Leafs voice Dennis Beyak is apparently heading to Winnipeg.

Sports Media Watch has some various football programming notes.

That is going to finish the links for today.

ESPN Announces Matchups for 13th Annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge

Time for some college basketball matchups like the 13th annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge. The networks of ESPN will carry the games, mostly ESPN and ESPN2. Times will be announced later, but we know the games will be played on Tuesday, November 29 and Wednesday, November 30. With Nebraska coming into the Big Ten this year, a total of 12 games will be played among the two conferences. Let’s take a look at the matchups and the press release from ESPN.

Thirteenth Annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge Matchups Set for Nov. 29-30

12 Games for First Time with Addition of Nebraska

The 13th annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge on Nov. 29-30 will be highlighted by Duke at Ohio State and Wisconsin at North Carolina — four traditional power programs expected to be highly ranked entering the 2011-12 season – and an expanded format with new Big Ten member Nebraska. ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3.com will combine to televise all 12 games of the two-day event, one more than in the previous 12 Challenges.

The 2011 Challenge involves six teams ranked an early preseason top 25 by ESPN.com senior college basketball writer Andy Katz, including three in the top five: No. 1 North Carolina, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 5 Duke, No. 11 Wisconsin, No. 21 Florida State and No. 23 Michigan.

This year’s event – top college basketball programs playing for conference supremacy and the Commissioner’s Cup — will include 11 teams that played in the 2011 NCAA Tournament: Clemson, Duke, Florida State and North Carolina from the ACC, and Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin from the Big Ten.

The Big Ten won the Commissioner’s Cup for the second consecutive year while the ACC won the previous 10 Challenges. In the event of a 6-6 tie this year, the Commissioner’s Cup will remain with the conference that won the previous year.

• Following a First with a Rematch: Georgia Tech and Northwestern will follow the first meeting between the programs (Northwestern 91-71) with a second consecutive Challenge showdown.
• Pursuing Perfection: Boston College will look to continue its undefeated streak in the Challenge when the program hosts Penn State. The Eagles have won their previous five games.
• Going for 12: Duke, which lost its only Challenge game in 2009, will look for its event-record 12th win. Duke also won its previous Challenge game against Ohio State, 91-76 in 2002.
• First Challenge Matchups: Nine of the telecasts will feature first-time Challenge matchups: No. 11 Wisconsin at No. 1 North Carolina, No. 21 Florida State at Michigan State, No. 23 Michigan at Virginia, Miami at Purdue, Clemson at Iowa, Indiana at North Carolina State, Penn State at Boston College, Virginia Tech at Minnesota and Wake Forest at Nebraska.
• Four’s a Charm?: Illinois and Maryland will meet for the fourth time in the Challenge with the Terrapins winning the previous three matchups (2007 – 69-61; 2006 – 72-66; 2001 – 76-63).

2011 Big Ten/ACC Challenge schedule (times and networks are to be determined):

Date	Game
Tue, Nov 29	Miami at Purdue
	Northwestern at Georgia Tech
	Illinois at Maryland
	No. 23 Michigan at Virginia
	Clemson at Iowa
	No. 5 Duke at No. 3 Ohio State
Wed, Nov 30	Indiana at North Carolina State
	Penn State at Boston College
	No. 21 Florida State at Michigan State
	Virginia Tech at Minnesota
	Wake Forest at Nebraska
	No. 11 Wisconsin at No. 1 North Carolina

Since 2000, the ACC (10) and the Big Ten (nine) have combined for 19 Final Four appearances and six national titles: North Carolina (2009 and 2005), Maryland (2002), Duke (2001 and 2010) and Michigan State (2000). The ACC leads in NCAA Tournament victories and Final Four appearances while the Big Ten is first in Tournament appearances.

More coming up later.

Bringing You Some Mid-Week Links

On this Wednesday, it’s time to provide some linkage. Some stuff to get to. Let’s not delay any further.

Steve Wieberg of USA Today writes that the NCAA spent a lot of money to protect the March Madness™ trademark.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today looks at Gus Johnson leaving CBS for Fox Sports.

Eben Novy-Williams at Bloomberg News delves into Gus’ departure from CBS.

The great Maggie Hendricks at Yahoo’s Cagewriter says while Gus is leaving CBS, he will remain at corporate sibling Showtime to call boxing and MMA.

Brian Lowry of Fox Sports says while fans are cheering the Lakers’ exit now, they’ll regret it later.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News writes that TNT scored an across-the-board ratings win in key demographics for Game 4 of the Miami-Boston NBA Playoff game.

Mike Farrell of Multichannel says Disney’s CEO is saying that the Olympics could help ESPN get more money from cable providers.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek says Disney’s CEO isn’t too worried about an NFL lockout hurting ESPN.

Crupi writes a weak field in the Kentucky Derby offset NBCUniversal’s heavy promotion for the Run for the Roses.

Tony Fitzgerald of Media Life also looks at the lower ratings for the Derby on NBC.

Sean Martin at Golfweek says college golf could see more airtime with the new megarights deals with the Pac-12 and University of Texas.

Cam Martin of SportsNewser notes that ESPN will air the MLS Cup against Sunday Night Football again (provided there is an NFL season).

Cam has video of ESPN’s Barry Melrose comments about gays on NHL teams which really has to be seen to be believed.

Stephen Douglas a.k.a. Cousins of Ron Mexico at The Big Lead shoots down point-by-point, a guest column written by celebrity-wannabe Rob Kardashian in ESPN.com’s Page 2 section.

Speaking of ESPN.com, the Et tu, Mr. Destructo blog has a review of the soft launch of Captain Blowhard’s Grantland site. The review is almost as long as the two articles that launched the site.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says he got to meet a star before she become one.

Darren says Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade is hoping to fill a void in fantasy camps.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe has a story on Jack Edwards signing an extension with NESN to call Bruins games.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes about Gus Johnson moving to Fox Sports.

At the DC Sports Bog at the Washington Post, Dan Steinberg wonders if Captain Blowhard is recruiting Tony Kornheiser to write for Grantland.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says Maryland and Miami will open the ACC football season in primetime on ESPN.

Joe Reedy at the Cincinnati Enquirer notes that the Bengals have renewed their radio rights deal with Clear Channel Radio.

The South Bend Tribune reports that ESPN/ABC may put a November Notre Dame road game in primetime.

Anthony Schoettle from the Indianapolis Business Journal says IndyCar officials are talking about placing more of their races on ABC in the next TV contract.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes that HBO’s Real Sports will profile Brewers voice Bob Uecker.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business says a suspended sports talk show host returns to the air today.

Philip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune suggests the International Olympic Committee should take NBC’s overbid for the 2010/12 Games into account for the bid for the ’14/’16 Olympics.

Dom Izzo at WDAY-TV in Fargo, ND says Twins fans are being shut out from a number of games thanks to a dispute between Fox Sports North and the local cable provider.

Scott D. Pierce in the Salt Lake Tribune doesn’t understand why ESPN did not choose Real Salt Lake for its MLS TV schedule.

In the Phoenix Business Journal, Patrick O’Grady writes that the Pac-12 Network could find it difficult to gain carriage into Arizona homes.

Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times discusses Gus Johnson signing with Fox to become its main college sports announcer.

Bruce Dowbiggin at the Toronto Globe and Mail says the controversy over Sean Avery’s support of gay marriage and the condemnation by Uptown Hockey has opened a Pandora’s Box.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog feels Uptown Hockey and NHL agent Todd Reynolds should not have gone there.

Lost Letterman wonders if ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla could be headed back into coaching.

Matt Sarzyniak at Matt’s College Sports Media analyzes the ESPN/ABC Pac-12 schedule.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says Dan Patrick will host NBC’s coverage of the Stanley Cup Final, more specifically, the later games.

Sports Media Watch has some various NHL ratings news and notes.

And that will do it.

ESPN’s 2011 ACC Football Schedule

Let’s provide you with some more college football games as ESPN continues to announce conference schedules. This is from the Atlantic Coast Conference which culminates in the ACC Championship on Saturday, December 3 on ESPN. Games will be aired on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3.com.

ACC College Football Games Added to ESPN 2011 Schedule

ESPN has selected several 2011 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) college football games for telecasts across ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3.com. The schedule to date includes every conference home game on an ESPN network for the first three weeks of the season, all of the Thursday night selections and concludes with the seventh annual ACC Football Championship Game in prime time Saturday, Dec. 3, at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. Additional games will be announced as the season progresses. Highlights:

• The early selections include multiple games involving seven teams ranked in the College Football Live preseason top 25 poll: No. 6 Florida State and No. 19 Virginia Tech from the ACC as well as No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 7 Stanford, No. 10 Ohio State, No. 22 Auburn and No. 24 West Virginia.
• ESPN networks will televise 16 conference home games over the first three Saturdays of the season, highlighted by:
• Two prime-time matchups with four traditional power programs Sept. 17 at 7:30 p.m. or 8 p.m.: No. 1 Oklahoma at No. 6 Florida State (ESPN or ABC) and No. 10 Ohio State at Miami (ESPN or ABC).
• Four ESPNU telecasts: Northwestern at Boston College (Sept. 3 at noon), Louisiana Monroe at No. 6 Florida State (Sept. 3 at 3:30 p.m.), No. 7 Stanford at Duke (Sept. 10 at 3:30 p.m.) and Virginia at North Carolina (Sept 17 at 3:30 p.m.).
• Nine games offered exclusively on ESPN3.com beginning with a season kick-off contest pitting Western Carolina at Georgia Tech on Thursday, Sept. 1, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday contests include Troy at Clemson (Sept. 3, at 3:30 p.m.), Richmond at Duke (Sept. 3 at 7 p.m.) and Charleston Southern at No. 6 Florida State (Sept. 10 at 6 p.m.).
• An ESPN Labor Day prime-time telecast Sept. 5, at 8 p.m. will feature an early test for the league’s two newest coaches: Miami, led by Al Golden, at Maryland with its new coach, Randy Edsall.
• ESPN’s popular Thursday night series — ESPN College Football Primetime – will feature five telecasts involving ACC teams, including over four consecutive weeks from Oct. 27 to Nov. 17.

