Fang's Bites

Saturday Linkage

The last thing I wanted to wake up to this morning was reaction to racist headlines regarding Jeremy Lin, but that’s what we have on this Saturday. I’ve already written a post about it and I’ve given my opinion about the incident already. I’ll give ESPN the benefit of the doubt feeling the headline was unintentional, but let this be a lesson to other news organizations who are trying to be cute with puns or creative.

Mike McCarthy says ESPN has apologized for the headline.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch reacts to ESPN’s actions following the posting of the headline.

Ben Koo at Awful Announcing says even if the incident was unintentional, it was still inexcusable to allow the headline to get through.

Media Rantz says this is not the first time that an ESPN platform has used “chink in the armor” in a Jeremy Lin story.

Patty Hsieh at Aery’s Sports’ The Pigskin March site sums up the feeling of what many Asians like myself are thinking today.

Sports Media Watch has some context to the ESPN.com Jeremy Lin headline.

The Angry Asian Man blog has its reaction.

Now to other stories.

Tragic story. The son of Fox Sports’ Chris Myers was killed this week in a car accident and it will keep Myers from his NASCAR duties.

Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel says the Pac-12 Conference is hoping its in-house network will break TV barriers.

Todd Cunningham of The Wrap notes that the NBA’s TV partners can’t go crazy and add New York Knicks games this season.

Awful Announcing’s Matt Yoder looks at yesterday’s Twitter feud between CNBC’s Darren Rovell and the New York Times’ Richard Sandomir.

Speaking of Richard, he and Howard Beck team up for a story in the Times about the resolution of the dispute between MSG Network and Time Warner Cable.

Nina Mandell of the New York Daily News says there was intervention among state and NBA officials to end the MSG/Time Warner Cable dispute.

The New York Post’s Claire Atkinson and Andy Soltis write about what brought MSG and Time Warner Cable back to the table.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has MSG’s official statement on the resolution.

Pete has Time Warner’s statement as well.

Tim Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that ESPN’s ratings for college basketball are up.

Mark Snyder of the Detroit Free Press chronicles College GameDay’s visit to the Michigan campus.

John Daly of the Daly Planet has a recap of some NASCAR media issues going into its first real weekend of the season.

John Singler of the Motor Racing Network talks about the first online streaming of NASCAR this season.

That’s going to be it for today.

Wringing Out Some Friday Megalinks

Let’s do your media megalinks since last week you did not get any.

Hard to believe that college baseball, college lacrosse and NASCAR seasons are starting up, but they are and they’re included in the Weekend Viewing Picks along with the regular Golf, NBA, NHL, Skiing, Soccer, Tennis and Entertainment recommendations.

To your links now.

National

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says Jeremy Lin will make his nationwide broadcast network debut this weekend.

Tim Baysinger from Broadcasting & Cable notes that Floyd Mayweather’s next pay per view fight has been set by HBO for the spring.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News writes that Jeremy Lin continues to drive the MSG Network ratings engine.

Mike Shields of Adweek looks at CBS/Turner Sports’ plans to charge to view the NCAA Tournament online.

Ted Johnson of Variety talks with Ken Solomon of Tennis Channel on his ongoing battle to get a better footing with Comcast.

Michael Bradley at the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center says the Jeremy Lin media coverage is over the top.

Sports Media Watch notes the increased viewership for the NHL on NBC Sports Network.

SMW says Pardon the Interruption’s Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon have lent their voices to a Disney XD cartoon series.

Andy Hall at ESPN Front Row PR blog celebrates the 5th anniversary of NASCAR’s return to the network.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell speaks with Jeremy Lin’s agent.

Andrew Bucholtz writing his first article for Awful Announcing looks at the reaction to Jeremy Lin in Canada.

Mat Yoder at AA says the ratings for last weekend’s Pebble Beach National Pro-Am show fans are still interested in Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

Joe Favorito explores the steady growth of college lacrosse.

Mark J. Miller of Brandchannel says NASCAR fans don’t like it when drivers juggle sponsor logos throughout the Sprint Cup season.

The Big Lead has ESPN’s Erin Andrews out and about during New York’s Fashion Week.

Chris Chase at Yahoo’s Shutdown Corner notes that ESPN has been coaching Jon Gruden to use his words judiciously.

Harrison Mooney of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy says Jeremy Lin’s drawing power might indirectly benefit the New York Rangers, Islanders, Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils which have been missing from Time Warner Cable systems in addition to the Knicks.

David B. Wilkerson at MarketWatch wonders if the MSG/Time Warner Cable feud will eventually push sports into a premium tier.

East and Mid-Atlantic

The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn gets some advice for new NESN Red Sox field reporter Jenny Dell from MSG’s Tina Cervasio.

At SB Nation Boston, Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch pays tribute to Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan who announced he’s retiring after the London Olympics.

Surviving Grady has a podcast with Jen Royle.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks at the new charge for viewing the NCAA Tournament online.

Richard writes about the increased ratings for Knicks games since Jeremy Lin arrived on the scene.

Phil Mushnick at the New York Post is in rare form today even for him.

Brett Cyrgalis of the Post has five questions for CBS college basketball analyst Bill Raftery.

The Post’s David Seifman reports that the New York City Council is pressuring MSG Network and Time Warner Cable to work out a deal.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News writes that ESPN bumped tonight’s Hornets-Knicks game not realizing it would be another opportunity to showcase Jeremy Lin.

Jerry Barmash from Fishbowl NY has reaction from various NYC sports anchors to the death of former Mets catcher Gary Carter.

Mike Silva at the Sports Media Watchdog feels hockey coverage in New York is woefully inadequate.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that a local sports TV reporter received a New York Emmy nomination.

Pete lists his top studio analysts.

DCRTV’s Dave Hughes has the latest in Baltimore-Washington DC sports media news in Press Box.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has a clip of Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon as cartoon characters.

Jim Williams at the Washington Examiner says talks with sports business writer Evan Weiner about the NFL’s antiquated blackout rules.

South

Barry Jackson at the Miami Herald has some thoughts on Shaquille O’Neal’s rookie season at TNT and ESPN’s decision to remove Ron Jaworski from Monday Night Football.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says the Astros plan to bring in former players to their radio booth to celebrate the team’s 50th season.

Mel Bracht at the Daily Oklahoman notes the first network appearance of Jeremy Lin is this Sunday.

Midwest

The Detroit Free Press notes that all of the Tigers games will be on TV this season.

Bob Wolfey of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Dick Enberg told a captive audience at Marquette University about the art of the pause and when to use it in broadcasting.

Ed Sherman at Crain’s Chicago Business has his weekly winners and losers in sports business and media.

To the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin where Paul Christian writes that Fox Sports North will be all over the Minnesota Twins this season.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says the Cardinals have mostly put the kybosh on late afternoon games at Busch Stadium this season.

Dan says a local sports radio host is recovering after undergoing heart bypass surgery.

West

Jay Posner at the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that the new Fox Sports San Diego is set to launch next month.

Jay writes the San Diego Padres stand to double their rights fees from Fox as compared to Cox a year ago.

John Maffei at the North County Times says the official announcement between Fox Sports San Diego carrying the Padres is due any time now.

At the Ventura County Star, Jim Carlisle says NBC and the NHL have become very good partners.

Jim feels ESPN should not have jettisoned Ron Jaworski from Monday Night Football.

Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times notes that ESPN college football analyst Ed Cunningham is up for a Best Documentary Oscar.

Bill Shakin of the Times says Frank McCourt’s legal problems are holding up Fox’s announcement with the Padres.

Tom Hoffarth from the Los Angeles Daily News recaps a lecture from three noted network broadcasters discussing TV coverage of the Olympics.

And that’s going to conclude the megalinks for today.

College Basketball Viewing Picks For 02/18 & 02/19/2011, All Times Eastern

Men’s Schedule Courtesy of Matt’s College Sports on TV

Saturday, February 18

College GameDay live from Ann Arbor, Michigan — ESPNU, 10 a.m./ESPN, 11 a.m./ESPN, 8 p.m.

BracketBusters
Drexel at Cleveland State — ESPNU, 11 a.m.
Wichita State at Davidson — ESPN2, noon
Buffalo at South Dakota State — ESPNU, 1 p.m.
Akron at Oral Roberts — ESPN2, 2 p.m.
Drake at New Mexico State — ESPNU, 3 p.m.
Nevada at Iona — ESPN2, 4 p.m.
Old Dominion at Missouri State — ESPNU, 5 p.m.
St. Mary’s at Murray State — ESPN, 6 p.m.
UNC-Asheville at Ohio — ESPN3, 7 p.m.
Texas-Arlington at Weber State — ESPN3, 8 p.m.
Long Beach State at Creighton — ESPN2, 10 p.m.

11:30 a.m.
Bryant at St. Francis (NY) — Fox College Sports Atlantic/MSG Network

noon
Louisville at DePaul — Big East Network: Cox Sports Television/CSS/MASN/SNY
Marquette at UConn — ESPN

1 p.m.
Florida State at North Carolina State — ACC Network
Maryland at Virginia — ACC Network
UCLA at St. John’s — CBS
UNLV at New Mexico — CBS
UTEP at Memphis — Fox Sports Net (national)
Wake Forest at Miami (FL) — Fox Sports Net (regional): Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Fox Sports Florida/Fox Sports South/NESN

Women’s: Boise State at TCU — the mtn.

1:30 p.m.
Kansas State at Baylor — Big 12 Network
Oklahoma at Iowa State — Big 12 Network
LSU at South Carolina — SEC Network
Tennessee at Alabama — SEC Network

2 p.m.
Duquense at Temple — A-10 Network: CSS/The Comcast Network
Missouri at Texas A&M — ESPN

Women’s: Marquette at Syracuse — Big East Network: MASN/SNY
Women’s: Xavier at St. Bonaventure — CBS Sports Network

2:30 p.m.
Women’s:  Bryant at St. Francis (PA) — Fox College Sports Atlantic

3 p.m.
Arizona at Washington — Fox Sports Net (national)
Georgia Tech at Virgina Tech — Fox Sports Net (regional): Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Fox Sports South/NESN/Sun Sports

Women’s: South Carolina at Alabama — SEC Network

4 p.m.
Seton Hall at Cincinnati — Big East Network: Fox Sports Ohio/MASN/SNY
Texas at Oklahoma State — Big 12 Network
Lafayette at Lehigh — CBS Sports Network
St. Joseph’s at George Washington — Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia
Clemson at North Carolina — ESPN
San Diego State at Air Force — NBC Sports Network
Mississippi at Kentucky — SEC Network
TCU at Boise State — the mtn.

5 p.m.
Illinois at Nebraska — Big Ten Network
Colorado at Utah — Fox Sports Net (national)

6 p.m.
LaSalle at UMass — CBS Sports Network
Florida at Arkansas — ESPN2

Women’s: Western Kentucky at South Alabama — Fox College Sports Central

6:30 p.m.
Women’s: New Mexico at UNLV — the mtn.

7 p.m.
Georgetown at Providence — Big East Network: Cox Sports RI/Cox Sports Television/MASN/SNY
Northwestern at Minnesota — Big Ten Network
BYU at Santa Clara — ESPNU

Women’s: Texas at Kansas State — Fox Sports Net (national)

8 p.m.
Texas Tech at Kansas — Big 12 Network
Dayton at Xavier — CBS Sports Network
Western Kentucky at South Alabama — Fox College Sports Atlantic
Mississippi State at Auburn — Fox Sports Net (regional): Fox Sports Florida/Fox Sports Houston/Fox Sports South/Fox Sports Southwest

9 p.m.
Ohio State at Michigan — ESPN
Notre Dame at Villanova — ESPNU
Wyoming at Colorado State — the mtn.

Sunday, February 19

noon
Women’s: Michigan at Indiana — Big Ten Network
Women’s: Maryland-Baltimore County at Hartford — CBS Sports Network
Women’s: Georgia State at George Mason — Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/CSS

1 p.m.
Michigan State at Purdue — CBS
Syracuse at Rutgers — ESPN
Vanderbilt at Georgia — Fox Sports Net (regional): Fox Sports Houston/Fox Sports North Plus/Fox Sports South/Fox Sports Southwest/Sun Sports

Women’s: Rice at SMU — Fox Sports Net (national)

1:30 p.m.
Women’s: North Carolina State at North Carolina — ESPNU

2 p.m.
Women’s: Wisconsin at Nebraska — Big Ten Network
Women’s: Tennessee at Mississippi — SEC Network

3 p.m.
Women’s: VCU at Old Dominion — Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic Plus
Women’s: Duke at Maryland — ESPN2
Women’s: UCLA at USC — Fox Sports Net (national)
Women’s: South Carolina at Alabama — Fox Sports Net (regional): Fox Sports Florida/Fox Sports Houston/Fox Sports North Plus/Fox Sports South

3:30 p.m.
Women’s: Georgia at Florida — ESPN2
Women’s: Florida State at Miami — Fox Sports Net (regional): Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Fox Sports South/NESN/Sun Sports

4 p.m.
Penn State at Wisconsin — Big Ten Network

5 p.m.
Women’s: Purdue at Michigan State — ESPN2
Women’s: Washington at Arizona — Fox Sports Net (national)

6 p.m.
Indiana at Iowa — Big Ten Network
Duke at Boston College — ESPNU

7 p.m.
South Florida at Pittsburgh — ESPN2
Oregon at Stanford — Fox Sports Net (national)

ESPN’s “Judgement Week” Starts Monday

As the conference races tighten up and we get ready for some exciting conference tournament action in two weeks, ESPN ramps up what it calls “Judgement Week” airing key matchups in the major conferences.

The ESPN Family will have games from the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC, and others in the early part of next week.

We have your games listed below.

Men’s College Basketball: Judgment Week Begins

ESPN’s Judgment Week — the pivotal week in the stretch run for conference supremacy — will tip off Monday, Feb. 20, and conclude Sunday, February 27. The early part of the schedule will be highlighted by No. 1 Kentucky at ranked SEC rival No. 23 Mississippi State on Tuesday, Feb. 21, at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.

In addition, ESPN and ESPN2 will offer telecasts of the top three Big 12 teams: No. 3 Missouri against Kansas State (Tuesday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. on ESPN2), No. 5 Kansas at Texas A&M (Wednesday, Feb. 22, at 9 p.m. on ESPN2) and No. 10 Baylor at Texas (Monday, Feb. 20, at 9 p.m. on ESPN).

Date	Time (ET)	Matchup	Network
Mon, Feb 20	7 p.m.	Connecticut at Villanova Sean McDonough, Jay Bilas & Bill Raftery	ESPN/ESPN3
		Texas Southern at Mississippi Valley State Adam Amin & Dereck Whittenburg	ESPNU
	7:30 p.m.	East Tennessee State at Lipscomb	ESPN3
	9 p.m.	No. 10 Baylor at Texas Dave Pasch, Bob Knight & Holly Rowe	ESPN/ESPN3
		DePaul at St. John’s Carter Blackburn & Tim Welsh	ESPNU
Tue, Feb 21	7 p.m.	Illinois at No. 6 Ohio State Mike Tirico & Dan Dakich	ESPN/ESPN3
		Kansas State at No. 3 Missouri John Saunders & Doug Gottlieb	ESPN2/ESPN3
		Auburn at No. 12 Florida Dari Nowkhah & Dino Gaudio	ESPNU
	9 p.m.	No. 1 Kentucky at No. 23 Mississippi State Brad Nessler, Jimmy Dykes & Shannon Spake	ESPN/ESPN3
		No. 22 Virginia at Virginia Tech Carter Blackburn & Jay Williams	ESPNU
Wed, Feb 22	7 p.m.	West Virginia at No. 25 Notre Dame Rece Davis, Bob Knight & Digger Phelps	ESPN2/ESPN3
		James Madison at Drexel Adam Amin & LaPhonso Ellis	ESPNU
		George Mason at Northeastern	ESPN3
		Hofstra at William & Mary	ESPN3
		Delaware at Towson	ESPN3
	9 p.m.	No. 5 Kansas at Texas A&M Jon Sciambi & Fran Fraschilla	ESPN2/ESPN3
		Texas Tech at Iowa State Mitch Holthus & Miles Simon	ESPNU
	11 p.m.	UC Santa Barbara at Long Beach State Roxy Bernstein & Sean Farnham	ESPN2/ESPN3

That will do it.

ESPN Family of Networks’ College Basketball Games For Rest of The Week

I gave you the ESPN BracketBusters schedule. Here’s the rest of the ESPN Family of Networks schedule for the rest of this week through Sunday. And it includes the BracketBusters games as well. Plenty of games.

Some of the highlights include: Wisconsin at Michigan State on ESPN tonight, Ohio State at Michigan on ESPN Saturday night and St. Mary’s at Murray State on ESPN early Saturday evening.

Here’s the schedule for you.

Ranked Teams in Big Ten Square Off; No. 3 Missouri in Rematch with Oklahoma State

ESPN’s upcoming men’s college basketball schedule includes ranked Big Ten teams squaring off and No. 3 Missouri against Oklahoma State, one of two teams to defeat them this year.

ESPN has two Big Ten matchups between ranked teams beginning Thursday, Feb. 16, with No. 17 Wisconsin at No. 8 Michigan State at 7 p.m. The other conference game pits No. 6 Ohio State at No. 19 Michigan in a Saturday prime-time matchup Feb. 18 at 9 p.m.

ESPN2 and ESPN3 will showcase the Big 12 rematch pitting No. 3 Missouri against Oklahoma State on Wednesday, Feb. 15, at 9 p.m. ET. Oklahoma State defeated Missouri 79 -72 on Jan. 25.

In addition, the 10^th annual Bracketbusters – 13 games with NCAA Championship hopeful teams – Friday and Saturday – takes place Friday and Saturday.  ESPN analyst Dick Vitale will work No. 16 Saint Mary’s at one-loss No. 14 Murray State on ESPN on Saturday, Feb. 18, at 6 p.m.

Date	Time (ET)	Matchup	Network
Thu, Feb 16	7 p.m.	No. 17 Wisconsin at No. 8 Michigan State Dave O’Brien & Stephen Bardo	ESPN/ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Virginia Tech at No. 21 Florida State Mike Patrick, Len Elmore & Jeannine Edwards	ESPN2/ESPN3
	8 p.m.	Iowa at Penn State Jim Barbar & Tim McCormick	ESPNU
	9 p.m.	West Virginia at Pittsburgh Marc Kestecher & Bob Knight	ESPN/ESPN3
	9 p.m.	Vanderbilt at Mississippi Rece Davis & Hubert Davis	ESPN2/ESPN3
	10 p.m.	BYU at San Francisco Mark Neely & Miles Simon	ESPNU
	11 p.m.	No. 24 Gonzaga at Santa Clara Dave Flemmin & Bob Valvano	ESPN2/ESPN3
Fri, Feb 17	7 p.m.	Northern Iowa at Virginia Commonwealth Bob Wischusen & Dan Dakich	ESPN2/ESPN3
	7 p.m.	Columbia at Princeton Doug Sherman & Tim O’Toole	ESPNU
	9 p.m.	BracketBusters: Valparaiso at Loyola Marymount Mark Neely & Miles Simon	ESPNU
Sat, Feb 18	11 a.m.	BracketBusters: Drexel at Cleveland State Adam Amin & Brooke Weisbrod	ESPNU
	Noon	No. 13 Marquette at Connecticut Dave Pasch & Doris Burke	ESPN/ESPN3
	Noon	BracketBusters: Wichita State at Davidson Marc Kestecher & LaPhonso Ellis	ESPN2/ESPN3
	1 p.m.	BracketBusters: Buffalo at South Dakota State Mike Crispino & Bob Valvano	ESPNU
	2 p.m.	No. 3 Missouri at Texas A&M Dave Flemming & Fran Fraschilla	ESPN/ESPN3
	2 p.m.	BracketBusters: Akron at Oral Roberts Rich Hollenberg & Mark Adams	ESPN2/ESPN3
	3 p.m.	BracketBusters: Drake at New Mexico State Dan Gutowsky & Paul Biancardi	ESPNU
	4 p.m.	Clemson at No. 7 North Carolina Mike Patrick & Len Elmore	ESPN/ESPN3
	4 p.m.	BracketBusters: Nevada at Iona Doug Sherman & Sean Farnham	ESPN2/ESPN3
	4 p.m.	Lamar at George Mason	ESPN3
	5 p.m.	BracketBusters: Old Dominion at Missouri State Justin Kutcher & Ron Thompson	ESPNU
	6 p.m.	BracketBusters: No. 16 Saint Mary’s at No. 14 Murray State Dave O’Brien & Dick Vitale	ESPN/ESPN3
	6 p.m.	No. 12 Florida at Arkansas Brad Nessler & Jimmy Dykes	ESPN2/ESPN3
	6:30 p.m.	Florida Atlantic at Middle Tennessee State	ESPN3
	7 p.m.	BYU at Santa Clara Mark Neely & Miles Simon	ESPNU
	7 p.m.	Sears BracketBusters: UNC Asheville at Ohio Jim Barbar & Ronnie Rankin	ESPN3
	7:30 p.m.	USC Upstate at Lipscomb	ESPN3
	8 p.m.	BracketBusters: Texas-Arlington at Weber State Greg Heister & Bill Herenda	ESPN3
	9 p.m.	No. 6 Ohio State at No. 19 Michigan Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas & Erin Andrews	ESPN/ESPN3
	9 p.m.	No. 25 Notre Dame at Villanova Beth Mowins & Tim Welsh	ESPNU
	10 p.m.	BracketBusters: Long Beach State at Creighton Roxy Bernstein & Stephen Bardo	ESPN2/ESPN3
Sun, Feb 19	1 p.m.	No. 2 Syracuse at Rutgers Bob Wischusen & Doris Burke	ESPN/ESPN3
	6 p.m.	ACC Sunday Night Basketball: No. 4 Duke at Boston College Jon Sciambi & Hubert Davis	ESPNU
	7 p.m.	South Florida at Pittsburgh TBD & LaPhonso Ellis	ESPN2/ESPN3

That will do it.

ESPN Unveils Announcer Assignments For BracketBusters

ESPN’s 10th annual college basketball BracketBusters is set for this weekend. Good matchups involving mid-major teams hoping to make an impression for the NCAA Tournament next month. ESPN’s main analyst, Dick Vitale, will be paired with Dave O’Brien for the St. Mary’s at Murray State game on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET.

Other analysts of note include Miles Simon working the Valparaiso at Loyola-Marymount game on Friday, Bob Valvano on the Buffalo-South Dakota State game early Saturday afternoon and Stephen Bardo on the nightcap game Saturday between Long Beach State and Creighton.

Lots of fun games as bubble teams hope to make an impression on the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee.

BracketBusters starts Friday at 7 p.m. on ESPN2 and concludes with the last game starting at 10 p.m. Saturday. Thirteen games will be played in all.

Here’s the press release from ESPN.

ESPN’s Sears BracketBusters Commentators Pairings Announced for 10th Annual Event

The 10^th annual BracketBusters – a two-day men’s college basketball event pitting NCAA Championship hopefuls – tips off Friday, Feb. 17 and Saturday, Feb. 18 across ESPN networks with a slew of talented announcers. Hall of Fame analyst Dick Vitale, along with play-by-play veteran Dave O’Brien, will have the call of the No. 14 Murray State vs. No. 16 Saint Mary’s matchup Saturday, at 6 p.m. on ESPN and ESPN3.

Also in the BracketBusters field and receiving votes in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ Poll are Creighton, Long Beach State, Nevada, Texas-Arlington and Wichita State.

2012 BracketBusters Schedule (All times are Eastern and are subject to change)

Date	Time	Game/Commentators	Network(s)
Fri, Feb 17	7 p.m.	Northern Iowa at Virginia Commonwealth Bob Wischusen & Dan Dakich	ESPN2/ESPN3
	9 p.m.	Valparaiso at Loyola-Marymount Mark Neely & Miles Simon	ESPNU
Sat, Feb 18	11 a.m.	Drexel at Cleveland State Adam Amin & Brooke Weisbrod	ESPNU
	noon	Wichita State at Davidson Marc Kestecher & LaPhonso Ellis	ESPN2/ESPN3
	1 p.m.	Buffalo at South Dakota State Mike Crispino & Bob Valvano	ESPNU
	2 p.m.	Akron at Oral Roberts Rich Hollenberg  & Mark Adams	ESPN2/ESPN3
	3 p.m.	Drake at New Mexico State Dan Gutowsky & Paul Biancardi	ESPNU
	4 p.m.	Nevada at Iona Doug Sherman & Sean Farnham	ESPN2/ ESPN3
	5 p.m.	Old Dominion at Missouri State Justin Kutcher & Ron Thompson	ESPNU
	6 p.m.	No. 16 Saint Mary’s at No. 14 Murray State Dave O’Brien & Dick Vitale	ESPN/ESPN3
	7 p.m.	UNC Asheville at Ohio Jim Barbar & Reggie Rankin	ESPN3
	8 p.m.	Texas-Arlington at Weber State Greg Heister & Bill Herenda	ESPN3
	10 p.m.	Long Beach State at Creighton Roxy Bernstein & Stephen Bardo	ESPN2/ESPN3

That’s going to do it.

Colonial Athletic Association Signs 5-Year Deal With NBC Sports Group

Becoming the first college sports conference to sign with the NBC Sports Group, the Colonial Athletic Association signs a five year deal giving TV and digital rights to NBC Sports Network, Comcast SportsNet and NBCSports.com.

Over the life of the contract that begins with the 2012-13 season, NBC Sports Network will air give CAA football games, at least 12 men’s basketball games as well as the CAA Tournament semifinals and championship game.

The Comcast SportsNet regional affiliates will air 13 regular season football games along with 39 men’s and women’s basketball games, the CAA Men’s Tournament quarterfinals plus the CAA Women’s Tournament.

Additional CAA championships will be streamed on NBCSports.com. We have the joint CAA/NBC Sports Group press release below.

CAA AND NBC SPORTS GROUP REACH FIVE-YEAR AGREEMENTS FOR NATIONAL BASKETBALL AND FOOTBALL RIGHTS

RICHMOND, Va. – February 13, 2012 – The Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) has reached five-year agreements with the NBC Sports Group that will provide the most extensive and comprehensive exposure of the conference in its history with coverage on NBC Sports Network and across the group’s regional sports networks.