The 2011 season marks the first year of a new 12-year agreement between ESPN and the ACC for exclusive rights to every conference-controlled football and men’s basketball game, plus women’s basketball and Olympic sports matchups, and conference championships. As part of the agreement, ESPN platforms will offer regular-season action on Saturday afternoon and nights, primetime Thursdays, Labor Day Monday and the ACC Football Championship Game.

The 2011 ACC schedule (additional selections to be announced):

Date	Time (ET)	Game	Network
Thu, Sep 1	7:30 p.m.	Western Carolina at Georgia Tech	ESPN3.com
Sat, Sep 3	Noon	Northwestern at Boston College	ESPNU
	3:30 p.m.	Troy at Clemson	ESPN3.com
	3:30 p.m.	Louisiana Monroe at No. 6 Florida State	ESPNU
	6 p.m.	Liberty at North Carolina State	ESPN3.com
	6 p.m.	William & Mary at Virginia	ESPN3.com
	7 p.m.	Richmond at Duke	ESPN3.com
Mon, Sep 5	8 p.m.	Miami at Maryland *	ESPN
Sat, Sep 10	3:30 p.m.	No. 7 Stanford at Duke	ESPNU
	3:30 p.m.	Wofford at Clemson	ESPN3.com
	6 p.m.	Charleston Southern at No. 6 Florida State	ESPN3.com
Sat, Sep 17	Noon	No. 22 Auburn at Clemson	ABC
	Noon	No. 24 West Virginia at Maryland	ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU
	3:30 p.m.	Virginia at North Carolina	ESPNU
	6 p.m.	South Alabama at North Carolina State	ESPN3.com
	6:30 p.m.	Gardner-Webb at Wake Forest	ESPN3.com
	7:30 or 8 p.m.	No. 10 Ohio State at Miami	ESPN or ABC
	7:30 or 8 p.m.	No. 1 Oklahoma at No. 6 Florida State	ESPN or ABC
Thu, Sep 22	8 p.m.	North Carolina State at Cincinnati *	ESPN
Thu, Oct 27	8 p.m.	Virginia at Miami *	ESPN
Thu, Nov 3	8 p.m.	No. 6 Florida State at Boston College *	ESPN
Thu, Nov 10	8 p.m.	No. 19 Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech *	ESPN
Thu, Nov 17	8 p.m.	North Carolina at No. 19 Virginia Tech *	ESPN
Fri, Nov 25	3:30 p.m.	Boston College at Miami *	ABC
Sat, Dec 3	8 p.m.	ACC Football Championship Game (from Charlotte)	ESPN

* Previously selected

We’re done with this post.

College Basketball Viewing Picks for 03/12 & 03/13/2011, All Times Eastern

Men’s schedule courtesy of Matt’s College Sports

Saturday, March 12

College GameDay – ESPN2, 11 a.m./ESPN, noon

men’s

America East Championship
Stony Brook at Boston University – ESPN2, noon

ACC Tournament, Greensboro, NC
Semifinals
North Carolina vs. Clemson  – ESPN/ACC Network, 1 p.m.
Duke vs. Virginia Tech – ESPN/ACC Network, 3:30 p.m.

Atlantic 10 Tournament, Atlantic City, NJ
Semifinals
Dayton vs. Duquense – CBS College Sports, 1 p.m.
Temple vs. Richmond – CBS College Sports, 3:30 p.m.

Big East Championship, New York, NY
UConn vs. Louisville – ESPN/ESPN 3D, 9 p.m.

Big Ten Tournament, Indianapolis, IN
Semifinals
Ohio State vs. Michigan – CBS, 1:30 p.m.
Penn State vs. Michigan State – CBS, 4 p.m.

Big 12 Championship, Kansas City, MO
Kansas vs. Texas – ESPN, 6 p.m.

Big West Championship, Anaheim, CA
Long Beach State vs. Cal-Santa Barbara – ESPNU, 8 p.m.

Conference USA Championship, El Paso, TX
UTEP vs. Memphis – CBS, 11:30 a.m.

MAC Championship, Cleveland, OH
Akron vs. Kent State  – ESPN2, 6 p.m.

MEAC Championship, Winston-Salem, NC
Morgan State vs. Hampton – ESPN2, 2 p.m.

Mountain West Championship, Las Vegas, NV
BYU vs. San Diego State – Versus, 7 p.m.

Pac 10 Championship, Los Angeles, CA
Arizona vs. Washington – CBS, 6 p.m.

SEC Tournament, Atlanta, GA
Semifinals
Alabama vs. Kentucky – ABC, 1 p.m.
Florida vs. Vanderbilt – ABC, 3:30 p.m.

Southland Championship, Katy, TX
Texas-San Antonio vs. McNeese State – ESPN2, 4 p.m.

SWAC Championship, Garland, TX
Grambling State vs. Alabama State – ESPNU, 8:30 p.m.

WAC Championship, Las Vegas, NV
Utah State vs. Boise State – ESPN2, 10 p.m.

women’s

Big 12 Championship, Kansas City
Baylor vs. Texas A&M – Fox Sports Net, noon

Big Sky Championship, Portland, OR
Portland State vs. Montana – Altitude, 5 p.m.

CAA Tournament, Upper Marlboro, MD
Semifinals
James Madison vs. Virginia Commonwealth – Comcast SportsNet New England, noon
Delaware vs. UNC-Wilmington – Comcast SportsNet New England, 2:30 p.m.

Conference USA Championship, El Paso, TX
Central Florida vs. Tulane – CBS College Sports, 8 p.m.

Mountain West Championship, Las Vegas, NV
Utah vs. BYU – Versus, 4 p.m.

Pac 10 Championship, Los Angeles, CA
Stanford vs. UCLA – Fox Sports Net, 2:30 p.m.

Patriot League Championship
American at Navy – CBS College Sports, 6 p.m.

Sunday, March 13

College GameDay – ESPN, noon
Road to the Final Four – CBS, noon

men’s

ACC Championship, Greensboro, NC
North Carolina vs. Duke – ESPN/ACC Network, 1 p.m.

Atlantic 10 Championship, Atlantic City, NJ
Dayton vs. Richmond – CBS, 1 p.m.

Big Ten Championship, Indianapolis, IN
Ohio State vs. Penn State – CBS, 3:30 p.m.

SEC Championship, Atlanta, GA
Kentucky vs. Florida – ABC, 1 p.m.

NCAA Basketball Championship Selection Show – CBS, 6 p.m.
Bracketology – ESPN, 7 p.m.
Crunch Time: Championship Week Special – ESPNU, 8 p.m.
NIT Selection Show – ESPNU, 9 p.m.

women’s

CAA Championship, Upper Marlboro, MD
James Madison vs. Delaware – Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Comcast SportsNet New England, 1 p.m.

Horizon League Championship, Green Bay, WI
Wisconsin-Green Bay vs. Butler – ESPNU, 1 p.m.

MEAC Championship, Winston-Salem, NC
Hampton vs. South Carolina State – ESPNU, 11:30 a.m.

Missouri Valley Championship, St. Charles, MO
Northern Iowa vs. Missouri State – Comcast SportsNet Chicago/Fox Sports Midwest, 3 p.m.

Northeast Conference Championship
Monmouth at St. Francis (PA) – ESPNU, 3 p.m.

ESPN Announces Early 2011 ACC Football Schedule

It’s only February, but never too early to think about college football. ESPN has released the early portion of its ACC football schedule and going in the Labor Day primetime slot will be Miami (FL) at Maryland. Virginia Tech is slotted in for two games right now. Florida State has been slotted for one. The games you’ll see with the exception of Miami-Maryland are all scheduled for Thursday night ESPN games. Let’s take a look at what ACC games ESPN has slotted for primetime in 2011.

Labor Day and Thursday Primetime Matchups Highlight Early ACC College Football Selections for 2011

An ESPN Labor Day prime time telecast and marquee matchups on Thursday nights are among the games involving Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) teams slated for ESPN’s 2011 college football schedule. Additional games will be announced. Highlights include:

• ESPN’s Labor Day prime time telecast Monday, Sept. 5, at 8 p.m. will feature a showdown between two ACC programs with head coaches making their team debuts: Miami, led by Al Golden, at Maryland with its new coach Randy Edsall.

• ESPN’s popular Thursday night series — ESPN College Football Primetime – will feature five telecasts involving ACC teams, one more than the 2010 season. All games will kick off at 8 p.m. Highlights:

o    Florida State — ranked third in an ESPN.com early pre-season poll for 2011, will visit Boston College Nov. 3. Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher led the Seminoles to a 10-4 record in his debut season last year, the program’s first 10-win season since 2003 and first trip to the conference championship game since 2005.

o    Virginia Tech, which finished undefeated in the conference and is ranked No. 22 in an early pre-season ESPN.com poll, will appear in consecutive weeks: Nov. 10 at Georgia Tech followed by a visit from North Carolina Nov. 17.

o    Miami will host Virginia Oct. 27 in a rematch of last year’s 24-19 win by Virginia, the only conference victory for the Cavaliers.

The 2011 season marks the first year of a new 12-year agreement between ESPN and the ACCfor exclusive rights to every conference-controlled football and men’s basketball game, plus women’s basketball and Olympic sports matchups, and conference championships. As part of the agreement, ESPN platforms will offer regular-season action on Saturday afternoon and nights, primetime Thursdays, Labor Day Monday and the ACC Football Championship Game.