The agreements, which begin with the 2012-13 season and runs through 2016-17, will provide national television coverage of CAA men’s basketball and football games on the NBC Sports Network, regional television coverage of CAA men’s and women’s basketball and football through the Comcast SportsNet regional networks and coverage of a variety of other CAA sports through NBCSports.com. The CAA is the first collegiate athletic conference to sign a broadcast agreement with the NBC Sports Network, which launched on January 2, 2012.

“We are thrilled to be associated with the NBC Sports Group,” CAA Commissioner Tom Yeager said. “The NBC Sports Network now provides a national platform to elevate the conference in conjunction with the relationship we’ve had with the Comcast SportsNets, which have been the foundation of our television package for almost three decades.”

“We are very excited to begin our new relationship with the Colonial Athletic Association and extend our college sports offerings,” said Michael Sheehey, Senior Vice President, Sports Content and College Sports, NBC Sports Group. “Given our unique four-tier portfolio of assets, we are able to deliver high-quality production of the conference’s football, basketball and other sports to viewers nationally, regionally and online unlike anyone else.

NBC Sports Network will provide national television coverage for a minimum of 12 men’s basketball games each year, including the semifinals and finals of the CAA Men’s Basketball Championship. In addition, the NBC Sports Network will televise a minimum of five CAA Football games annually. CAA Football is regarded as the top conference in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision.

The Comcast SportsNet regional networks, which have partnered with the CAA for the past 28 years, will regionally televise 39 additional men’s and women’s basketball games, including the quarterfinals of the CAA Men’s Basketball Championship and the semifinals and finals of the CAA Women’s Basketball Championship. The Comcast Sports Group will also televise an additional 13 regular-season CAA Football games.

Throughout the term of the agreement, there are plans to telecast numerous additional CAA games and various CAA championships on NBCSports.com.

SUMMARY OF CAA AGREEMENT WITH THE NBC SPORTS GROUP

• 12 national telecasts of CAA men’s basketball games, including national television coverage of the semifinals and finals of the CAA Men’s Basketball Championship for the first time.
• Five national telecasts of CAA Football games for the first time in conference history.
• A strong regional television package maintained with the Comcast SportsNet regional networks, featuring 39 men’s and women’s basketball games and 13 football games.
• Numerous other CAA games and CAA championships broadcast on NBCSports.com.

The Colonial Athletic Association is a 12-member Division I athletic conference with a geographic footprint that stretches from Boston to Atlanta and encompasses five of the nation’s nine largest metropolitan areas. The CAA has had two men’s basketball teams (George Mason – 2006, VCU – 2011) and one women’s basketball team (Old Dominion – 1997) advance to the NCAA Final Four and has produced 16 national team champions in five different sports. Member schools include the University of Delaware, Drexel University, George Mason University, Georgia State University, Hofstra University, James Madison University, the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, Northeastern University, Old Dominion University, Towson University, Virginia Commonwealth University and the College of William and Mary.

CAA Football is an 11-member Division I conference that competes in the Football Championship Subdivision. CAA Football has produced five national champions (Massachusetts – 1998, Delaware – 2003, James Madison – 2004, Richmond – 2008, Villanova – 2009) and has had a team advance to the national title game in five of the last six years. Member schools include the University of Delaware, Georgia State University, James Madison University, the University of Maine, the University of New Hampshire, Old Dominion University, the University of Rhode Island, the University of Richmond, Towson University, Villanova University and the College of William and Mary.

More stuff as it becomes available.

Bringing Out Some Saturday Links

Been battling the stomach flu over the last 24 hours which is why you haven’t seen new posts since the Weekend Viewing Picks. My apologies for that. Still feeling a bit blue over the flu and running to the bathroom every 15 minutes, but I’m getting better now. Been a tough winter for me getting sick, but hopefully, the spring will bring better health.

Let’s bring you some overdue linkage.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today says lucrative TV deals have emboldened the Anaheim Angels and Texas Rangers in the free agent market.

Brian Lowry at FoxSports.com rates the Super Bowl ads.

The Nielsen Wire blog says one particular Doritos Super Bowl ad is the Most-Liked.

Fred Frommer of the Associated Press has a feature story on how President Richard Nixon offered to keep the old NFL blackout rule in place if it lifted the local blackout on a home DC NFL team.

Alec Banks of Complex has the “20 Hottest Women in the History of ESPN” and I totally disagree with the list. If you’re going history, no Karie Ross? No Melissa Stark? This list is faulty.

The new radio voice of the Pawtucket Red Sox, Aaron Goldsmith goes behind-the-scenes of taping a new radio spot.

Multichannel News says NBC Sports Network has hired an ESPN executive to head up its original programming department.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Michael Bradley feels the media coverage of Gisele Bündchen’s comments after the Super Bowl were much ado about nothing, but he feels it could be the future of sports media.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid has video of Jeremy Lin’s insane spin move on Derek Fisher during last night’s Lakers-Knicks game.

Dan notes that Fox Sports Jason Whitlock made a racist penis joke about Jeremy Lin and Twitter responded.

Boston Sports Media Watch’s Bruce Allen writes in SB Nation Boston that sports can be fun, except with the Boston Sports Media.

The Connecticut Post reports that YES Network Nets and Yankees studio host Bob Lorenz was arrested this week on DUI charges.

The New York Times’ Melissa Hoppert spends 30 seconds with NHL Network host Kathryn Tappen.

Richard Sandomir of the Times says not even Linsanity can get the Knicks back on Time Warner Cable.

Richard says the Mets have hired a replacement for radio announcer Wayne Hagin.

Pete Dougherty from the Albany Times Union talks with CBS college basketball analyst Clark Kellogg.

Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times writes that Nanci Donnellan, a.k.a. The Fabulous Sports Babe, is in very bad health.

Brent Schrotenboer of the San Diego Union-Tribune talks with a former local sports talk show host who was fired from his job for making several derogatory remarks about a women’s college basketball analyst.

NBC San Diego also has an interview with the host who originally did not apologize for his remarks.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News laments the shrinking number of sports media reporters in Southern California.

Tom has a couple of notes that didn’t make his column.

Ben Koo at Awful Announcing is fascinated by ESPN’s extensive film library.

Sports Media Watch says the audience for Fox’s second live English Premier League broadcast grew slightly, but had the same rating.

SMW says this week’s Duke-North Carolina game had higher ratings from last year.

Lorenzo Arguello has video of ESPN’s Erin Andrews getting chatty with Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover model Brooklyn Decker at last week’s GQ Super Bowl party.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says NBCSports.com will stream all of the out-of-market early games from next weekend’s Hockey Day in America.

Dave Kohl of The Broadcast Booth says sports radio hosts getting personal is when they cross over the line.

We’ll end the linkage there.

College Basketball Viewing Picks for 02/11 & 02/12/12, All Times Eastern

Men’s Schedule Courtesy of Matt’s College Sports on TV

Saturday, February 11

College GameDay live from Nashville, TN — ESPNU, 10 a.m./ESPN,11 a.m./ESPN, 8 p.m.

11 a.m.
Butler at Cleveland State — ESPN2
Ball State at Kent State — ESPNU

noon
DePaul at Notre Dame — Big East Network: Cox Sports Television/MASN/SNY
James Madison at Towson — Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/The Comcast Network
Louisville at West Virginia — ESPN
IPFW at Oakland — Fox College Sports Atlantic/Fox Sports Detroit

Women’s: Navy at Army — CBS Sports Network

1 p.m.
Miami at Florida State — ACC Network
Virginia at North Carolina — ACC Network
UConn at Syracuse — CBS
Arkansas-Little Rock at Middle Tennessee — ESPN2
Nebraska at Penn State — ESPNU
Dayton at Fordham — YES

1:30 p.m.
Baylor at Missouri — Big 12 Network
Georgia at Mississippi State — SEC Network
South Carolina at Arkansas — SEC Network

2 p.m.
Virginia Commonwealth at Old Dominion — Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Comcast SportsNet New England/CSS/The Comcast Network
Kansas State at Texas — ESPN
Western Kentucky at Troy — Fox College Sports Central
Utah at Arizona — Fox Sports Net (national)

2:30 p.m.
Navy at Army — CBS Sports Network

3 p.m.
New Mexico State at Utah State — ESPN2
Cincinnati at Marquette — ESPNU

3:30 p.m.
Wyoming at New Mexico — the mtn.

4 p.m.
Duquense at St. Bonaventure — A-10: CSS/The Comcast Network
Oklahoma at Kansas — Big 12 Network
Texas A&M at Iowa State — Big 12 Network
Maryland at Duke — ESPN
Cal at UCLA — Fox Sports Net (national)
Clemson at Wake Forest — Fox Sports Net: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Fox Sports Arizona Plus/Fox Sports Florida/Fox Sports North Plus/Fox Sports South/NESN
San Diego State at UNLV — NBC Sports Network
Tennessee at Florida — SEC Network

Women’s: Georgetown at UConn — Big East Network: Comcast SportsNet New England/MASN/SNY

4:30 p.m.
Women’s: Charlotte at Duquense — CBS Sports Network

5 p.m.
Wichita State at Creighton — ESPN2
George Washington at Richmond — ESPNU

6 p.m.
Pepperdine at BYU — BYU TV/Fox Sports West
Michigan State at Ohio State — ESPN

Women’s: Texas A&M at Baylor — Fox Sports Net (national)
Women’s: Air Force at Boise State — the mtn.

6:30 p.m.
Colorado at Arizona State — Fox College Sports Pacific/Root Sports Rocky Mountain/Fox Sports Arizona

Women’s: TCU at Colorado State — CBS Sports Network

7 p.m.
Alabama at LSU — ESPN2
Harvard at Princeton — ESPNU
Auburn at Mississippi — Fox Sports Net: Fox Sports Houston/Fox Sports South/Fox Sports Southwest/Sun Sports

8 p.m.
Western Illinois at Oral Roberts — Fox College Sports Central

8:30 p.m.
Colorado State at TCU — the mtn.

9 p.m.
Boise State at Air Force — CBS Sports Network
Kentucky at Vanderbilt — ESPN
Xavier at Temple — ESPN2

11 p.m.
Women’s: USC at Cal — Fox Sports Net (national)

Sunday, February 12

noon
Pittsburgh at Seton Hall — Big East Network: Altitude/Bright House/Cox Sports Television/CSS/MASN/SNY
Stony Brook at Vermont — CBS Sports Network

1 p.m.
Illinois at Michigan — CBS
St. John’s at Georgetown — ESPN
Wisconsin-Green Bay at Detroit — Fox Sports Pacific/Fox Sports Detroit

Women’s: Penn State at Northwestern — Big Ten Network
Women’s: Duke at Florida State — Fox Sports Net: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Fox Sports South/NESN/Sun Sports
Women’s: Kansas at Kansas State — Fox Sports Net (national)

2 p.m.
Women’s: Southern Mississippi at SMU — CBS Sports Network

2:30 p.m.
Play for Kay
ESPN2 Coverage Map
Women’s: Arkansas at Auburn — ESPN2
Women’s: Iowa State at Texas Tech — ESPN2
Women’s: Marquette at DePaul — ESPN2
Women’s: Miami at Maryland — ESPN2

3 p.m.
Bradley at Missouri State — Fox Sports Central/Fox Sports Midwest/Comcast SportsNet Chicago

Women’s: Michigan State at Iowa — Big Ten Network
Women’s: UCLA at Stanford — Fox Sports Net (national)

3:30 p.m.
Women’s: West Virginia at Notre Dame — ESPNU
Women’s: Mississippi at Mississippi State — Fox Sports Net: Fox Sports Southwest Plus/SportSouth/Sun Sports

4:30 p.m.
St. Francis (NY) at Long Island University — Fox Sports Atlantic/MSG Network

5 p.m.
Play for Kay
ESPN2 Coverage Map
Women’s: Florida at South Carolina — ESPN2
Women’s: Purdue at Ohio State — ESPN2
Women’s: St. John’s at Rutgers — ESPN2
Women’s: Wake Forest at North Carolina State — ESPN2

5:30 p.m.
Washington at Oregon State — Fox Sports Net (national)

6 p.m.
Northwestern at Purdue — Big Ten Network
Boston College at Virginia Tech — ESPNU

7:30 p.m.
Stanford at USC — Fox Sports Net (national)

8 p.m.
Evansville at Drake — ESPNU

The CBS Sports Group College Basketball Games This Weekend

We have the press releases from CBS Sports and CBS Sports Network for their college basketball games. Let’s start with CBS’ games for both Saturday and Sunday. Just one game each day.

CBS SPORTS’ SUPER WEEKEND FOR COLLEGE HOOPS HIGHLIGHTED BY NO. 23-RANKED MICHIGAN AT NO. 9-RANKED MICHIGAN STATE AND  NO. 25-RANKED VANDERBILT AT NO. 12-RANKED FLORIDA

CBS Sports’ college basketball schedule continues with regional action on Saturday, Feb. 4 (1:00-3:00 PM, ET) featuring *No. 25-ranked Vanderbilt taking on No. 12-ranked Florida and *No. 15-ranked Marquette playing Notre Dame.  On Sunday, Feb. 5 (1:00-3:00 PM, ET), CBS Sports broadcasts nationally *No. 23-ranked Michigan at No. 9-ranked Michigan State. 

Tim Brando and analyst Bill Raftery will be on-hand at Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, Fla. to handle the call for Vanderbilt at Florida. Ross Schneiderman produces and Suzanne Smith directs. Kevin Harlan and Greg Anthony team up for Marquette at Notre Dame from the Joyce Center in Notre Dame, Ind. Steve Scheer produces and Andy Goldberg directs.

Verne Lundquist joins CBS Sports’ lead college basketball analyst Clark Kellogg to call the action from the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Mich. for the Michigan-Michigan State game.  Bob Dekas, CBS Sports’ coordinating producer for college basketball, produces and Bob Fishman directs.

AT THE HALF^®, CBS Sports’ halftime studio show, hosted by Ian Eagle along with Sports Illustrated’s Seth Davis, provides all the day’s news, scores and highlights live from the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City. Vin DeVito produces and Jim Cornell directs. Harold Bryant is Executive Producer and Vice President, Production, CBS Sports.

In addition, CBS Sports will stream all three weekend games, as well as select games from the entire 2011-12 college basketball schedule, live on CBSSports.com. The games are available exclusively on CBSSports.com and CBS Sports Mobile.

*AP Poll as of 1/30/12

And we have CBS Sports Network’s games for this weekend as well.

MOUNTAIN WEST CONTEST HIGHLIGHTS COLLEGE BASKETALL ACTION ON CBS SPORTS NETWORK

CBS Sports Network features three college basketball games on Saturday, including a Mountain West matchup between Air Force and Colorado State (5:00 PM, ET). James Bates and Steve Lappas handle the call from Moby Arena in Fort Collins, Colo.

Saturday’s action tips-off with a women’s doubleheader beginning with Saint Joseph’s at Richmond (1:00 PM, ET). Jason Knapp and Brenda VanLengen announce at Robins Center in Richmond, Va. San Diego State-TCU (3:00 PM, ET) follows from Daniel-Meyer Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas. Brent Stover and Tammy Blackburn call the action.

Women’s basketball returns to CBS Sports Network tonight, Thursday, Feb. 2 as Tulane visits ECU at Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum in Greenville, N.C. Jason Knapp and Krista Blunk announce.

For more information, including a full programming schedule and how to get CBS Sports Network, go to www.cbssportsnetwork.com.

That’s it.

The Super Bowl Weekend Megalinks

Let’s do some linkage on this Super Bowl Weekend.

The Weekend Viewing Picks have my sports and entertainment suggestions.

Time for your links. As you can imagine, many of the stories will deal with Sunday’s Super Bowl.

National

Michael Hiestand of USA Today talks with NBC’s Bob Costas about his past experiences in hosing a Super Bowl pregame show.

The Nielsen Wire Blog has a look at the 10 Most Liked Super Bowl ads in the last five years.

Daisy Whitney at MediaPost says a large portion of viewers go online to look up information about a Super Bowl ad.

Wayne Friedman of MediaPost writes that the Super Bowl is reaching almost half of all female viewers.

Peter Pachal of Mashable says NBC will hold a Google+ hangout to after the Super Bowl to discuss the ads.

Marisa Guthrie of the Hollywood Reporter talks with NBC Sports Group Fearless Leader Mark Lazarus about the Super Bowl, winning the Olympics and losing Wimbledon to ESPN.

John Eggerton in Broadcasting & Cable writes that a fan lobbying group hopes the FCC will call for the elimination of the NFL’s antiquated TV blackout rules.

John says a Michigan man has been charged with illegally streaming NFL games online.

Thomas Umstead from Multichannel News says Saturday’s UFC pay per view event will be available in 3-D for the first time.

Todd Spangler of Multichannel looks at Verizon’s streaming of Sunday’s Super Bowl on select mobile devices.

Adweek talks with Sports Illustrated/NBC’s Peter King.

Tim Nudd from Adweek notes the return of the E*Trade baby to the Super Bowl.

The International Olympic Committee has awarded the Japanese rights for the 2014/16 Games at a much lower rate than the US rights paid by NBC.

Robert Livingston at Games Bid says the 2014 Olympics in Sochi will be the first to be produced in 3-D TV.

André Lowe of the Jamaica (yes the country) Gleaner says ESPN has gathered some former NFL players in a cruise ship for the Super Bowl at Sea. I’m not making this up.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch talks with The Big Lead’s Jason McIntyre about his recent profile of ESPN Radio Hack Colin Cowherd.

Allison Stoneberg at ESPN’s Front Row discusses how the network’s producers book guests for the studio and radio shows during Super Bowl Week.

Jack Dickey at Deadspin explains how the New York Times really messed up the story of former Yale quarterback Patrick Witt.

Dylan Stableford at Yahoo’s The Cutline explains why the Puppy Bowl has become so popular on Super Bowl Sunday.

Sports Media Watch delves into the expanded NFL Network Thursday Night Football schedule.

SMW has a few ratings news and notes including one on the Winter X Games.

Ken Kerschbaumer of Sports Video Group goes behind the scenes with NBC’s Super Bowl production crew.

Jason Dachman of SVG goes into NBC’s first-ever online streaming of the Super Bowl.

And Dan Daily from SVG writes about this year’s Super Bowl World Feed.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says Wednesday night NHL games are doing well for NBC Sports Network.

Northeast & Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe speaks with NBC’s Rodney Harrison on the unspoken revenge factor for the New England Patriots in this year’s Super Bowl.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette has NBC’s Cris Collinsworth talking about the Super Bowl.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says one of the Mets’ TV partners may help to bail out the team from its financial troubles.

Judy Battista of the Times reports on the expanded Thursday Night Football schedule.

Stuart Elliot of the Times says the Shazam mobile app will play a prominent role during many Super Bowl ads.

A rare appearance by Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News in the links. He has his Top 5 Super Bowl announcing teams of all-time.

Phil Mushnick from the New York Post has some Super Bowl storylines the media has missed.

Ken Schott at the Schenectady Gazette looks at the NFL Network announcement of five more games added to Thursday Night Football.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has NFL Commish Roger Goodell shooting down rumors of more Monday Night Football doubleheaders.

Pete says Commissioner Goodell is firing a warning shot at Time Warner Cable.

Pete reviews the 11 men who have called a Super Bowl on network television.

The Crossing Broad blog says the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer may be on a slow death march to oblivion.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call discusses NBC’s coverage of Super Bowl XLVI.

South

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle notes that NBC’s Rodney Harrison may be an ex-New England Patriots, but he says he can remain fair.

David says NFL Network gets a beefed up schedule next season.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman says NBC’s Cris Collinsworth gets to call his second Super Bowl on TV.

Mel notes that College GameDay will be covering the Big 12 on Saturday.

Midwest

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer notes that one local radio show will be on radio row in Indianapolis today.

Scott Olson of the Indianapolis Business Journal says ESPN is very happy about choosing Pan Am Plaza as its Super Bowl headquarters this week.

The Indianapolis Star has what journalists are saying about the city as a Super Bowl host.

Bob Wolfley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says two participants in last year’s Big Game will be on NBC’s Super Bowl pregame show.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says Cardinals TV voice Dan McLaughlin will return to call games this season.

Steve Walentik of the Columbia (MO) Tribune calls ESPN’s Jay Bilas, “College Hoops’ Deepest Thinker.” Ok.

West

John Maffei of the North County Times says Al Michaels still loves calling Super Bowls.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star says Michaels is hoping for overtime.

Jim has NBC’s Rodney Harrison keeping the David Tyree catch from Super Bowl XLVII in proper perspective.

Richard Varrier of the Los Angeles Times looks at the Fed crackdown on websites that were illegally streaming NFL games.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News talks with former Lakers voice Paul Sunderland and lists the 20 best play-by-play men in Southern California.

Tom has more about Paul in his blog and adds a couple of media notes.

Canada

Susan Krashinsky of the Toronto Globe and Mail explains why Canada can’t see the U.S. Super Bowl ads in real time.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog has NBC’s Super Bowl production by the numbers.

And that’s going to do it for the links. Enjoy the Big Game.

College Basketball Viewing Picks for 02/04 & 02/05/2012, All Times Eastern

Men’s Schedule courtesy of Matt’s College Sports on TV

Saturday, February 4

College GameDay live from Columbia, MO — ESPNU, 10 a.m./ESPN, 11 a.m./ESPN, 8 p.m.

11 a.m.
South Florida at Georgetown — ESPNU

noon
LaSalle at St. Joseph – A-10 Network: CSS/The Comcast Network
Seton Hall at UConn — Big East Network: Bright House/MASN/SNY
Syracuse at St. John’s — ESPN
Detroit at Butler — ESPN2

1 p.m.
Virginia at Florida State — ACC Network
Wake Forest at North Carolina State — ACC Network
Marquette at Notre Dame — CBS
Vanderbilt at Florida — CBS
Boston College at Georgia Tech — ESPNU
Xavier at Memphis — Fox Sports Net (national)

Women’s: St. Joseph’s at Richmond — CBS Sports Network

1:30 p.m.
Baylor at Oklahoma State — Big 12 Network
Arkansas at LSU — SEC Network

2 p.m.
Delaware at James Madison — CSS/The Comcast Network
Ohio State at Wisconsin — ESPN
Temple at URI — ESPN2

Women’s: Providence at Villanova — Big East Network: Comcast SportsNet New England/SNY

3 p.m.
Penn State at Iowa — ESPNU
Arizona at Stanford — Fox Sports Net (national)

Women’s: San Diego State at TCU — CBS Sports Network

4 p.m.
Rutgers at Louisville — Big East Network: Bright House/MASN/SNY
Texas A&M at Kansas State — Big 12 Network
Clemson at Virginia Tech — Fox Sports Net: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic Plus/Fox Sports Florida/Fox Sports North Plus/Fox Sports South/NESN
New Mexico at Boise State — NBC Sports Network
Auburn at Mississippi State — SEC Network
UNLV at Wyoming — the mtn.

5 p.m.
Air Force at Colorado State — CBS Sports Network
Old Dominion at George Mason — ESPNU
UCLA at Washington State — Fox College Sports Atlantic/Root Sports Northwest
Creighton at Northern Iowa — Fox College Sports Central/Comcast SportsNet Chicago/Fox Sports Midwest

Women’s: Central Florida at Memphis — Fox Sports Net (national)

6 p.m.
Kentucky at South Carolina — ESPN
Iowa at Oklahoma — ESPN2

7 p.m.
DePaul at Cincinnati — Big East Network: Bright House/MASN/SNY
Indiana at Purdue — Big Ten Network
Northeastern at VCU — Comcast SportsNet New England/CSS/The Comcast Network
Richmond at Duquense — ESPNU
Texas Tech at Texas — Longhorn Network

Women’s: Wyoming at UNLV — the mtn.

8 p.m.
Mississippi at Alabama — ESPN2
South Alabama at Western Kentucky — Fox College Sports Atlantic
Georgia at Tennessee — Fox Sports Net: Fox Sports Houston/Fox Sports North Plus/Fox Sports South/Fox Sports Southwest

8:30 p.m.
Portland State at Northern Arizona — Fox College Sports Pacific

9 p.m.
Kansas at Missouri — ESPN
Cal-Santa Barbara at Cal State-Fullerton — ESPNU
Oregon at Cal — Fox College Sports Central/Root Sports Northwest

10 p.m.
BYU at Portland — BYU TV
Indiana State at Wichita State — ESPN2
TCU at San Diego State — the mtn.

11 p.m.
USC at Washington — Fox Sports Net (national)

Sunday, February 5

11 a.m.
Women’s: Dayton at Xavier — ESPNU

noon
West Virginia at Providence — Big East Network: Altitude/Bright House/Cox Sports RI/Cox Sports Television/CSS/MASN/SNY

Women’s: UTEP at Rice — Fox Sports Net (national)

1 p.m.
Minnesota at Nebraska — Big Ten Network
Michigan at Michigan State — CBS

Women’s: DePaul at Notre Dame — ESPNU
Women’s: Wake Forest at Boston College — Fox Sports Net (regional): Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Fox Sports Fox Sports Florida/Fox Sports South/NESN

2 p.m.
Villanova at Pittsburgh — ESPN

Women’s: Missouri at Texas Tech — Fox Sports Net (national)
Women’s: Auburn at Tennessee — SEC Network

3 p.m.
Northwestern at Illinois — Big Ten Network
Miami (FL) at Duke — ESPNU

Women’s: Georgia at Alabama — Fox Sports Net (regional): Fox Sports Florida/SportSouth

4 p.m.
Women’s: Washington at USC — Fox Sports Net (national)

Doing Some Friday Megalinks

With a rainy day in Southern New England, it’s time to provide you with some media links. Lots of them on a Friday.

You can check out the Weekend Viewing Picks for the sports and entertainment programming suggestions.

Now to the links.

National

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand talks with NBC’s Al Michaels about calling his 8th Super Bowl and 2nd for NBC.

Mike Ozanian from Forbes says NFL TV rightsholders will be able to reap financial benefits while non-rightsholders end up holding the bag.

Sam Mamudi of Marketwatch.com says you can follow along the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter results in real time thanks to a new Facebook app.