The 2011 ACC Labor Day and Thursday schedule (additional selections to be announced):

Date	Time (ET)	Game	Network
Mon, Sep 5	8 p.m.	Miami at Maryland	ESPN
Thu, Sep 22	8 p.m.	North Carolina State at Cincinnati	ESPN
Thu, Oct 27	8 p.m.	Virginia at Miami	ESPN
Thu, Nov 3	8 p.m.	No. 3 Florida State at Boston College	ESPN
Thu, Nov 10	8 p.m.	No. 22 Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech	ESPN
Thu, Nov 17	8 p.m.	North Carolina at No. 22 Virginia Tech	ESPN

And that’s it.

The ACC and Raycom Sports Team Up To Launch ACC Vault of Classic Basketball Games

Now this is something I like. The ACC and media partner Raycom have announced that they have set up a new vault at TheACC.com which has a vast archive of classic basketball games including ACC Tournament games dating back to 1983. This means you can see great players like Michael Jordan when he was at North Carolina, the late Len Bias of Maryland, Grant Hill and Christan Laettner of Duke, Kenny Anderson of Georgia Tech and so much more. As a college basketball fan and of the ACC in particular, this is right up my alley.

Here’s the press release.

The Atlantic Coast Conference, Raycom Sports and Thought Equity Motion Launch

Video-Powered ACC Vault with Classic Men’s Basketball Games

Website Features Full-Length ACC Men’s Basketball Games and Allows Fans to Search, Share and Comment on Their Favorite Moments 

DENVER, Dec. 15, 2010—The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and Raycom Sports  announced today the launch of the ACC Vault (www.theACC.com/vault), an online video archive of full-length, classic Tournament and regular season men’s basketball games from all 12 ACC member institutions. With a comprehensive and easy to navigate design, the ACC Vault will allow fans to access and view many of the greatest television moments in ACC Basketball history. The ACC Vault is powered by Thought Equity Motion, a leading provider of video platform and rights development services.

The ACC Vault features video dating back to 1983, including the ACC Tournament Championship Game from every year. The games have been coded within the ACC Vault in play-by-play detail, enabling fans to jump to specific game moments, view the video, and share via Facebook, Twitter, email and other social channels. Users can also explore categories such as great blocks, great finishes, and ACC Stars. In addition to games, the Vault includes special features, such as classic interviews with iconic coaches and players. After launch, a selection of “Instant Classic” games from the 2010-11 ACC Men’s Basketball Season will be added to the site.

“This is another exciting initiative for the ACC and we’re pleased to give fans a new way to experience our rich ACC Basketball history,” said ACC Commissioner John Swofford. “The ACC Vault ties our rich collection of great games to the current season’s action and presents our tradition of excellence in an innovative way that will be a resource for fans, media, bloggers and our member institutions.”

The ACC Vault includes a Video Media Guide & Link Database, which provides direct URLs to every moment within the site. Sports writers and bloggers can access this database and link to relevant moments in articles and blogs.

“With the launch of the ACC Vault, Raycom Sports and the Atlantic Coast Conference are increasing fan engagement and building new traffic to our digital properties around some of the most timeless moments in ACC Basketball History,” stated Colin Smith, Vice-President of Distribution & New Media for Raycom Sports. “Raycom Sports and the ACC are committed to utilizing cutting edge technologies in order to deliver engaging experiences for ACC fans. Our goal is to ultimately make the ACC Vault the Official video resource guide of ACC Basketball.”

The ACC Vault’s extensive metadata enables fans to search for and share exact moments within games, for example: 

• Steve Hale hits Michael Jordan for an alley-oop against UNC’s arch rival Duke in 1984
• Georgia Tech completes an amazing comeback scoring 5 points in 5 seconds to defeat UNC in 1989

 “With the launch of the ACC Vault we’re leveraging rich metadata and delivery tools to drive new sponsor value and extend the ‘life’ of the men’s basketball season to connect to fan interest year-round,” said Kevin Schaff, CEO & Founder of Thought Equity Motion.

To explore the ACC Vault, visit www.theACC.com/vault. To learn more about Thought Equity Motion’s technology that powers the ACC Vault, visit http://platform.thoughtequity.com/acc_vault.

This is great stuff. I’m looking forward to exploring the archives.

Raycom Rebrands Its Syndicated ACC Package As "ACC Network"

This weekend, Raycom Sports will branded its syndicated ACC package as “The ACC Network”. While a new contract with the ACC doesn’t begin until next season, ESPN, Raycom and conference officials agreed that Raycom could rebrand this year to get a jump start. It means all football and basketball games on Raycom will fall under the ACC Network brand. We have the press release from the Atlantic Coast Conference and Raycom.

Raycom Sports’ Syndicated ACC Football and Basketball Telecasts Will Feature ACC Network Brand

The Raycom Sports Regional Syndicated package of Atlantic Coast Conference football and basketball telecasts will be branded as the ACC Network.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Raycom Sports and the Atlantic Coast Conference today announced that beginning this season, the Raycom Sports Regional Syndicated package of Atlantic Coast Conference football and basketball telecasts will be branded as the ACC Network. The new marketing initiative will feature ACC Network graphics and designations beginning with the first game this year, the Duke at Wake Forest telecast on Saturday, September 11th.

The ACC Network branding was part of the new television rights agreements between the ACC, Raycom Sports and ESPN that begins with the 2011 Football season. Raycom Sports and the Conference moved to begin the branding during the final year of the existing contract.

“Beginning to brand the ACC Network with the start of the first conference football game made great sense for our league, member schools, fans and partners,” said ACC Commissioner John Swofford. “It’s a great tribute to Raycom that we’re able to roll out this initiative a year before the new contract begins.”

“The establishment of the ACC Network brand was a natural step, given our longstanding syndication exclusivity with the Atlantic Coast Conference,” said Jimmy Rayburn, vice-president of operations for Raycom Sports. “Moving forward with our new rights agreement, we were already preparing the transition. But with the volume of media coverage already surrounding the conference’s new television rights agreement, it made perfect sense to capitalize on the public’s attention now with the ACC Network designation.”

The Atlantic Coast Conference, now in its 58th year of competition, is one of the strongest and most competitive intercollegiate athletics conferences in the country. The ACC sponsors competition in 25 sports for its 12 member institutions: Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest. Since the league’s inception in 1953, ACC schools have captured 120 national team championships and 221 individual national championships. For more information on the ACC and its 12 member institutions go to:www.theACC.com.

Raycom Sports is a leading independent sports sales & marketing, syndication, event management and production firm. Raycom is the current television rightsholder of ACC men’s basketball and syndicated football telecasts. Raycom Sports’ parent company Raycom Media, located in Montgomery, AL, owns and operates 39 television stations covering over 12 percent of the United States across 18 states. For more information, please go to: www.raycomsports.com.

So ACC fans have a year to get used to see ACC Network logos rather than the Raycom bug.

ESPN Unveils Its 2011 ACC Men’s Basketball Schedule

In the final year before ESPN takes over the entire ACC men’s basketball schedule, the Alleged Worldwide Leader gives us its slate for the 2011 year. It includes North Carolina at Duke on February 9 and other marquee matchups throughout the season. We have the schedule in full.

ESPN Announces ACC Men’s College Basketball Television Schedule for 2011

ESPN and the Atlantic Coast Conference have announced its men’s basketball schedule for the 2011 conference season. Games will appear on several ESPN platforms, including ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU with ESPN3.com providing a simulcast of every ESPN and ESPN2 telecast. Ten conference games will be seen on ESPNU with the remainder on ESPN or ESPN2.

Conference action will tip off Saturday, Jan. 8, at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN2 with Florida State at Virginia Tech. The ACC has at least two games per week for eight weeks, concluding Saturday, March 2, at noon on ESPN or ESPN2 with Virginia Tech at Clemson. The Duke at Virginia Tech game on Saturday, Feb. 26, at 9 p.m. on ESPN is part of College GameDay and Saturday Primetime.

All 12 ACC teams will be seen in the conference package for a total of 66 appearances through 33 regular-season games. Defending National Champion Duke has a league-leading 10 appearances, followed by NIT participant Virginia Tech with eight. North Carolina, NC State, Clemson, all with 2010 postseason berths, stand with six appearances each, along with Boston College.

Six of the telecasts showcase matchups between six ACC teams coming off NCAA Championship berths last season – Duke, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland and Wake Forest (Duke at Florida State, Jan. 8; Wake Forest at Georgia Tech, Jan. 19; Duke at Wake Forest, Jan. 22; Duke at Maryland, Feb. 2; Florida State at Georgia Tech, Feb. 10; Clemson at Duke, March 2).

Three ACC teams are ranked in ESPN.com senior college basketball writer Andy Katz’s early men’s preseason top 25 poll: No. 1 Duke, No. 6 North Carolina and No. 22 Virginia Tech.

ESPN and ESPN2 will combine to televise eight games of the ACC Tournament in March, including the entire quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, and the title contest.

ACC Men’s Basketball Schedule (ESPN/ESPN2 simulcast on ESPN3.com; schedule subject to change)

Date	Time (ET)	Game	Network
Sat, Jan 8	3 p.m.	Florida State at Virginia Tech	ESPN2
	6 p.m.	Miami at Clemson	ESPNU
Tue, Jan 11	9 p.m.	NC State at Boston College	ESPNU
Wed, Jan 12	9 p.m.	Duke at Florida State	ESPN
Thu, Jan 13	9 p.m.	Virginia Tech at North Carolina	ESPN or ESPN2
Sat, Jan 15	2 p.m.	Virginia at Duke	ESPN
	6 p.m.	Boston College at Miami	ESPNU
Wed, Jan 19	7 p.m.	Duke at NC State	ESPN
	7 p.m.	Wake Forest at Georgia Tech	ESPNU
Thu, Jan 20	9 p.m.	Virginia Tech at Maryland	ESPN or ESPN2
Sat, Jan 22	4 p.m.	Duke at Wake Forest	ESPN
	7 p.m.	Boston College at Florida State	ESPNU
Wed, Jan 26	7:30 p.m.	North Carolina at Miami	ESPN or ESPN2
Sat, Jan 29	2 p.m.	NC State at North Carolina	ESPN
Wed, Feb 2	7 p.m.	Virginia Tech at NC State	ESPN or ESPN2
	9 p.m.	Duke at Maryland	ESPN
	9 p.m.	Clemson at Virginia	ESPNU
Thu, Feb 3	7 p.m.	Georgia Tech at Miami	ESPN or ESPN2
Sat, Feb 5	6 p.m.	NC State at Duke	ESPN or ESPN2
Tue, Feb 8	9 p.m.	Boston College at Clemson	ESPNU
Wed, Feb 9	9 p.m.	North Carolina at Duke*	ESPN
Thu, Feb 10	7 p.m.	Florida State at Georgia Tech	ESPN or ESPN2
Wed, Feb 16	7 p.m.	Duke at Virginia	ESPN or ESPN2
Thu, Feb17	7 p.m.	Clemson at NC State	ESPN or ESPN2
Sat, Feb 19	4 p.m.	Boston College at North Carolina	ESPN or ESPN2
Tue, Feb 22	7 p.m.	Virginia Tech at Wake Forest	ESPN2
Wed, Feb 23	7 p.m.	Virginia at Georgia Tech	ESPNU
Sat, Feb 26	9 p.m.	Duke at Virginia Tech	ESPN
Tue, Mar 1	9 p.m.	Boston College at Virginia Tech	ESPNU
Wed, Mar 2	7 p.m.	North Carolina at Florida State	ESPN or ESPN2
	7 p.m.	Maryland at Miami	ESPNU
	9 p.m.	Clemson at Duke	ESPN or ESPN2
Sat, Mar 5	Noon	Virginia Tech at Clemson	ESPN or ESPN2

* – Blacked out in ACC markets

That concludes this release.

The Mid-Week Linkage

Ok, gathering plenty of good links for you and let’s not waste any time.

I do have one piece of upcoming attractions for you. On Friday, we start up our College Football Viewing Picks once again and every week, I’ll list the college football games of note for viewing on the major networks and syndicators. If you’re new to the blog, here’s a sample from last year. You’ll see them around 9 a.m. and when pro football begins, the NFL Viewing Picks will be up around 10 a.m. followed by the Weekend Viewing Picks at 11 a.m. So you’ll have plenty of features on Friday over the next few months. To the links.

John Ourand in the Sports Business Journal gives us five things to watch with NBC Sports when Comcast and NBC finally merge.

Emily Fredix of the Associated Press reports that the NFL will spend $50 million on a new advertising campaign to promote the return of the league this season. 

In the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Eric Deggans from the St. Petersburg Times looks at a pioneering NASCAR executive bringing the sport to BET.

Sean Leahy at USA Today says the NFL is trying to attract fans back to the stadium as they battle HDTV and its own RedZone channel.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today notes that there will be a lot of college football games streaming on ESPN3.com this season.

Fox Sports’ Brian Lowry says the NFL’s TV partners don’t want to discuss the looming lockout.

Karen Rosen of TV Guide speaks with NFL Commish Roger Goodell. 

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News says SNY has begun its UConn football coverage in earnest this week.

Milton Kent of Fanhouse weighs in on the Washington Post suspension of Mike Wise.

The Sports COMMENTary speaks with Fox Sports Detroit’s Mateen Cleeves on how he made the transition from NBA player to TV analyst.

Alex Farber of Broadcast Now says ESPN UK will launch a British version of Pardon The Interruption.

Josh Stewart in the Syosset (NY) Patch speaks with NFL PR guru Greg Aiello who says Twitter has become a legitimate news source.

The Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg in the DC Sports Bog has the video of a new Alex Ovechkin/Capital One ad. Yes, vikings are in it.

Tom Robinson of the Virginian-Pilot enjoys NBC’s Cris Collinsworth on Sunday Night Football. 

Scott Anderson of the Anderson (SC) Independent Mail feels ESPN should not be televising high school football games. 

Tom Jones from the St. Petersburg Times says Bright House cable has renewed a rights deal with the University of South Florida.

Robert Napper at the Florida Independent notes that ESPN has been taunting Tampa Bay Rays’ attendance problems. 

The Naples (FL) Daily News says the local ESPN Radio affiliate will carry plenty of college and professional football games this season.

Ben Volin of the Palm Beach Post has ESPN’s NFL analysts Ron Jaworski and Jon Gruden talking about the Miami Dolphins’ chances.

Victor Godinez of the Dallas Morning News says Time Warner Cable and Disney are expected to announce a carriage deal today which keeps ESPN, ABC and other channels online.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle notes that a former Jim Rome radio show producer will become a local sports talk show host.

David explains why the Rodgers move was made in his blog.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says Aroldis Chapman’s debut for the Reds garnered big ratings for Fox Sports Ohio.

Ed Sherman from Crain’s Chicago Business notes a White Sox subsidiary has landed a technology deal to help move TV into 3-D.

Ed says Mike North will be doing two shows a weekend for Fox Sports Radio.

Lewis Lazare of the Chicago Sun-Times talks with North about his weekend shifts. 

The Sioux City (SD) Argus Leader notes that South Dakota State University will have a weekly sports show on Fox Sports North.

Norm Clarke of the Las Vegas Journal-Review says ESPN NASCAR pit reporter Jamie Little is getting married (scroll down).

But The Big Lead wonders if the marriage will conjure up charges of conflict of interest.

Dan Bickley of the Arizona Republic profiles NBC’s Al Michaels.

James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times notes ESPN has been making inroads with its local websites, but not as big as the Alleged Worldwide Leader would like.

Sports Media Watch has the weekend overnight ratings.

SMW has ratings info on Fox’s Sunday night NFL preseason game and CBS’ two preseason games last week.

Joe Favorito is disappointed in Mike Wise’s behavior this week.

John Daly at the Daly Planet says get ready for plenty of NASCAR Nationwide Series pre-emptions and interruptions on ESPN2 now that college football season is getting underway.

Some of my favorite women on Twitter, Amanda Rykoff, Susan Shan and Jaqueline Hadley Conrad all took part in a baseball fantasy player roundtable at the Fantasy Fix.

Susan Shan has an ACC football preview at her site.

From The Stands Sports Media talks with ESPN’s Lindsay McCormick.

Dave Kohl at the Major League Programs blog wonders why baseball fans in Japan can watch MLB games on YouTube while we in the US cannot.

We’ll finish it here for now.

The First Fang’s Bites Mailbag

Time to answer your sports media questions. Thanks to all who sent e-mails. Let’s make this a regular feature and I hope to do this every two or three months. And down the road, I hope to offer DVD’s, books and other swag. I don’t have anything for this mailbag, but I hope to have stuff in line for the future. Let’s get to your questions.

Hi John. From what I’ve heard, CBS and Turner will decide on announcing teams sometime soon. I suspect that you’ll see the four regional final teams for CBS, Jim Nantz-Clark Kellogg; Gus Johnson-Len Elmore; Dick Enberg’s replacement-Jay Bilas; and Verne Lundquist-Bill Rafery. Who Turner will hire is anyone’s guess. Ian Eagle who did work on TNT this past NBA postseason might move over to Turner as would Kevin Harlan who’s TNT’s NBA guy anyway. I doubt Marv would call tournament games, but you never know.

As far as the ACC Sunday Night Hoops are concerned, I know the coaches all hated the Sunday night games. They have told ACC Commissioner John Swofford as much. Under the new ESPN contract that takes effect in 2011-12, ESPNU gets a Sunday game, but I think it will be earlier in the afternoon, although ESPN could call for it to be played at let’s say, 4 p.m. ET. And unless ESPN decides to sell a few games, Fox Sports Net is done after this coming season.

No, up until the BCS and Open Championship, ESPN would have ABC in mind to compliment coverage. But as we have seen in the last two years, ESPN has decided to keep events for itself (BCS and Open Championship) and this year, chose to cut the number of NASCAR Sprint Cup races on ABC from 11 to 3. However, ABC affiliates are screaming over the lack of sports on the network and this may force ESPN’s hand in the future especially with the Olympics, MLB and NBA bidding all coming up. The ABC affiliates are the ones that are keeping ESPN in line and preventing the Alleged Worldwide Leader from hoarding everything. In addition, the NBA and MLB would still want to have their finals on network TV as opposed to cable. But the day of a major final on cable is coming.

A related question to the one from Scott. I agree that having those events on cable prevented casual fans from finding them. In addition, I was still used to turning on ABC early Sunday morning for the final round of the Open Championship this year, but I’ll be weaned off that next year. Having no suspense hurt the Open more than being on cable. NASCAR’s ratings have been down all year so even had the event been on ABC, not much more could be done on viewership. Certainly being on cable did not help the ratings.

- Do you have a favorite sport to watch on television? What about a favorite broadcaster? Favorite non-sports show?

Steve G.
North Kingstown, RI

A Rhode Island homey! And from North Kingstown to boot! Well, let me answer the questions in order.

My favorite sport to watch is baseball and Vin Scully is my favorite broadcaster. And he’s done more than baseball. Old school fans will remember he called the NFL for CBS and also did the PGA for both CBS and NBC.

With 24 and Lost gone, my favorite non-sports shows currently are Mad Men, My Boys and the Amazing Race.

The biggest misconception. That’s a tough one. One misconception is that some reporters are as passionate as the fans. That’s not true. It’s a job. Another is that people in the sports media don’t have agendas. Even I have an agenda, but I’m not telling what that is.

And I agree that the commentary shows like Around the Horn and even the Sports Reporters have gone over the top. You have columnists and sports writers mugging for the camera. Now that could be the program over the personality, but Skip Bayless and Woody Paige have become totally unwatchable and unlikable. I used to enjoy reading them, but after seeing and hearing them, I don’t anymore.

Pittsburgh

Hi Mike. Thanks for the question. You can do a little of both. You can find one of the hosts or producers and start exchanging e-mails and if he doesn’t blow you off, tell him the blog you write for, let him know you’re available as a guest. You can also let people know on your blog that you’re available to go on radio shows to talk about your team. I don’t know what it’s like in Pittsburgh if sports radio shows depend on bloggers as guests, it’s not the case here in New England. Certainly sending an e-mail doesn’t hurt. The least the host or producer can do is say no. But if you get a positive response, you have something to build on.