Michael O’Connell from the Hollywood Reporter has a sneak peek at some of the Super Bowls ads.

Kelly McBride of the ESPN Poynter Review Project looks at why ESPN made so much of Tim Tebow.

Alex Klein at Romanesko looks into why the Yale Daily News sat on a story for several months and how it took the New York Times to report on former quarterback Patrick Witt’s alleged sexual assault on campus. You may remember that Witt was a candidate to become a Rhodes Scholar but then skipped his interview. Now we know why.

Todd Spangler at Multichannel News says ESPN will let viewers see additional highlights and material from the Winter X Games via the Shazam mobile app.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel writes that NBC Sports Network goes into the NHL All-Star Weekend with increased ratings for the games.

Austin Karp of Sports Business Daily also has a story on the increased NHL ratings for NBC Sports Network.

Gabriel Beltrone from Adweek says Coke will have a Super Bowl microsite where its famous polar bears will react to the game and ads in real time.

David Gianatasio of Adweek writes one local Super Bowl spot will urge you to pee during its commercial.

E.J. Schultz at Advertising Age has Anheuser-Busch’s Super Bowl plans.

Matt Hardigree at Jalopnik says he’s solved the mystery behind the advertiser behind the Ferris Bueller-themed Super Bowl spot.

Adam Jacobi, the college football writer at CBSSports.com, who put the link to Onward State’s erroneous tweet about Joe Paterno’s death last Saturday has been fired. Jacobi says he understands the decision and has apologized to the Paterno family for his mistake.

Brandon Costa of Sports Video Group says NBC will take a lighter approach for Sunday’s NFL Pro Bowl in Hawaii.

Harry A. Jessell at TV NewsCheck notes that while the national TV ratings for the NFL are good, go inside the local numbers and they’re even better.

ESPN PR man Bill Hofheimer gives you an inside look at the network’s Super Bowl studios in Indianapolis.

Sports Media Watch says college basketball ratings are up on both ESPN and ESPN2.

SMW has some news and notes on some various people in the sports media.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing goes into some of the on-screen typos on TV this week.

Jeff Pearlman gets vindication from Chris “Mad Dog” Russo.

Steven Crist from the Daily Racing Form feels returning the Breeders Cup to NBC can only help horse racing.

All Access says a Hartford, CT FM station has flipped to all-sports.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe says NESN has selected the replacement for Heidi Watney on its Red Sox broadcasts.

Chad says of all of the local TV outlets, Comcast SportsNet New England will have the largest contingent covering the Super Bowl in Indianapolis.

Johnny Diaz from the Globe says Boston DirecTV subscribers will see the Super Bowl after all.

Bill Doyle from the Worcester Telegram & Gazette talks with NBC’s Rodney Harrison about Super Bowl XLII and how some present New England Patriots still remaining from the game want revenge.

Stuart Elliot at the New York Times says some Super Bowl advertisers are returning buyers.

Richard Sandomir of the Times has Joe Namath’s reaction to the HBO/NFL Films documentary on his career that premieres tomorrow.

Richard adds that Namath is right now estranged from his former team, the New York Jets.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post says the Namath documentary for the most part is good.

Justin Terranova of the Post speaks with NBC NHL charlatan Pierre McGuire.

Mike Silva at Sports Media Watchdog wonders why Kim Jones left YES.

Pete Dougherty from the Albany Times Union says a local sports talk show will broadcast live from the Super Bowl next week.

Pete talks with the host of that talk show who also wears other hats in the Albany market.

Ken McMillan from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says NYC residents will be able to hear the local and national radio calls of the Super Bowl next Sunday.

The Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News notes the firing of a CBSSports.com writer for falsely reporting Joe Paterno’s death.

DCRTV’s Dave Hughes at Press Row has media notes from the Baltimore-DC area.

South

The Tallahassee (FL) Democrat writes that a local sports talk show host who left his former station this week will be back on the air at another station later this year.

Billy Cox of the Sarasota (FL) Herald Tribune says ESPN’s Dick Vitale will be the subject of a profile produced by ….. ESPN!

Josh Bowe of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says Fox Sports Southwest will stream Lone Star Conference football games and a highlight show over the internet.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle talks with a retiring local sports anchor who looks back at the 2011 Texans rather fondly.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman reviews the HBO/NFL Films documentary on Joe Namath.

Mel says ESPNU will be all over National Signing Day.

Midwest

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer talks with former Bengal Artrell Hawkins who is now co-hosting Fox Sports Radio’s national morning show.

Jeff Moss of the Detroit Sports Rag looks into the new program director and on-air host of a local sports radio station.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Wisconsin sports teams did well in the national TV ratings last year.

Dan McGrath of the Chicago News Cooperative notes the 20 year anniversary of sports talk radio in the Windy City.

Paul Christian of the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin says new Minnesota Twins radio voice Cory Provus has big shoes to fill.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch talks with Bob Costas about returning to host his familiar town hall format next week.

West

Thomas Harding of MLB.com says Root Sports Rocky Mountain’s Alana Rizzo is leaving the network’s Colorado Rockies broadcast team and heading for MLB Network.

John Maffei at the North County Times says HBO’s documentary on Joe Namath is on par with previous efforts.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star also reviews the documentary.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News talks with Kings radio analyst Daryl Evans and also lists his best/worst LA broadcast analysts.

Tom has more on Evans in his blog.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says it’s time to play the NHL All-Star Game outdoors.

And that will do it.

CBS Airs Two College Basketball Games This Weekend

Details of the games are below.

BIG TEN BATTLE BETWEEN MICHIGAN AND OHIO STATE HIGHLIGHTS CBS SPORTS’ COLLEGE BASKETBALL LINE-UP ON SATURDAY, JAN. 28 AND SUNDAY, JAN. 29

CBS Sports’ college basketball schedule continues on Saturday, Jan. 28 (1:00-3:00 PM, ET) with national coverage of *No. 6-ranked Baylor taking on Texas. On Sunday, Jan. 29 (1:00-3:00 PM, ET), CBS Sports broadcasts nationally *No. 4-ranked Ohio State hosts *No. 20-ranked Michigan. 

Verne Lundquist joins CBS Sports’ lead college basketball analyst Clark Kellogg to call the action at Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas for the Baylor-Texas contest. Bob Dekas, CBS Sports’ coordinating producer for college basketball, produces and Bob Fishman directs.

Kevin Harlan is joined courtside by Bill Raftery for the call from Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio for the Ohio State-Michigan game.  Steve Scheer produces and Bryan Lilley directs.

AT THE HALFÒ, CBS Sports’ halftime studio show, hosted by Tracy Wolfson provides all the day’s news, scores and highlights live from the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City. Vin DeVito produces and Jim Cornell directs. Harold Bryant is Executive Producer and Vice President, Production, CBS Sports.

In addition, CBS Sports will stream the Ohio State-Michigan game, as well as select games from the entire 2011-12 college basketball schedule, live on CBSSports.com. The games are available exclusively on CBSSports.com and CBS Sports Mobile.

That’s it.

College Basketball Viewing Picks For 01/28 & 01/29/2012, All Times Eastern

Men’s schedule courtesy of Matt’s College Sports on TV

Saturday, January 28

College GameDay live from Tucson, AZ — ESPNU, 10 a.m./ESPN, 11 a.m. & 6 p.m.

11 a.m.
Ball State at Ohio — ESPNU

noon
Wake Forest at Clemson — ACC Network
Hofstra at Northeastern — Comcast SportsNet New England/MSG Plus/The Comcast Network
St. John’s at Duke — ESPN
Marquette at Villanova — ESPN2

Women’s: Notre Dame at St. John’s — Big East Network: MASN/Root Sports Pittsburgh/SNY

12:30 p.m.
Women’s: Kansas State at Oklahoma State — Fox Sports Net (national)

1 p.m.
Texas at Baylor — CBS
West Virginia at Syracuse — ESPNU
George Washington at Fordham — YES

Women’s: St. Bonaventure at LaSalle — CBS Sports Network

1:30 p.m.
Texas Tech at Missouri — Big 12 Network
Arkansas at Alabama — SEC Network
Mississippi State at Florida — SEC Network

2 p.m.
St. Louis at UMass — A-10 Network: Comcast SportsNet New England/CSS
James Madison at George Mason — Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia
Delaware at Drexel — The Comcast Network

2:30 p.m.
Virginia Tech at Maryland — ACC Network

3 p.m.
Tennessee Tech at Morehead State — ESPNU
Tulsa at SMU — Fox Sports Net (national)

Women’s: Purdue at Iowa — Big Ten Network

3:30 p.m.
Wyoming at Boise State — the mtn.

4 p.m.
Oklahoma State at Texas Tech — Big 12 Network
William & Mary at Old Dominion — Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Comcast SportsNet New England/Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia/CSS
Georgetown at Pittsburgh — ESPN
Purdue at Northwestern — ESPN2
Colorado at UCLA — Fox College Sports Pacific/Fox Sports Prime Ticket
San Diego State at Colorado State — NBC Sports Network
Kentucky at LSU — SEC Network

5 p.m.
Colgate at Holy Cross — CBS Sports Network
Northern Iowa at Illinois State — ESPNU
Washington State at Arizona State — Fox College Sports Atlantic/Root Sports Northwest/Fox Sports Arizona

Women’s: Rice at Houston — Fox Sports Net (national)

5:30 p.m.
Women’s: Western Kentucky at Florida International — Fox College Sports Central

6 p.m.
Cincinnati at Rutgers — Big East Network: Altitude/Fox Sports Ohio/MASN/SNY
Auburn at Tennessee — ESPN2
TCU at New Mexico — the mtn.

7 p.m.
URI at Dayton — Cox Sports RI
Washington at Arizona — ESPN
Butler at Wisconsin-Green Bay — ESPNU
Xavier at Charlotte — Fox College Sports Atlantic/Fox Sports Ohio
South Carolina at Mississippi — Fox Sports Net (regional)

Women’s: Oregon at Oregon State — Fox Sports Net (national)

7:30 p.m.
Western Kentucky at Florida International — Fox College Sports Central

8 p.m.
Louisville at Seton Hall — Big East Network: MASN/SNY
Illinois at Minnesota — Big Ten Network
Virginia at NC State — ESPN2
UNLV at Air Force — the mtn.

9 p.m.
St. Mary’s at BYU — ESPNU
Wichita State at Drake — Fox College Sports Central/Comcast SportsNet Chicago/Fox Sports Midwest

9:30 p.m.
Fresno State at New Mexico State — WAC Sports Network/Fox Sports Arizona Plus

10 p.m.
Hawaii at Idaho — ESPN Plus

11 p.m.
Cal State-Fullerton at Long Beach State — ESPNU
Utah at USC — Fox College Sports Pacific/Fox Sports Prime Ticket

Sunday, January 29

noon
Notre Dame at UConn — Big East Network: Altitude/Bright House/Cox Sports Television/MASN/SNY
New Hampshire at Vermont — CBS Sports Network

Women’s: Marshall at Tulane — Fox Sports Net (national)

1 p.m.
Miami (FL) at Boston College — ACC Network
Michigan at Ohio State — CBS

Women’s: Ohio State at Minnesota — Big Ten Network
Women’s: NC State at Virginia Tech — Fox Sports Net (regional)

1:30 p.m.
Women’s: Rutgers at Georgetown — ESPNU

2 p.m.
Women’s: Charlotte at Temple — CBS Sports Network
Women’s: Iowa State at Texas A&M — Fox Sports Net (national)
Women’s: Auburn at Mississippi — Fox Sports Net (regional)

3 p.m.
Women’s: Penn State at Michigan State — ESPN2

3:30 p.m.
Women’s: Florida State at Virginia — ESPNU

4 p.m.
Women’s: UCLA at Colorado — Fox Sports Net (national)

5 p.m.
Women’s: Tennessee at Georgia — ESPN2

6 p.m.
Iowa at Indiana — Big Ten Network
Georgia Tech at North Carolina — ESPNU

6:30 p.m.
Oregon State at Oregon — Fox Sports Net (national)

8 p.m.
Indiana State at Evansville — ESPNU

8:30 p.m.
Stanford at Cal — Fox Sports Net (national)

CBS Airs A College Basketball Tripleheader Today

A busy day for CBS as it airs four college basketball games as part of a tripleheader. Four of the nation’s Top 25 teams will be in action.

Here are the details from CBS.

CBS SPORTS’ COLLEGE BASKETBALL TRIPLEHEADER HIGHLIGHTED BY NO. 2-RANKED KENTUCKY VS. ALABAMA AND  NO. 7-RANKED KANSAS VS. TEXAS ON SATURDAY, JAN. 21

CBS Sports’ college basketball schedule continues with a tripleheader on Saturday, Jan 21 (12:00 NOON-6:00 PM, ET) featuring four of the nation’s top 25 teams and his highlighted by national coverage of *No. 2-ranked Kentucky hosting Alabama (12:00 NOON, ET).  National coverage of *No. 19-ranked Michigan at Arkansas (2:00 PM, ET) follows.  Regional coverage of *No. 7-ranked Kansas taking on Texas and *No. 11-ranked Connecticut playing Tennessee (4:00 PM, ET) follows.

Ian Eagle and analyst Jim Spanarkel will be on hand at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky. to handle the call for Alabama-Kentucky. Steve Scheer produces and Jim Cornell directs.

Kevin Harlan and Bill Raftery are courtside for Michigan-Arkansas from Budd Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark. Victor Frank produces and Mark Grant directs.

Verne Lundquist joins CBS Sports’ lead college basketball analyst Clark Kellogg to handle the call from the Erwin Center in Austin, Texas for Kansas-Texas. Bob Dekas, CBS Sports’ coordinating producer for college basketball, produces and Chris Svendsen directs.

Tim Brando and analyst Greg Anthony call the action from Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn. for UConn-Tennessee. Bob Mansbach produces and Mark Burghart. 

AT THE HALFÒ, CBS Sports’ halftime studio show, hosted by Tracy Wolfson along with Sports Illustrated’s Seth Davis, provides all the day’s news, scores and highlights live from the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City. Vin DeVito produces and Linda Malino directs. Harold Bryant is Executive Producer and Vice President, Production, CBS Sports.

*Coaches Poll as of 1/16/12

There you have it.

Bringing Out Friday Megalinks

The last few Fridays, I haven’t been able to provide you with the megalinks. I have to do some today otherwise you’ll stop visiting me.

We begin as always with the Weekend Viewing Picks and there are quite a few for this snowy weekend in Southern New England.

Now to your links.

National

Michael Hiestand of USA Today talks with Fox Sports’ Terry Bradshaw about Tim Tebow and the upcoming NFC Championship.

Jason Fry, part of the ESPN Poynter Review Project hears sideline reporter Holly Rowe’s side of the story regarding about her now-infamous incident where she shoved a Sugar Bowl staffer away to get an interview with Michigan coach Brady Hoke.

Marisa Guthrie of the Hollywood Reporter looks at HBO’s new unscripted series on boxing trainer Freddie Roach.

The Tampa Bay Times’ Eric Deggans has a review of the Freddie Roach series in the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center.

John Eggerton at Broadcasting & Cable says Massachusetts Senator John Kerry has written a letter to the FCC asking the agency to get involved in the Sunbeam-DirecTV dispute which could affect how viewers in Boston see the Super Bowl.

John says Comcast is seeking a reversal of a Federal decision that ruled in favor of Tennis Channel in their dispute.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News says DirecTV has signed a rights deal to distribute Big Sky football and basketball games.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek says History Channel has purchased a longer ad to promote its series, “Swamp People” during Super Bowl XLVI.

Brian Steinberg from Advertising Age tells us who’s buying what in Super Bowl XLVI.

AdAge looks at the 12 ads that changed Super Bowl marketing forever. Three guesses on number one and the first two don’t count.

Brian says marketers are going longer with their Super Bowl ads this year in an attempt to stand out.

Finally, Brian writes that even though we’re not thinking about next year’s Super Bowl XLVII, CBS already is and has been working on getting an early start on ad sales for that Big Game.

Inside Radio says all of Cumulus’ Bay Area radio stations will simulcast Sunday’s NFC Championship Game.

From across the pond, Amy Lawrence of The Guardian in the UK says Fox airing an English Premier League game live over the air is a big deal.

Kevin Iole of Yahoo looks into NBC Sports Network’s first foray into boxing.

Dan Levy at the Bleacher Report wonders which network can muster enough former NFL talent to drum up a flag football game.

Mac Nwulu of ESPN’s Front Row PR blog has an inside look at the preparation of Sunday NFL Countdown.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing chronicles this week’s Twitter feud between Sports Illusrated’s Richard Deitsch and CNBC’s Darren Rovell.

Speaking of feuds, The Big Lead looks at an internal ESPN squabble between college basketball analyst Jay Bilas and insider Andy Katz.

Sports Media Watch notes that ESPN is making a major scheduling change for the WNBA this year.

SMW has a look at some local NBA and NHL ratings.

Tennis Channel laments not being picked up by Cablevision.

Ken Kerschbaumer of Sports Video Group takes a look at CBS’ and Fox’s preparation for the NFL Conference Championship Games.

Sports TV Jobs has an interesting graphic of sample camera positions at various stadia and arenas.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn from the Boston Globe talks with a former Baltimore Raven who now works in Boston as a weekend sports talk show host.

Bill Doyle at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette interviews legendary Patriots radio voice Gil Santos.

Newsday’s Neil Best says local TV is gearing up for the NFC Championship.

Neil talks with former New York Giants running back and NBC analyst Tiki Barber who makes his return to TV this weekend.

George Vescey at the New York Times looks forward to seeing Sunday’s English Premier League game live on Fox.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick is not a fan of the NFL replay review process.

Justin Terranova of the Post has five questions for CBS Sports’ and WFAN’s Boomer Esiason.

The Albany Times Union’s Pete Dougherty has some NFL TV analysts break down the four quarterbacks still playing for a shot in the Super Bowl.

Ken McMillan from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record has Fox’s Troy Aikman talking about the NFC Championship.

Ken has more from Troy in his blog.

Dave Hughes from DCRTV.com notes in Press Box that last week’s Texans-Ravens game set a local ratings record.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun attempts to get answers from CBS on having Subway endorser Ndamukong Suh on last week’s NFL Today postgame show.

And David has former Ravens QB and current ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer opining on Ed Reed’s comments on current QB Joe Flacco.

Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post says the Nationals are hoping to get more money from MASN as the sides negotiate a new contract.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner talks with the radio voice of the Wizards about his busy schedule.

South

Keith Jarrett at the Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times says the Big South may have to move its Conference Championship Game venue which could effect ESPN’s scheduling.

Jon Solomon of the Birmingham (AL) News says SEC partners CBS and ESPN want better scheduling for next football season.

Jerry Tipton of the Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader writes that the SEC’s basketball coaches aren’t happy over the scheduling-for-TV moves this season.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says the Texans’ flagship radio station hopes to build on the team’s momentum when their new contract kicks in next season.

David has some news and notes that didn’t make his column.

Nancy Sarnoff of the Chronicle says NBC Sports Group is looking for a new facility to house the Comcast SportsNet Houston regional sports network which launches later this year.

Mel Bracht from the Daily Oklahoman notes that the Texas Rangers will have multiple appearances on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball.

Midwest

Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press says HBO continues its string of acclaimed sports documentaries.

Bob Wolfley from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says don’t expect NFL Conference Championship Sunday to change its format for the foreseeable future.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business has his winners and losers in sports business and media.

Patrick Reusse of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune feels Fox Sports North just cheerleads for Minnesota teams and won’t criticize them.

Paul Christian from the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin looks at Fox Sports North’s Hockey Day in Minnesota schedule.

Dan Caesar at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has CBS Sports President Sean McManus wanting to keep the status quo for NFL Conference Championship Sunday.

West

John Maffei of the North County Times looks at MLB Network’s first-ever game show which premieres next week.

Jim Carlisle from the Ventura County Star says CBS was hoping to get Tim Tebow for its NFL Today pregame show on Sunday, but he declined.

At the Los Angeles Daily News, Tom Hoffarth profiles Fox Sports West host Patrick O’Neal and has his list of best and worst local sports anchors.

Tom has a bit more on O’Neal.

Canada

Bob Weeks in the Toronto Globe and Mail notes that CBC has gotten out of the curling business, a sport it has televised since 1962.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Globe and Mail says the Raptors may be suffering on the court, but not on TV.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog looks at the International Olympic Committee throwing out CTV/CBC’s joint bid to air the 2014/2016 Games.

And that is it. Glad to be able to provide the Megalinkage for you.

College Basketball Viewing Picks for 01/21 & 01/22/2012, All Times Eastern

Men’s Schedule Courtesy of Matt’s College Sports on TV

Saturday, January 21

College GameDay live from Pittsburgh, PA — ESPNU, 10 a.m./ESPN, 11 a.m./ESPN, 8 p.m.

11 a.m.
Maryland at Temple — ESPNU

noon
Fordham at St. Bonaventure — A-10 Network: Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia/CSS/The Comcast Network
Wake Forest at Boston College — ACC Network
Rutgers at Georgetown — Big East Network: Bright House/Cox Sports Television/MASN/SNY
Alabama at Kentucky — CBS
Purdue at Michigan State — ESPN

Women’s: Texas at Oklahoma — Fox Sports Net (national)

1 p.m.
Xavier at Dayton — ESPN2
Villanova at St. John’s — ESPNU

Women’s: St. Joseph’s at Xavier — CBS Sports Network

1:30 p.m.
Kansas State at Oklahoma State — Big 12 Network
South Carolina at Auburn — SEC Network

2 p.m.
Michigan at Arkansas — CBS
Missouri at Baylor — ESPN
Central Florida at UAB — Fox Sports Net (national)

Women’s: West Virginia at Pittsburgh — Big East Network

2:30 p.m.
Georgia Tech at Clemson — ACC Network

3 p.m.
Indiana State at Creighton — ESPN2
Cincinnati at West Virginia — ESPNU

Women’s: Wyoming at Colorado State — CBS Sports Network
Women’s: Utah Valley at North Dakota — Fox College Sports Central

3:30 p.m.
Boise State at TCU — the mtn.

4 p.m.
Oklahoma at Texas A&M — Big 12 Network
UConn at Tennessee — CBS
Kansas at Texas — CBS
Northeastern at Drexel — Comcast SportsNet New England/CSS/The Comcast Network
Towson at George Mason — Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Comcast SportsNet Philadephia
URI at LaSalle — Cox Sports RI
Florida State at Duke — ESPN
UCLA at Oregon — Fox Sports Net (national)
Mississippi at Georgia — SEC Network

5 p.m.
UMass at Richmond — CBS Sports Network
San Francisco at Portland — Comcast SportsNet California Plus/Comcast SportsNet Northwest

6 p.m.
Syracuse at Notre Dame — ESPN
Arizona at Colorado — Fox College Sports Central/Fox Sports Arizona
LSU at Florida — Fox Sports Net (regional)
Colorado State at Wyoming — the mtn.

7 p.m.
Marquette at Providence — Big East Network: Bright House/Cox Sports RI/SNY
Mississippi State at Vanderbilt — ESPN2
Long Island at Wagner — ESPNU

8 p.m.
Ohio State at Nebraska — Big Ten Network
BYU at Pepperdine — BYU TV/Fox Sports West
Old Dominion at VCU — Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic/Comcast SportsNet New England/CSS/The Comcast Network
Oakland at Oral Roberts — Fox College Sports Central

9 p.m.
Louisville at Pittsburgh — ESPN
Murray State at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville — ESPNU

10 p.m.
New Mexico at UNLV — CBS Sports Network
Air Force at New Mexico State — the mtn.
Fresno State at Nevada — WAC Sports Network

10:30 p.m.
USC at Oregon State — Fox College Sports Atlantic/Fox Sports Prime Ticket/Root Sports Northwest

11 p.m.
Long Beach State at Cal-Santa Barbara — ESPNU

Sunday, January 22

noon
NC State at Miami (FL) — ACC Network
Penn State at Indiana — Big Ten Network

Women’s: URI at St. Louis — CBS Sports Network

1 p.m.
Women’s: North Carolina at NC State — Fox Sports Net (regional)

1:30 p.m.
Women’s: South Carolina at Vanderbilt — ESPNU

2 p.m.
Wisconsin at Illinois — Big Ten Network
Lehigh at Lafayette — CBS Sports Network

2:30 p.m.
Women’s: Texas Tech at Iowa State — Fox Sports Net (national)

3 p.m.
Women’s: Iowa at Penn State — ESPN2
Women’s: Arkansas at LSU — Fox Sports Net (regional)

3:30 p.m.
Women’s: Maryland at Duke — ESPNU

4 p.m.
Northwestern at Minnesota — Big Ten Network

4:30 p.m.
Women’s: Colorado at Arizona — Fox Sports Net (national)

5 p.m.
Women’s: Louisville at Georgetown — ESPN2

6 p.m.
Virginia Tech at Virginia — ESPNU

6:30 p.m.
Women’s: Washington State at Cal — Fox Sports Net (national)

8 p.m.
Drake at Northern Iowa — ESPNU

8:30 p.m.
Women’s: Memphis at UAB — Fox Sports Net (national)

Some Tuesday Links

Don’t have time to provide a full set of links today so I’ll give you what I’ve culled thus far. Some good stuff here.

Some stories from this week’s Sports Business Journal.

First, John Ourand reports that ESPN and MLB could butt heads over TV Everywhere streaming rights. ESPN has its model. MLB has its silly subscription model. We’ll see where it ends.

SBJ’s Liz Mullen talks with Fox NFL Sunday’s Michael Strahan about the transition from his playing career to a broadcasting career and goes inside his day on the Fox set during NFL season.

Liz chronicles the NFL Broadcast Boot Camp held every year to give players a taste of being in front of the camera.

And SBJ lists some of the current players and coaches who could make a go at broadcasting when they decide to leave the field.

One story that bears watching. Last week, the FCC opened a review on the antiquated NFL blackout rules and Todd Shields of Bloomberg has a story on it.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times wrote about the FCC blackout review as well.

Gary Holmes at MediaPost looks at how the NFL continues to be a ratings draw over a 40 year span.

Tennis Channel announced on its Facebook page that it’s back on Verizon Fios systems.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News has a story on the new Tennis Channel/Verizon agreement.