This only loosely touches sports media, but I was wondering if you could shed any light on the upcoming Minnesota-Texas college football series that was canceled due to a dispute over video rights. Curious what specifically the schools would have not seen eye-to-eye on (especially after agreement had already been made)? Is this related to Texas trying to start its own network and Gophers not wanting game to be aired on that, Horns wanting a cut of BTN or ESPN money, or what?

Thanks!
Tim C.

There’s no doubt that Texas which now has control of its TV rights thanks to its increased power in the Big 12 wanted a bigger piece of the pie when the series was to be played at TCF Bank Stadium in Minnesota. In college football, the home team or conference controls the rights. For the game at Minnesota, the rights revert to the Big Ten Network. At Texas, rights revert back to the Big 12. In 2016, who knows if Texas’ own network, ESPN or Fox Sports Net will have control of that game. But there’s no doubt that TV rights money was a huge part of the cancellation. Texas probably wanted a bigger payoff plus Minnesota wasn’t willing to part with a bigger payout and lose TV rights at the same time. You may see more of this with Big 12 schools down the line.

It’s A Tuesday Linkage Thing

Shuffling between offices again today and I could be called back to the home office so I’m trying to squeeze linkage in right now.

Last night, I appealed for sports media questions and comments and I still would more queries before doing a mailbag post. As I said in the original post, if you have a question about the sports media or have a comment about sports broadcasting or even a constructive criticism of the blog, I’ll be happy to take them. Send the questions to kzfone@gmail.com, put your first name and last initial plus your town. I hope to make this a semi-regular occurrence if this is successful.

Let’s do the linkage now.

Brian Lowry of Fox Sports says sometimes the DVR is the perfect way to watch a sporting event. 

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand analyzes the ratings from some of the events from the weekend.

Joe Posnanski provides his two cents on the Mitch Albom controversy.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell notes that in just a short five months, the relationship between Dallas Cowboys rookie wide receiver Dez Bryant and Under Armour is in shambles.

Darren reports that a ticket company took a major gamble on the World Cup in South Africa and was left holding a lot of unsold inventory in the bag.

Here’s a video of Darren’s story.

Mike Farrell of Multichannel News talks with new DirecTV head honcho Michael White about the future of the company.

Farrell asks White about bringing in more regional sports networks to offer subscribers.

Laura Bassett of the Huffington Post writes about Erin Andrews’ appearance on Capitol Hill today pushing for tougher anti-stalking laws. 

Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe looks into the falling TV and radio ratings of the Red Sox. 

Pete Dougherty in the Albany Times Union is happy that he won’t have to hear ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike call the 2nd Monday Night Football game on September 13.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call writes that a former local high school basketball standout is now dabbling in local cable TV work.

Leonard Shapiro from the Washington Post says ESPN’s Pam Ward would like to call NFL games. Learn how to call college football games first and then we’ll talk.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times notes that the Tampa Bay Rays are in the top 10 of all MLB teams in regards to local TV ratings.

Sarah Talalay of the South Florida Sun Sentinel says Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow has signed with Jockey to endorse men’s underwear.

Tom Jicha of the Sun Sentinel says the Miami CBS affiliate will have plenty of shows devoted to the Dolphins this season. 

Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel prefers the access the ACC provides reporters as compared to the SEC.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News says the Texas Rangers continue to do well in the ratings.

Barry notes that ESPN’s E:60 will profile a local college football player who’s battling more than a game right now.

Mark Norris of the Morning News has an obituary for ESPN Dallas bureau producer Leah Siegel who died of breast cancer Monday.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business says strong corporate sales for the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah could be a sign of a recovery economy.

Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Sun-Times says Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambarano didn’t do himself any favors by staging an apology to his teammates on ESPN instead of meeting with them personally. 

Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune writes that Zambarano should have thought twice about going on ESPN before apologizing to his teammates about an outburst.

Terry Vandrovec in the Sioux Falls (SD) Argus Leader catches up with CBS golf analyst David Feherty.

Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times says HBO Sports is not confident that a Manny Pacquaio-Floyd Mayweather fight will happen this year.

Pugmire has the Mayweather camp angry over HBO’s statements to the Times.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says life is not imitating art with Entourage’s storyline about putting an NFL team in the City of Angels.

Sports Media Watch says national MLB TV ratings are even with last year.

SMW has some ratings news and notes.

SMW says the Brickyard 400 had its lowest ratings ever on ESPN.

Phillip Swann at TV Predictions says DirecTV could be adding Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Soccer Plus in HD very soon.

That will do it for us today.

Bringing The Thursday Linkage

Ok, we have the LeBronathon coming up tonight. Lots of stories ragging on “The Decision” so let’s get to them. Why wait?

USA Today’s Mike Lopresti is sick of LeBron and ESPN.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch who appeared on the Dan Patrick Show this morning has his take on the whole LeBronathon.

Sports business writer Evan Weiner says the marriage of LeBron and ESPN sets a bad precedent.

Brian Steinberg of Advertising Age writes that ESPN sold its soul to the Devil in order to get the LeBronathon on the air.

Milton Kent from Fanhouse says ESPN lost some integrity by giving LeBron James an hour of airtime. I think ESPN lost its integrity a long time ago.

Milton has an ESPN executive defending its decision to air “The Decision.”

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says the stock market is betting that LeBron James becomes a New York Knick.

Darren says James can make more money in Miami than Cleveland due to Florida not having an income tax. 

Paul J. Gough of the Hollywood Reporter has media analysts scratching their heads over the demands made by LeBron James’ management team to get an hour of airtime on ESPN.

Stuart Levine from Variety says the LeBronathon is a study in excess.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News looks at the unique time buy that led to “The Decision” on ESPN.

Ryan Berenz from Channel Guide Magazine isn’t happy about hyping “The Decision.”

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks at ESPN’s granting LeBron James one hour of airtime tonight.

Harvey Araton of the Times asks if James deserves the ESPN airtime. 

Also from the Times, Lynn Zinser mocks the reporters using anonymous sources trying to be first in the LeBron story.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post hates the idea of ESPN giving a program to James. Of course he does, but he’s right.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette says ESPN has sold its soul to accommodate LeBron James.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner has details of “The Decision.”

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times has his take on ESPN providing LeBron James airtime.

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald provides the nuts and bolts on the LeBronathon.

Josh Robbins in the Orlando Sentinel has Magic coach Stan Van Gundy’s opinion on the whole LeBron malarkey.

Mark Bradley from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says we can’t hide from the LeBronathon. 

Jerome Solomon of the Houston Chronicle there’s some genius behind the LeBron decision.

Also from the Chronicle, David Barron writes that the one hour special is feeding James’ ego. 

To the Detroit News and Vincent Goodwill who doesn’t like LeBron/ESPN marriage. 

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business feels the LeBronathon is feeding James’ ego.

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune says the one hour special actually fails to maximize James’ brand.

In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bob Wolfley says “The Decision” is ego-driven.

Bob Mayhall of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat notes that “The Decision” is the ultimate reality show for Cleveland, Chicago, New York and Miami.

Mark Heisler in the Los Angeles Times feels LeBron James is making a spectacle of himself.

Scott Collins and Joe Flint of the Times says “The Decision” is big for ESPN as well.

Drew Magery of Deadspin calls out LeBron James.

The great SportsbyBrooks looks at how freelancer Jim Gray helped to plant the seed with James’ camp to bring “The Decision” to fruition.

Dave Kohl of the Major League Programs blog feels the LeBronathon is not really news. 

Now to non-LeBronathon stories.

ESPN Ombudsman Don Ohlmeyer talks about the network dealing with the vuvuzelas for the World Cup.

Sean Leahy in USA Today’s The Huddle blog says free agent wide receiver Terrell Owens is putting the blame squarely on ESPN as to why he hasn’t been signed as of yet.

Glen Dickson in Broadcasting & Cable talks about the cable providers picking up YES’ 3-D telecasts of Mariners-Yankees this weekend.

Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek notes that despite the USA losing early in the World Cup knockout round, ratings on ESPN and ABC for the quarterfinals were strong.

Mediaweek’s Mike Shields says the World Cup has led many fans to head to their cell phones to watch.

Yinda Adegoke of Reuters says the World Cup has exceeded all expectations for ESPN. 

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine writes that Univision isn’t just about the World Cup.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reports that former Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce has joined ESPN’s army of NFL analysts.

Jessica Heslam from the Boston Herald says former SNY and WHDH-TV reporter Julie Donaldson is back on the air freelancing for Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Donaldson resigned from WHDH in 2008 after some personal matters were revealed during a domestic abuse case.

Jackie Majerus in the Bristol (CT) Press says ESPN is going to get a tax break for a new child day care facility

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says MSG Network will carry five New York Knicks NBA Summer League games next week.

Gary Dulac and Colin Dunlap of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has NBC’s Dottie Pepper raving about the Oakmont course that’s the home of this year’s US Women’s Open. 

Back to Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner who has details of the ESPN/ACC 12 year rights deal.

Doug Roberson of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution also has a look at the ESPN/ACC contract.

Eric Snyder of the Nashville Business Journal says the NHL’s Predators have signed a new deal to put more games on Fox Sports Tennessee and SportSouth.

John Kiesewetter in the Cincinnati Enquirer writes that a local sports radio producer will become the voice of a local minor league hockey team.

The Sports Media Watch says the AT&T National with Tiger Woods out of contention did not do well for CBS Sports.

Emmett Jones in Sports Business Digest says Facebook might be sponsoring the English national soccer team.

And we’ll end it there.

BREAKING NEWS: ESPN Announces A 12 Year Deal With The ACC

ESPN has announced a new 12 year multimedia rights deal with the Atlantic Coast Conference for football, basketball and Olympic sports. It gives ESPN control of all interconference games. In addition, ESPN will sell a package of games to Raycom Sports which will continue to syndicate games to over the air stations. It also ensures both North Carolina-Duke basketball games on ESPN, taking one away from CBS every other year. ESPN will remain the home of the ACC football and basketball championships. Here’s the press release.

ESPN and ACC Reach Exclusive 12-Year Agreement

Includes Football, Men’s and Women’s Basketball, and Olympic Sports; Conference Championships; Syndication and Corporate Marketing Deal with Raycom Sports; Cable and Broadcast TV Plus Comprehensive Multimedia Rights

ESPN and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) have reached a 12-year agreement for exclusive rights to every conference-controlled football and men’s basketball game, plus women’s basketball and Olympic sports matchups, and conference championships. The agreement, which begins in 2011-12 and continues through 2022-23, was announced by George Bodenheimer, President, ESPN, Inc. and ABC Sports, and John Swofford, ACC Commissioner. It will result in approximately 4,800 ACC events over the 12 years on ESPN’s television outlets, digital and mobile platforms, syndication and more. 

Among the entities included are: ESPN, ESPN on ABC, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3.com, the new ESPN 3D network, ESPN Mobile TV, ESPN GamePlan, ESPN FULL COURT, ESPN International, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Classic and ESPN.com. Numerous events will be produced in high definition across ESPN HD, ABC HD, ESPN2 HD and ESPNU HD.

Additionally, through a new sublicense arrangement with ESPN, Raycom Sports will continue its long-standing position as the syndication home of ACC content for over-the-air and regional cable network distribution in the ACC market and beyond. Raycom Sports will also continue to manage the ACC’s official corporate partner program and the exploitation of its digital assets, including www.theACC.com, the official conference web site.

ESPN has been televising ACC content since the first year of the network in 1979-80. Highlights of the new agreement include:

• Football on national TV: Regular-season action on Saturday afternoon and nights, primetime Thursdays, Labor Day Monday and the ACC Football Championship Game;
• Men’s basketball on national TV: The most games ever across the ESPN networks, highlighted by both regular-season matchups of the storied Duke-North Carolina rivalry each year; for the first time, full national telecasts on all games televised on an ESPN platform (had been local market blackouts on handful of telecasts); a new weekly Sunday franchise on ESPNU; every regular-season intra-conference game and the entire conference tournament produced and distributed via ESPN and Raycom Sports; 
• Women’s basketball: A record number of women’s regular-season basketball games and the addition of the entire conference tournament; 
• Olympic sports: An expanded commitment to the league’s 22-sponsored Olympic sports with regular-season and championship telecasts, highlighted by baseball, softball, lacrosse, and men’s and women’s soccer;
• Syndication: Syndication rights for ACC football, basketball and Olympic sports action for over-the-air and regional cable network distribution in ACC markets and beyond via an agreement with Raycom Sports and through potential sublicense agreements with other national outlets;
• Digital media: Exclusive ACC football, men’s and women’s basketball, and Olympic sports games as well as simulcasts on ESPN3.com. Live ACC games, including football and basketball, on ESPN Mobile TV;
• ESPN 3D: Live ACC action on ESPN 3D, ESPN’s newest network and the first 3D network to launch in the industry; 
• Additional outlets: ACC action on ESPN International, ESPN GamePlan, ESPN FULL COURT, ESPN Classic and ESPN Deportes; and extensive content rights for ESPN.com.

“Some of ESPN’s most memorable moments have featured the ACC and we’re proud to extend our long-term relationship with this great conference and Raycom,” Bodenheimer said.

ACC Commissioner John Swofford said, “We are excited to be continuing our partnership with ESPN and Raycom Sports. This agreement allows our schools to reach significantly new financial heights while also showcasing more ACC content and coverage than ever before across traditional and new media platforms.”

“We are very excited to continue our 30 year partnership with the ACC and ESPN,” said Ken Haines, President and CEO of Raycom Sports. “Throughout the ever-changing landscape of sports television, we have always prided ourselves on the long term relationships we have with both the ACC and ESPN.”

Following are the key details of the new agreement:

Football

With exclusive rights to every conference-controlled football game, ESPN will serve as the national cable and broadcast TV home for the conference and distributor of syndication telecasts via an agreement with Raycom Sports. With the agreement granting rights to every matchup, there is flexibility where games can be distributed on a weekly basis throughout the season. Outlets will include: 

ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC: The networks will televise ACC games each week, including Thursday, Saturday and a Labor Day Monday telecast each season. The ACC Football Championship Game will continue to be televised each year on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC.

ESPNU: The 24-hour college sports network, currently distributed in more than 70 million households, will continue to televise ACC football.

Syndication: ESPN will sublicense games to Raycom Sports and potentially to additional national outlets. As part of the agreement, Raycom Sports will produce and distribute a package of games for over-the-air syndication and for the first time, an additional package of games through regional cable syndication in the ACC markets and beyond.

ESPN3.com: Exclusive ACC game presentations as well as simulcasts will be offered on the broadband network.

ESPN 3D: ACC matchups will be part of the live schedule of games offered on the new service.

ESPN Mobile TV: Extensive ACC content, including highlights and live game simulcasts will be presented on mobile phones.

ESPN International and ESPN Deportes: The deal includes global rights to present live games and encore presentations across ESPN’s International platforms and domestic Spanish-language rights for ESPN Deportes, ESPN’s 24-hour, U.S.-based network.

ESPN GamePlan: The out-of-market college football service will continue to offer an extensive weekly schedule of ACC games.

ESPN Classic: The network may televise live ACC games as well as historic and immediate encore presentations.

ESPN.com: Extensive ACC content, including highlights, will be presented online.

Men’s Basketball

As the exclusive rightsholder to all conference-controlled men’s basketball games, ESPN will offer more ACC men’s basketball than ever before, including every intra-conference matchup and an extensive schedule of inter-conference action on one of its platforms or through sublicense agreements with Raycom Sports or other national outlets. The deal also includes the continuation of the annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge event. Similar to football, as a result of the acquisition of exclusive men’s basketball rights, there is flexibility where games can be distributed. Outlets will include: 

ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU: The networks will combine to offer numerous intra-conference games, highlighted by top showdowns, including both Duke-North Carolina contests, plus several conference controlled inter-conference matchups with no blackouts (the previous agreement included select blackouts in the ACC market). Highlighting the schedule will be a new weekly ESPNU Sunday telecast and the continuation of ACC action on ESPN’s Super Tuesday, Wednesday Night Hoops, Thursday Night Showcase and Saturdays. ESPN will also retain the rights to all ACC Tournament games for distribution across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU (with no blackouts).

Syndication: Similar to football, ESPN will sublicense games to Raycom Sports and potentially to additional national outlets. As part of the agreement, Raycom Sports will produce and distribute a significant package of intra-conference games through over-the-air syndication and a series of matchups through regional cable networks. 

ESPN3.com: Exclusive ACC game presentations as well as simulcasts will be offered on the broadband network.

ESPN 3D: ACC matchups will be part of the live schedule of games offered on the new service.

ESPN Mobile TV: Extensive ACC content, including highlights and live game simulcasts will be presented on mobile phones.

ESPN International and ESPN Deportes: The deal includes global rights to present live games and encore presentations across ESPN’s International platforms and domestic Spanish-language rights for ESPN Deportes, ESPN’s 24-hour, U.S.-based network.

ESPN FULL COURT: The out-of-market college basketball service will offer extensive weekly coverage of the ACC.

ESPN Classic: The network may telecast live ACC games as well as historic and immediate encore presentations.

ESPN.com: Extensive ACC content, including highlights, will be presented online. 

Women’s Basketball

ESPN will expand its coverage of regular-season women’s basketball across its platforms and televise the conference semifinals and championship for the first time on an ESPN network. In addition, ESPN will sublicense games to Raycom Sports.

ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU: ACC teams will appear on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. In addition, ESPN will acquire the rights to the women’s conference championship game for coverage on ESPN or ESPN2, while the semifinals will be aired on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU.

ESPN3.com: Exclusive ACC game presentations as well as simulcasts will be offered on the broadband network.

Syndication: Through an agreement with ESPN, Raycom Sports will produce and distribute a series of regular-season games and all early rounds of the conference tournament to regional cable networks. 

Olympic Sports

ESPN will televise more of the 22 ACC-sponsored Olympic sports than ever before, increasing its coverage to include regular-season and conference championship events.

ESPN and ESPN2: The networks will have first selection of regular-season events each year (events are to be determined).

ESPNU: A package of regular-season events will be televised annually, highlighted by lacrosse, baseball, softball, volleyball, soccer and others.

ESPN3.com: Numerous, exclusive regular-season events plus simulcasts will be offered annually, including lacrosse, baseball, softball, volleyball, soccer, and others.

Championships: ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU will televise the conference championship games in softball and baseball while ESPNU will offer the men’s lacrosse semifinals and championship, and men’s and women’s soccer championship matchups. Other championships may be selected for ESPN platforms or distributed by Raycom Sports to regional cable networks. 

That’s it. No financial details were announced but Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand has the particulars in a report he wrote two months ago.

Gathering The Thursday Linkage

Time for some linkage on this Thursday. Trying to get this in before I have to get some work done today. I’ll do as many links as I can.

USA Today picks up a story from Ronald Blum of the Associated Press in which Fox Sports Ele Jefe del Mundo David Hill expects a big audience for the UEFA Champions League final this Saturday.

In the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Dave Kindred loves certain sports movies.

Jon Weisman in Variety says Golf Channel will air a documentary on Tom Watson’s long-time caddy based on John Feinstein’s book.

Laura Martinez from Multichannel News says ESPN Deportes is going to launch a multimedia campaign for the World Cup.

Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek writes that ESPN is starting an in-house creative unit to develop custom branded spots for certain clients.

Channel Guide Magazine looks at this weekend’s NASCAR All-Star Race and where you can see it.