John Eggerton of Multichannel says Tennis Channel wants the FCC to force Comcast to adhere to an Administrative Law Judge ruling stating the cable provider has to offer the network to its subscribers as an equal to its own Golf Channel and NBC Sports Network.

Broadcasting & Cable’s Ben Grossman talks with NASCAR head honcho Brian France about the future of the sport on TV and how ESPN needs to improve its presentation.

Eriq Gardner of the Hollywood Reporter says a throwaway line from the Baltimore Ravens’ Terrell Suggs on Sunday Night Football back in November is now the subject of a nasty trademark dispute.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid has details on the budding feud between UFC’s Dana White and ESPN over a report on Outside the Lines that looked at fighter pay.

Timothy Burke’s Mocksession site has a funny error from ESPN promoting tonight’s Big Ten basketball game.

Nate Smeltz at ESPN’s Front Row PR blog provides an inside look at how a game becomes SportsCenter highlight.

Shirley Brady at Brandchannel previews some of the Super Bowl ads that will air during the Big Game.

Sports TV Jobs looks at the Ten Worst Moments in Sports TV history.

At Boston Sports Media Watch, former Comcast SportsNet New England anchor/reporter Jackie Pepper chronicles her rise from covering sports in a very small market to Boston, the 7th largest in the country.

Newsday’s Neil Best tweeted that Josh Lewin of the Lisping Lewins is a candidate to join the New York Mets radio booth.

Neil says WFAN’s Mike Francesa has a new name for his show.

Neil says Giants-Packers topped the ratings on Sunday.

Back to Richard Sandomir of the New York Times who looks at Fox Sports’ NFL Rules analyst Mike Pereira making a rare disagreement over a call during Sunday’s Giants-Packers game.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union notes a local sports reporter has been suspended for making an obscene gesture on the air.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun says it appears the Ravens set a viewing record for Sunday’s game against the Texans.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says former Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams joins a local radio station as an analyst.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says the Texans-Baltimore game set a local ratings record.

David says a local TV station made a tasteless report on the Detroit Pistons’ emergency landing on Monday.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel looks at the ratings for the Giants-Packers playoff game.

Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times says new TNT analyst Shaquille O’Neal is enjoying his new role on TV.

Rick Westhead of the Toronto Star says the International Olympic Committee has thrown out the joint bid by Bell Media/CBC for the 2014/2016 Games.

Mike Silva in his Sports Media Watchdog introduces Mets fans to Josh Lewin.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media notes that NBC got a decent rating for the NHL last Saturday.

That’s going to do it.

Churning Out Some MLK Day Linkage

Let’s do some linkage on this MLK Day, a holiday for some of you.

We’ll begin with a story from an unusual source, Newsweek/The Daily Beast. Nick Summers of Newsweek writes about how ESPN’s subscriber fees could force cable providers to place the network on pay tiers.

Michael Hiestand at USA Today reports that CBS wants Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow as a guest analyst for The NFL Today before Sunday’s AFC Championship Game.

Hiestand delves into the overnight ratings for NFL Divisional Playoffs Sunday.

Mike McCarthy at USA Today notes that several TV analysts and national radio hosts ripped the officiating in yesterday’s New York Giants-Green Bay Packers NFL Divisional Playoff Game.

Ben Grossman at Broadcasting & Cable says filmmaker Peter Berg who’s “On Freddie Roach” series premieres on HBO this week, wants to produce a similar series on Washington State head football coach Mike Leach.

Michael Malone from B&C tells us that Sunbeam-owned TV stations in Boston and Miami were pulled from DirecTV forcing viewers to scramble to find ways to watch yesterday’s NFL action and the Golden Globe Awards.

Alex Weprin at TVNewser says Current TV host Keith Olbermann went to visit MLB Network, which housed his former MSNBC offices and found some interesting mementos.

Dan Fogarty at SportsGrid has video of a Chicago Blackhawks fan professing his love for Comcast SportsNet reporter Sarah Kustok.

Brandon Costa from Sports Video Group looks at how the College of Charleston produces its own basketball telecasts for ESPN3 and local TV affiliates.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell doesn’t like how colleges and universities are restricting their student-athletes from using social media.

The Tennis Times has a video giving us an inside look at the Australian Open Media Day.

Dan Lamothe of the Springfield Republican’s Red Sox Monster blog notes that former NESN Red Sox reporter Heidi Watney returns to New England next month for a charity auction.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks at the Tim Tebow TV phenomenon.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post is not a fan of Daryl “Moose” Johnston.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union notes that the Dial Global/Westwood One broadcasts of the NFL Conference Games will be heard locally.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says a local talk show host is heading to Motown.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun actually praises CBS’ production of the Houston-Baltimore game.

The Washington Post’s Sally Jenkins conducted the first interview with former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno since the Jerry Sandusky scandal broke.

Sally also answered readers questions on the interview and how she got Paterno to speak with her.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with ESPN tennis analyst Darren Cahill about the Australian Open.

The Tampa Bay Times’ Tom Jones reviews the weekend in sports television.

Also from the Times, Eric Deggans wonders why news anchors were doing promos for a local Monster Truck event.

One more from the Times, Laura Keeley says Florida State fans lined up to be part of ESPN’s College GameDay’s appearance on campus on Saturday.

At the Houston Chronicle, David Barron isn’t a fan of the two minute commercial CBS gave to Subway during The NFL Today postgame show yesterday.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman reports that ESPN has settled a wrongful termination lawsuit put forth by former play-by-play man Ron Franklin.

Bob Wolfley from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that the NFL insiders were reporting on possible Packers coaching news yesterday.

In Crain’s Chicago Business, Ed Sherman looks at the 20th anniversary of sports talk radio in the Windy City with several local personalities.

To the Denver Post where Dusty Saunders talks with CBS’ Jim Nantz about the demise of the Broncos and Tim Tebow on Saturday.

Dawn C. Chmielewski of the Los Angeles Times looks at how ESPN is trying to push 3-D on the unwanting American people.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News talks with ESPN Radio LA host Marcellus Wiley about his acute memory loss and also has his 20th annual bests and worsts in SoCal sports talk radio.

Tom has more with Marcellus in his blog.

Tom also has his SoCal sports calendar for the week.

Bruce Dowbiggin at the Toronto Globe and Mail notes how slow motion has revolutionized sports television.

Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing is echoing what I’ve been saying the last couple of weeks, and that he’s becoming a fan of Joe Buck.

Sports Media Watch also looks at the ratings of the New York Football Giants and Green Bay Packers on Fox.

The Wiz of Odds looks into ESPN allegedly taking credit for a story originally reported by someone outside of the network. Thanks to The Big Lead for the link.

Joe Favorito wonders what’s next for Tim Tebow both as a player and as a marketer.

And that will conclude our linkage for today.

College Basketball Viewing Picks For 01/07 & 01/08/2012, All Times Eastern

Men’s Schedule Courtesy of Matt’s College Sports

Saturday, January 7

11 a.m.
College GameDay — ESPNU
Florida at Tennessee — ESPN2

noon
Virginia Tech at Wake Forest — ACC Network
Georgetown at West Virginia — Big East Network/Cox Sports Television/MASN/SNY
Duke at Georgia Tech — ESPNU
Xavier at Fordham — Fox College Sports Atlantic/Fox Sports Ohio/YES

1 p.m.
Nebraska at Illinois — Big Ten Network

1:30 p.m.
Baylor at Texas Tech — Big 12 Network
Missouri at Kansas State — Big 12 Network
Auburn at Vanderbilt — SEC Network
Mississippi at LSU — SEC Network

2 p.m.
St. John’s at Cincinnati — Big East Network/MSG Network/Fox Sports Ohio/MASN
Kansas at Oklahoma — ESPNU
Washington at Utah — Fox Sports Net (national)

women’s: Michigan State at Penn State — CBS

2:30 p.m.
Boston College at North Carolina — ACC Network

3 p.m.
Ohio State at Iowa — Big Ten Network

women’s: Wagner at Monmouth — Fox College Sports Atlantic

4 p.m.
Marquette at Syracuse — Big East Network/MASN/SNY
Iowa State at Texas A&M — Big 12 Network
Florida State at Clemson — ESPN2
Notre Dame at Louisville — ESPNU
South Carolina at Kentucky — SEC Network

women’s: UConn at Notre Dame — CBS

5 p.m.
Troy at Western Kentucky — Fox College Sports Atlantic

women’s: Ohio State at Michigan — Big Ten Network

6 p.m.
Seton Hall at Providence — Big East Network/Cox Sports RI/MASN/SNY
San Francisco at BYU — BYU TV
Miami (FL) at Virginia — ESPNU
Fresno State at Idaho — WAC Sports Network

women’s: UCLA at Arizona — Fox Sports Net (national)

7 p.m.
Richmond at URI — CBS Sports Network
Alabama at Georgia — Fox Sports Net (regional)
Oklahoma State at Texas — Longhorn Network

8 p.m.
UConn at Rutgers — Big East Network/MASN/SNY
Murray State at Austin Peay — ESPNU
South Dakota State at Oral Roberts — Fox College Sports Central

9 p.m.
Memphis at UAB — CBS Sports Network
Mississippi State at Arkansas — CSS
Nevada at Utah State — WAC Sports Network

10:30 p.m.
Arizona State at UCLA — Fox College Sports Central/Fox Sports Arizona/Fox Sports West

Sunday, January 8

noon
DePaul at Villanova — Big East Network
Indiana at Penn State — Big Ten Network

1 p.m.
women’s: Maryland at North Carolina — Fox Sports Net (regional)
women’s: Memphis at UTEP — Fox Sports Net (national)

1:30 p.m.
Wisconsin at Michigan — CBS

women’s: Louisville at St. John’s — ESPNU

2 p.m.
UMass at LaSalle — A-10 Network/Comcast SportsNet New England/The Comcast Network

women’s: Northwestern at Indiana — Big Ten Network

3 p.m.
women’s: Oklahoma at Texas A&M — Fox Sports Net (national)

3:30 p.m.
women’s: Tennessee at Arkansas — ESPNU
women’s: Mississippi State at Kentucky — Fox Sports Net (regional)

4 p.m.
women’s: Nebraska at Iowa — Big Ten Network

5:30 p.m.
Arizona at USC — Fox Sports Net (national)

6 p.m.
Purdue at Minnesota — Big Ten Network
Maryland at NC State — ESPNU

7:30 p.m.
Cal at Oregon — Fox Sports Net (national)

Seth Davis Returns To Host “Courtside” on CBS Sports Network

With college basketball now in focus with college football winding down, CBS Sports Network brings back two studio shows on Wednesday, “Courtside with Seth Davis” and “Inside College Basketball”. “Courtside” will air at 7 p.m. ET with “Inside College Basketball” at 10 p.m. Adam Zucker will host “Inside College Basketball” with returning analyst Wally Szcerbiak and new analyst Mateen Cleaves.

Check out the CBS Sports Network press release.

CBS SPORTS NETWORK RETURNS “COURTSIDE WITH SETH DAVIS” AND “INSIDE COLLEGE BASKETBALL” TO PROGRAMMING LINE-UP ON WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4

Mateen Cleaves Joins CBS Sports Network’s College Basketball Studio Team

CBS Sports Network returns weekly primetime college basketball studio shows COURTSIDE WITH SETH DAVIS and INSIDE COLLEGE BASKETBALL this season, complementing its extensive roster of live college basketball game coverage. The shows tip-off on Wednesday, Jan. 4 (7:00 PM and 10:00 PM, ET, respectively), and will bracket the Network’s weekly Wednesday night college basketball action throughout the season.

Former Michigan State basketball star Mateen Cleaves joins CBS Sports Network as a college basketball studio analyst and will team with analyst Wally Szczerbiak, insider Jon Rothstein and host Adam Zucker on INSIDE COLLEGE BASKETALL every Wednesday.

Cleaves, a three-time All-American during his career at Michigan State, was named Most Outstanding Player of the 2000 Final Four after leading the Spartans to the National Championship. He also was twice named the Big Ten Player of the Year.

Hosted by college basketball insider Seth Davis, COURTSIDE WITH SETH DAVIS is a one-hour, fast-paced program focusing on the latest developments, the most intriguing storylines and the inside scoop from the world of college basketball.nThroughout the season, the show will feature a variety of high-profile guests from the college basketball community, including coaches, players, writers and broadcasters.

INSIDE COLLEGE BASKETBALL is a one-hour round-table show providing fans in-depth highlights and analysis of Wednesday night’s action. The show profiles coaches and players from the nation’s elite teams and previews the top upcoming games.

Tim Weinkauf produces both COURTSIDE WITH SETH DAVIS and INSIDE COLLEGE BASKETBALL. Tyler Hale is Vice President, Studio Production.

And we’re done here.

Some Back To Work Tuesday Links

On this day when many of you head back to work after the lazy holiday season, let’s provide some links as we get into the New Year.

I’m still saddened today by the passing of Turner Sports and PGA.com essayist Jim Huber. Reading the tributes on Twitter from those who knew him and those who did not, the man was widely well-liked. Jim gave us the facts, was willing to let the events come to him and never was one to call attention to himself. And when you finished reading or watching one of Jim’s essays, you felt the richer for having seen it.

Some links for you.