Writing in CNBC’s Darren Rovell’s SportsBiz blog, Sandra Carreon-John of Saatchi Sport & Entertainment says the sports business is not as sexist as some women would have you believe.

Writing in Forbes, the Biz of Sports’ Maury Brown says ESPN will use your iPhone to throw a bunch of news at you. 

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk writes that NFL Network will air next week’s Super Bowl XLVIII announcement.

Richard Sandomir from the New York Times says the Preakness Stakes lost viewers from last year and from the Kentucky Derby earlier this month.

From the Albany Times Union, Pete Dougherty writes that Fox Sports is going to have internal discussions regarding Chris Myers’ remarks about Hurricane Katrina victims when he guest-hosted on the Dan Patrick Show on Monday.

In the Messenger Post (NY), noted author Curt Smith says Nashville Predators voice Pete Weber is one of the best in his sport.

Laura Nachman has Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia’s coverage plans for tonight’s Flyers-Canadiens game.

Tim Lemke looks at a Houston Astros program that asks fans to recycle some of their electronic gadgets.

David Teel from the Newport News (VA) Daily Press says the new ESPN/ACC deal puts the conference in a better position to compete with the SEC and Big Ten.

Sarah Talalay of the South Florida Sun Sentinel has another update on the new Florida Marlins Stadium.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business has some various sports business news and notes including the latest Blackhawks ratings.

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune says some Blackhawks fans are wondering why WGN-AM isn’t picking up all of the team’s playoff games.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is not a fan of the NBA Draft Lottery (scroll down).

Bob Mayhall from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat profiles FoxSports.com NASCAR writer and Gateway City native Lee Spencer.

Scott Dochterman of the Iowa City Gazette says the Big Ten Network is a big key, but not the main reason for the conference’s expansion according to league Commissioner Jim Delaney.

Kevin Baxter of the Los Angeles Times reports that Sirius XM will carry all 64 games of the World Cup. 

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has your first look at Chris Berman’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail writes that a BBC Sport documentary on the world’s best sprinters missed Canada’s contributions to the sport. 

To William Houston of Truth & Rumours who tells us there’s a reason why TSN gave up its Blue Jays schedule so easily to Rogers Sportsnet.

Fox Sports Midwest says it will send its July 2 game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers to troops stationed in Afghanistan.

Mark Newman of MLB.com says MLB Network will air the All-Star Game Red Carpet Special on July 13.

Jon Weinbach from Fanhouse says despite not being liked by the conference’s coaches, it appears ACC Sunday Night Hoops, created for Fox Sports Net, will continue when the new ESPN contract begins after the 2010-11 season.

Friend of Fang’s Bites, Chuck Hanf, from the Two Cents from Beantown blog tells the media that got on Red Sox star Mike Lowell that they don’t have their heads screwed on straight for criticizing him for wanting to leave the team after he felt he wasn’t contributing.

Back to Maury Brown, this time in the Biz of Baseball. He gives kudos to Major League Baseball for televising its draft, but it has a long way to go before reaching the popularity of the NFL and NBA Drafts. 

Sports Media Watch speaks with NBA Digital Managing Editor Mike Doyle.

SMW notes that the ratings for Game 2 of Celtics-Magic failed to measure up to last year’s Conference Final ratings.

Joe Favorito says even though it doesn’t have to, the Green Bay Packers continue to grow their brand during the offseason.

And we will finish there for the links.

Our Wednesday Linkage

Let’s do some links on this rainy Wednesday in the Northeast. By the way, last night I went to a great Japanese restaurant in Providence, Haruki East on Wayland Avenue. Highly recommend it. And on a rainy Tuesday night, there was a wait so that tells you it’s quite popular. Ate there with my parents and my cousin and his girlfriend. The food was definitely worth the wait. Sushi was great and so was the Tempura. Great food in a great city.

Ok, done with the restaurant review. To the links.

Starting with Michael Hiestand of USA Today, he has TNT’s Marv Albert not having the slightest idea as a young announcer that Phil Jackson would end up being a successful NBA coach.

Bruce Jenkins of Sports Illustrated says the world media including Tennis Channel failed to properly describe Roger Federer’s whiff during match point of the Madrid Open on Sunday. 

David Tanklefsky of Broadcasting & Cable comes out of ESPN upfront presentation with the impression that the network is totally embracing social media and becoming more interactive with viewers.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News says Versus brought in the highest ratings for the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs since Nielsen started measuring them in 1994.

Anthony Crupi at Mediaweek notes that TNT has won the cable primetime ratings for the third week in a row thanks to the NBA Playoffs. 

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine says the NHL is red hot in the TV ratings.

Diego Vasquez of Media Life writes that sports has helped to raise broadcast TV viewing levels to even with last year.

Subbing for CNBC’s Darren Rovell, Chad Walters says teams can save money by eliminating some waste.

Phillip Michaels of Macworld reviews the ESPN SportsCenter XL app for the iPad.

Jon Friedman of Marketwatch.com says reporters covering the LeBron Watch have the toughest beat in the media.

I should not do this because this will probably get shut down, but we have a Neil Best sighting. Newsday’s Neil Best writes that Fox is looking at expanding its MLB offerings into primetime on Saturdays.

Dave Hughes of DCRTV.com writes in Press Box that the Preakness Stakes saw a ratings downtick from last year.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says Nationals fans can listen to Stephen Strasburg’s next start tonight.

Tom Jones in the St. Petersburg Times says Peter Gammons had to correct a statement he made on the Dan Patrick Show yesterday.

Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News looks at what the new ESPN/ACC rights deal means for the Big 12.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer notes that a local radio station is picking up high school football games for the fall.

Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press reports that former Fox NFL analyst Ray Bentley is joining a local radio station.

In the Indianapolis Business Journal, Anthony Schoettle says IndyCar is gaining more confidence in Versus. 

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune writes that viewers found Versus in droves for Game 2 of the Blackhawks-Sharks series last night.

Phil says Blackhawks fans have to make due without TV voice Pat Foley calling the NHL Western Conference Finals due to Versus and NBC having exclusivity.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business says Big Ten conference commish Jim Delaney isn’t revealing much about the league’s expansion plans.

Curtis Zupke from the Orange County (CA) Register says NHL TV ratings continue to increase. 

Jon Wilmer of the San Jose Mercury News looks at what the ESPN/ACC deal will mean for the Pac 10′s TV negotiations.

Will Reisman in the San Francisco Examiner writes that Versus cut off the end of the third stage of the Tour of California on Tuesday.

Jayda Evans of the Seattle Times says the WNBA’s Storm had several glitches with its inaugural in-house telecast on FSN Northwest. 

Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy explains why the NHL Conference Finals began on the same days for the first two games.

Sports Media Watch has the weekend overnight ratings.

SMW says Game 1 of the NBA Western Conference Finals did well for TNT, but not as well as last year’s ratings aberration.

And SMW has some ratings news and notes.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media notes that Jeremy Roenick who did a great job for NBC during the Olympics, will join NBC’s studio for its coverage of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Matthew Coller at the Biz of Hockey writes that an exciting NHL postseason is paying dividends for the league besides TV ratings.

SportsbyBrooks looks into the tight-lipped investigation into the death of LPGA golfer Erica Blasberg.

And we’ll end our links there for now. Back later with breaking news and the return of the Sports Media Weekly podcast following a week’s absence.

Doing Some Tuesday Links

Been busy at work today and expecting a busy late afternoon and evening. I’m squeezing in some linkage while I can.

First, USA Today’s Michael Hiestand briefly discusses the impending ESPN/ACC deal plus looks at the ratings for some of the weekend sports events.

Brian Steinberg of Advertising Age says at the network upfront presentations this week, marketers are already looking to buy ads on NFL and college football broadcasts before buying on network primetime programs.

Mike Shields from Mediaweek writes that ESPN is looking to automatically roll an ad as soon as a viewer logs onto ESPN3.com giving an advertiser prime space.

Radio industry newsletter All Access says an ESPN Radio/Deportes combo in San Diego has not paid employees for months. Not one month, but several months.

Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times writing in the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center gives us an inside look at the ESPN Innovation Lab in Orlando.

CNBC Sports Producer Tom Rotunno subbing for Darren Rovell takes a look at the effect LeBron James is having on the rest of the NBA Playoffs now that the Cleveland Cavaliers have been eliminated from the postseason.

Georg Szalai from the Hollywood Reporter recaps ESPN’s upfront presentation in New York today.

David Tanklefsky of Broadcating & Cable says UFC has signed a deal to put the upcoming UFC 114 event as well other fight cards on Roku in the future.

Thomas Umstead from Multichannel News says cable operators are calling for a Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquaio pay per view fight and soon.

Diego Vasquez in Media Life Magazine speaks with a Univision programming executive about the ratings expectations for the World Cup.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says Versus is finding an audience for the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Stuart Elliot of the Times has his take on ESPN’s upfront presentation. 

The New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman feels SNY’s Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez played blind on Sunday. Whatever Bob.

Keith Groller from the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says the Philadelphia Flyers have captured Eastern Pennsylvania’s attention as the TV ratings prove.

Tim Lemke says two months after being excited by the launch of Bloomberg Sports’ baseball analytical fantasy program, his mood about it is very tempered.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner explores what it would mean to Maryland to enter the Big Ten conference.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times feels Fox Sports’ Chris Myers went overboard with some comments on the Dan Patrick Show yestesrday. 

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business says the Blackhawks cleaned up in the ratings on Sunday for the local NBC affiliate.

Ed talks with a Bay Area sports radio host about the relevance of the San Jose Sharks in the local market.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News talks about ESPN’s Chris Berman getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In Truth & Rumours, William Houston writes that hockey drew the first six spots in Canada’s national weekend TV ratings. 

Sports Media Watch notes that last night’s Game 1 of the Phoenix Suns-Los Angeles Lakers series dropped in the ratings from last year.

SMW says NASCAR on Fox failed to impress on Sunday.

SMW talks with NBA Digital Senior Vice President and General Manager Bryan Perez about NBA TV and other league-owned networks.

Jason Fry writes in Deadspin that Captain Blowhard after threatening to leave the Mothership, really had no other place to go and will most likely return to ESPN when his contract is up.

At Puck The Media, Steve Lepore says Sunday’s ratings for the Blackhawks win over San Jose were down slightly from last year.

Steve also has Versus’ plans in case tonight’s Montreal-Philadelphia game goes into overtime and spills into Chicago-San Jose.

That will do it for now.

Monday Back To Work Links

Ok, we haven’t done linkage since Thursday. Was busy Friday and Saturday and on Sunday, I rested. So it’s time to give you stuffage today. You deserve it.

I am experimenting with logos on the top of the page so if you see something different over the next few days, you’ll know that I’m trying some new things. In addition, I’ll be ready to make an announcement regarding Fang’s Bites very soon. But let’s get to first things first.

Here’s the story from Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand and Michael Smith regarding ESPN nosing out Fox Sports for a multimedia rights deal with the Atlantic Coast Conference. The story also notes that Turner Sports is looking for regular season basketball games to compliment its recent entry into the NCAA Tournament.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says rising ratings for Versus and NBC for the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs will bode well for the league’s TV negotiations.

In Sports Illustrated, Peter King writes in Monday Morning Quarterback that he’s hopeful that “NFL Matchup” will be saved (scroll down to #7). 

Gregg Rosenthal of Pro Football Talk says NFL Films is optimistic that ESPN will pick up ownership of NFL Matchup.

Pip Bulbeck of the Hollywood Reporter says Australia’s SBS network will air 15 World Cup games in 3-D.

Jon Lafayette of TV Week’s NewsPro section feels sports journalism needs to change with the times.

Jon interviews ESPN’s John Anderson.

Jon opines that NBC Sports will help Comcast gain a foothold in broadcast TV and shore up its sports programming.

Jarre Fees of TV Week’s NewsPro section speaks with the Executive Director of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, Dave Goren, about the state of the organization. One aside. I interned at WJAR-TV in the 1980′s and Dave was sports producer for the channel. He since went on to be a sports anchor in North Carolina and now is the Executive Director of the NSSA. Do Dave a favor and join the NSSA for just $30. That’s quite affordable.

Hillary Atkin writing in the NewsPro section looks at Philadelphia’s WTXF-TV getting fans’ input for its sportscasts.

Hillary also has a story on Mary Carillo who has gone from being a tennis analyst to a host and journalist.

Hillary talks with ESPN’s Erin Andrews. 

Debra Kaufman in NewsPro says 3-D is adding another dimension to sports broadcasting. 

I welcome Friend of Fang’s Bites Trenni Kusnierek of the MLB Network to the blogging world. She has begun her new blog, “Girl Talk” on MLBlogs and she has two posts there already.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Jason Fry looks at the Wall Street Journal giving courtesy titles to athletes and other figures in its new sports section.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says it’s now not worth it to be an NFL team doctor based on the grief from lawsuits.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post goes after the Jets and its personal seat licenses policy.

Pete Dougherty in the Albany Times Union notes that Saturday’s Preakness Stakes ratings were considerably down from last year.

Tim Lemke announces that he will doing work with Sports Business Radio starting next month.

Dan Steinberg from the Washington Post’s Sporting Bog says Redskin star Fred Smoot is looking for opportunities in sports media after his playing career. 

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner speaks with the program director of one of DC’s sports radio stations.

Tom Jones in the St. Petersburg Times looks back at the weekend in sports on TV.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel debunks some myths about Hank Aaron.

Natalie Meisler of the Denver Post says Colorado State University has made some changes in its football broadcasts.

Dusty Saunders of the Post says ESPN’s Rick Reilly is becoming feistier as he focuses more on TV.

The Los Angeles Daily News’ Tom Hoffarth has your SoCal sports calendar.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail feels Rogers Sportsnet overhypes its coverage of the Memorial Cup.

One piece of news from last week in Canada. William Houston in Truth & Rumours notes that the Blue Jays will drop TSN as a rightsholder and put all of its games on Rogers Sportsnet. Just two years ago, the Jays divided its games on Rogers Sportsnet, TSN and CBC. Now, just one carrier will air the game.

William says CBC is about to make its Bold cable channel an HD channel just in time for the World Cup.

The Sports Media Watch says Celtics-Magic Game 1 held up well for ABC on Sunday.

Steve Lepore from Puck The Media writes that NESN got high ratings for Game 7 of Bruins-Flyers from last Friday.

Steve says there are many pros and cons for having Bob Cole call the Montreal-Philadelphia series for CBC.

Good friend Ian Bethune of Sox & Dawgs has the video of ESPN’s Outside the Lines story in which former Red Sox Bernie Carbo admitted he wanted to go all gangster on Keith Hernandez back in the 1980′s. Interesting stuff.

That is going to do it for now. I have a couple of network press releases to post. They’re screaming at me so I’ll post them now.

BREAKING NEWS: ACC Signs A New Long Term Deal With ESPN

The Atlantic Coast Conference and ESPN have had a long standing relationship dating back to the network’s inception in 1979 and it appears they’ll continue that relationship well into the twenties. Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand breaks the story today and we’ll be able to link to it later, but we have details on Twitter.

John says ESPN fended off Fox in a bidding war for the rights to ACC that will entail both football and basketball. We know that ESPN will pay $155 million a year and that is well below what the network is paying the SEC annually by about $50 million. This deal will last through the 2022-23 season which means it’s a 12 year deal.

Unlike the SEC deal which ESPN took over the syndication rights, Raycom will purchase a package from ESPN and remain affiliated with the ACC in a relationship that dates back to the 1970′s.

We’ll get more details on story in Monday’s linkage as well as from ESPN. Keep it here. Monday looks like it will be busy

The Thursday Linkage

Before I begin, a quick note.

I will have an announcement regarding the site in the next few days. Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere and the content will remain the same. In addition, the site will look the same. When this becomes totally official, I hope to announce that Fang’s Bites is on its way to bigger and better things and I think that will definitely be the case. But that will come later and not today. In the meantime, let’s do the links.

Just because I can, I’ll start you off with Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover model Brooklyn Decker doing cartwheels on the set of a movie she’s doing with Adam Sandler and Dan Patrick. Yes, that Dan Patrick of national radio and NBC Sports fame. Now that your heart is pumping, on to the regular sports media links.

From the Sports Business Daily, John Ourand recaps what Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said regarding his company’s purchase of NBC.

And John has Fox Sports El Jefe del Mundo David Hill’s warning to sports leagues about keeping streaming rights for themselves.

San Francisco Giants catcher Bengie Molina is lashing out at ESPN SportsCenter for making fun of him getting thrown out at home plate during a recent game. Thanks to Midwest Sports Fans for the link.

Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle wasn’t happy over ESPN’s treatment of Molina either.

Sean Leahy at Yahoo’s Puck Daddy recaps a CBC/Toronto Globe and Mail investigation into where disgraced hockey coach Graham James ended up after being mysteriously paroled on sexually assaulting two underaged boys on his team.

Georg Szalai of the Hollywood Reporter talks about Comcast being the first cable provider to pick up ESPN 3D.

Mike Reynolds in Multichannel News says Time Warner Cable will offer Univision’s World Cup coverage On Demand.

Mike writes that Universal Sports will now be available in Boston on an over the air digital channel.

Channel Guide Magazine looks at Ken Burns’ supplemental 10th Inning to his Baseball documentary.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says LeBron James might be better off staying in Cleveland to maximize his earning value.

Darren has statistics showing that lower drafted players do better than those drafted higher.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe talks with former Globe writer Jackie MacMullen who becomes the first woman to receive the Curt Gowdy Media Award at the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says the Mets are looking to expand its holdings to possibly the NHL’s Islanders and a Major League Soccer team.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says Access Hollywood’s Maria Menounos threw an “S” bomb on ESPN2′s First Take yesterday.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times lists his three most miserable sports cities.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Sarah Talalay did some participatory journalism, learning the behind the scenes at four sports jobs.

First, she was part of a Grand-Am pit crew.

Sarah also played the part of Burnice, the Miami Heat mascot.

Sarah got to drive the Zamboni for the Florida Panthers.

And Sarah was part of the grounds crew at Sun Life Stadium.

Finally, Sarah tells us what she learned after all this.

Doug Harris from the Dayton Daily News says Ohio State’s Athletic Director wants Dayton to remain as the site of the NCAA Tournament play-in games.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business says former White Sox analyst Tom Paciorek is returning to his old gig only for a few days.

Jim O’Donnell in the Chicago Sun-Times says Versus may being seeing increased ratings in the Windy City, but Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz is still not a fan of the channel.

Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that the famous “Field of Dreams” where the Kevin Costner movie was filmed is up for sale.

Bob Wolfley from the Journal Sentinel says the Big Ten conference plays the nail to the ACC’s hammer in the annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

Bob Mayhall of the St. Louis Globe and Democrat talks with a Cardinals minor league team announcer who is about to call his 3,000th game.

Diane Pucin in the Los Angeles Times says the NHL is riding a ratings wave of momentum.

The Tennis Now blog says the French Open will be seen in 3-D in Europe. No word about here in the US.

The Sports Media Watch has part one of a two part interview with TNT’s Charles Barkley.

SMW says TNT hit its postseason ratings high with the Game 5 blowout of the Cavaliers at the hands of the Celtics.

And SMW writes that the NBA Playoffs on ABC have seen a double digits ratings rise.

James O’Brien at NBC’s Pro Hockey Talk says the network will carry Game 1 of the Chicago-San Jose NHL Western Conference Finals on Sunday.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says a Game 7 for the Bruins-Flyers on Friday could draw high ratings for Versus even without the home markets airing the national broadcast.

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann who was originally a critic of the original “Baseball” documentary is very high on Ken Burns’ sequel, “The Tenth Inning”

And that will do it for now.