Scott Michaux from the Augusta (GA) Chronicle says Jim Huber’s passing was so sudden.

Michael Schulder, an Senior Executive Producer at CNN writes at SI.com, that Jim was not only a great writer, he was also a poet.

Ryan Ballengee at Golf Channel mourns Jim’s passing.

John Kim at PGA.com has an obit.

Carla Caldwell at the Atlanta Business Chronicle also has an obituary.

And the Turner Sports-run NBA.com has a story plus a video tribute to Jim Huber.

Other sports media links.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch says ESPN has responded to a column written by The Oregonian’s John Canzano saying the network has bought access to the Rose Bowl while sacrificing journalism.

John Ourand & Michael Smith from Sports Business Journal report that Oklahoma University will have plenty of its sports programming seen in the Sooner State as well as Texas thanks to a new deal signed with Fox Sports.

Brian Steinberg at Advertising Age says NBC has sold out its Super Bowl XLVI ad inventory in sharp contrast to the last time it aired the Big Game when it was selling ads in the week leading up to the event.

And Brian writes that some Super Bowl advertisers are looking to make a big splash like Apple did with its famous “1984″ ad.

Alex Sherman of Bloomberg Business Week writes that NBC is getting as much as $4 million per 30 second ad for the Super Bowl. That’s a lot of money.

At the Hollywood Reporter, Georg Szalai writes about the neverending dispute between MSG Network and Time Warner Cable.

If you watched the NHL Winter Classic yesterday, you may have noticed a new ad from Bridgestone Tires with a fake press conference involving various ESPN personalities, one TNT analyst and if you’re really sharp-eyed, a reporter from Sports Business Journal. Shirley Brady of Brand Channel looks at the ad campaign that will climax at the Super Bowl.

To Greg Wyshynski at Yahoo’s Puck Daddy where he laments the death of Versus.

Jeff Sonderman at the Poynter Institute looks at how Philly.com handled comments in the reporting of Philadelphia Daily News columnist Bill Conlin’s alleged molestation of seven children.

Ken Kerschbaumer of Sports Video Group mourns the passing of an ABC Sports production legend.

Dan Daley of SVG looks at how Turner Sports wired its NBA broadcasts when the league returned to play on Christmas Day.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes that Time Warner Cable has put NBA TV in MSG Network’s channel slot.

Richard says HBO’s 24/7 on the NHL Winter Classic is another part of the network’s winning formula in sports documentaries.

Richard looks at the Super Bowl ads selling out and setting a revenue record for NBC.

Newsday’s Neil Best says NBC did its best to sell hockey during yesterday’s Winter Classic.

At Fishbowl NY, Jerry Barmash catches up with former WABC-TV sports anchor Scott Clark.

Will Leitch at New York Magazine wants to know what’s going on with the MSG/Time Warner Cable spat.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette tells Time Warner Cable subscribers what they’re missing tonight on MSG and MSG Plus.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union notes that two ESPN’ers and also Capital Region natives get an on-air reunion during this week’s Orange Bowl broadcast.

Pete says Fox Sports Radio has debuted yet another morning show.

WCAU-TV in Philadelphia has announced a deal to pick up ACC Network basketball games this season.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has highlights of the DC NFL Team Radio Network’s season finale from Sunday.

Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times has some thoughts on the holiday weekend in sports television.

At the Houston Chronicle, David Barron writes that Jim Rome is promising a return to H-Town in the near future after his local affiliate dropped his radio show.

To the Daily Oklahoman where Mel Bracht says ESPN got the job done for last night’s Fiesta Bowl.

Dusty Saunders from the Denver Post is a fan of NFL RedZone.

Jason Quick of The Oregonian says Comcast SportsNet Northwest has struck a deal allowing fans without access to the channel to view Portland Trail Blazers games online. For a fee, of course.

Danny O’Neil of the Seattle Times feels Fox Sports NFL rules analyst Mike Pereira should call things both ways.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says the NHL Winter Classic drew its lowest overnight rating ever.

Sports Media Watch notes that TNT is putting Charles Barkley courtside this week.

SMW notes the Rose Bowl saw its lowest overnight rating in years.

Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead says Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer is banning his players from Twitter and CNBC’s Darren Rovell is pissed.

Barry Janoff from The Big Lead looks at the aforementioned Bridgestone ad campaign.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing has tweets from people angry over Matt Millen’s analysis during last night’s Fiesta Bowl. Millen was really awful last night.

Lots of good links for you today. That will do it.

The Best in Sports Broadcasting in 2011

I’m not going to go too wild on this. Other sites are doing similar posts as well.

I’ll provide what I feel are the best calls in Sports Broadcasting this year. The only way to do this is to post videos and that’s what I’ll do. I know I said Best and Worst earlier, but the search is taking too long. We’ll provide the best calls in 2011.

We’ll go sport-by-sport and you can either agree or disagree.

Baseball

Dan Shulman, ESPN Radio — Game 6, World Series, David Freese Walk-off home run

Gary Thorne, MLB International — Same as above. Two great calls of the same moment.

Boxing

Larry Merchant vs. Floyd Mayweather, HBO Pay Per View — Floyd cursed out Larry and then Larry had the comeback of the year.

College Basketball

Gus Johnson, CBS Sports — Pac-10 Championship, Isiah Thomas hits the game-winning shot. “COLD BLOODED!”

College Football

Joe Tessitore, ESPN — “TOUCHDOWN! THEY DID IT!!” Iowa State upsets Oklahoma State knocking the Cowboys out of the BCS.

Joe Tessitore, ESPN on ABC — “Iowa State, USC and Baylor just made a mess of the BCS.” Baylor upsets Oklahoma less than 24 hours later and Joe Tessitore was there.

Golf

Dan Hicks, Johnny Miller and the Golf Channel on NBC crew — The 72nd hole for Rory McIlroy as he wins the US Open at Congressional. Great job by Dan and Johnny as they describe Rory McIlroy winning his first major championship.

Horse Racing

Larry Collmus, NBC — The 137th Kentucky Derby. It marked Larry’s first race for NBC as he replaced Tom Durkin who left in 2010. And he got a huge upset as Animal Kingdom won the race.

Jack Edwards Calls of the Year

Living in New England and having access to NESN and Jack Edwards is the gift that keeps on giving. He was in rare form in 2011. We begin with Jack mocking Chad LaRose of the Carolina Hurricanes with a “Yapping, yapping, yapping all the way to the box.” Classic Jack.

“GET UP!” In Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, Roman Hamrlik of the Montreal Canadiens went down and Jack decided to yell at him.

In Game 7, Hamrlik went down again, but the Bruins went on to score and Jack decided to rub it in.

And after the B’s closed out the Habs, Jack decided to make some puzzling final comments about royalty and having fun. Eight months later, I’m still trying to figure them out.

NFL

none

NHL

Mike Emrick, Versus — Tim Thomas makes a tremendous save in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Women’s World Cup

Ian Darke, ESPN — “ABBY WAMBACH HAS SAVED THE USA’S LIFE IN THIS WOMEN’S WORLD CUP!” Ian Darke had a tremendous call of the goal that tied Brazil in extra time in the quarterfinals.

And that will do it for us.

College Basketball Viewing Picks For 12/31/11 & 01/01/12, All Times Eastern

Schedule courtesy of Matt’s College Sports on TV

Saturday, December 31, 2011

noon
St. John’s at UConn — Big East Network (SNY/MASN)
Louisville at Kentucky — CBS
Virginia Tech at Oklahoma State — ESPN2
Austin Peay at Morehead State — ESPNU
South Carolina Upstate at South Carolina — Fox College Sports Central/SportSouth
Boston University at Quinnipiac — NESN

1 p.m.
Iowa at Wisconsin — Big Ten Network

2 p.m.
Providence at Georgetown — ESPN2
Yale at Florida –ESPNU
Florida International at Western Kentucky — Fox College Sports Atlantic
Samford at Maryland — Fox Sports Net (regional)
Rice at Texas — Longhorn Network

Women’s: Arizona at Arizona State — Fox Sports Net

3 p.m.
Michigan State at Nebraska — Big Ten Network

4 p.m.
Illinois at Purdue — ESPN2
North Dakota at Kansas — ESPNU

5:30 p.m.
Arizona State at Arizona — Fox College Sports Central/Fox Sports Arizona

6 p.m.
San Diego at BYU — BYU TV
Ohio State at Indiana — ESPN2
Creighton at Wichita State — ESPNU
Oregon State at Washington State — Fox College Sports Atlantic/Root Sports Northwest
USC at Stanford — Fox College Sports Pacific (CSS/Comcast SportsNet Bay Area/Fox Sports West)
Saint Louis at New Mexico — the mtn.

7 p.m.
Tulsa at TCU — CBS Sports Network

8 p.m.
Gonzaga at Xavier — ESPN2

10 p.m.
Oregon at Washington — ESPN2

Sunday, January 1, 2012
Happy New Year!!!

noon
Rutgers at South Florida — Big East Network (Altitude/MASN/SNY)

1 p.m.
Villanova at Marquette — ESPNU

3 p.m.
Monmouth at North Carolina — ESPNU
Illinois State at Southern Illinois — Fox College Sports Central (Comcast SportsNet Chicago Plus/Fox Sports Midwest)

4 p.m.
Minnesota at Michigan — Big Ten Network

5 p.m.
Syracuse at DePaul — Big East Network (Altitude/Cox Sports Television/CSS/MASN/SNY)
Penn at Duke — ESPNU

7 p.m.
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh — Big East Network (Altitude 2/CSS/Fox Sports Ohio/MASN/MSG Network/Root Sports Pittsburgh)
Penn State at Northwestern — ESPNU

9 p.m.
Evansville at Northern Iowa — ESPNU

Tuesday Linkage

Let’s do some links for today. Lots of stories and lots of stuff going on. From the NFL announcing the online streaming of Super Bowl XLVI to some mind blowing revelations about reporters, this has been an amazing day. It will call for some sports media thoughts later tonight. First the links.

I’ll begin with a story that’s breaking now. Nancy Phillips of the Philadelphia Inquirer breaks the story about Baseball Hall of Fame writer Bill Conlin being accused of molesting four children in the 1970′s. For his part, Conlin denies the allegations and has resigned from his columnist position at the Philadelphia Daily News. Last month, Conlin wrote the following about the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

In what has to be a giant conflict of interest, we learn from TMZ and the Crossing Broad blog that Jay Gray of NBC News was arrested on DUI charges after leaving a party thrown by Sandusky attorney Joe Amendola who invited a bunch of reporters to his house to curry favors for interviews of his client down the line.

Timothy Burke at Deadspin notes the ESPN Monday Night Football debut of sideline reporter John Sutcliffe of ESPN Deportes. For such a big game, ESPN brought in someone who had not worked on the MNF package on the Mothership (he has been sideline reporter for Deportes) and it didn’t work.

Last night on Twitter, I said something about Sutcliffe that I should not have. It was wrong. You will not find that tweet now. I’ve deleted it. I apologize and it will not happen again.

Sam Mamudi of Marketwatch.com writes that ESPN’s ratings for Monday Night Football are down this season.

The Futon Critic notes that ESPN’s Monday Night Football won the ratings last night not just on cable, but across all networks.

Marisa Guthrie of the Hollywood Reporter writes about the NFL’s plan to stream Super Bowl XLVI online.

Georg Szalai of the Reporter talks with an industry analyst regarding the new NFL TV deals.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times also has a story on the Super Bowl going online for the first time.

Aaron Kuriloff of Bloomberg reports on the potential increase of the Thursday Night Football schedule on NFL Network as early as next season.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says the war of words between MSG Network and Time Warner Cable over their carriage talks is ratcheting up.

Mike says ESPN has ponied up $500 million to expand its deal with the NCAA.

John Eggerton of Multichannel writes that Tennis Channel has won a key FCC Administrative Law Judge ruling against Comcast.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek says ESPN’s ad sales for 33 college football bowls are red hot.

Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated has his NBA Broadcasting Guide for the upcoming season.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid talks about ESPN’s plans to overhaul its NBA pregame show.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell suspects Nike will raise prices to make up for lost revenue.

Elizabeth Kim of the Stamford (CT) Advocate goes in-depth on how NBC Sports decided to move to Connecticut.

Brian Stelter and Amy Chozick of the New York Times say you pay for sports on your cable bill whether you like it or not.

Newsday’s Neil Best reports that Fox has assigned Kenny Albert, Moose and Goose for the battle of New York this Saturday.

Laura Nachman says Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia aired CSN Mid-Atlantic’s coverage of the 76ers road game against the Washington Wizards last week.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman looks at the local weekend ratings.

John Kiesewetter from the Cincinnati Enquirer says the Bengals ratings on Sunday weren’t very good.

John says a local sports radio talk show host who left his regular gig earlier this month may have another one in line.

And I’ll end it there for now. I’ll try to bring some more linkage later.

ESPN’s College Basketball Games For Week 7

Let’s provide the college basketball games that will be seen on the ESPN family of networks and platforms through Christmas Eve. This weekend, it marks the return of holiday tournaments such as the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii and the Las Vegas Classic.

Plenty of games. We have the list of games below.

Men’s College Basketball: Four of the Seven Remaining Undefeated Teams

ESPN’s Holiday Hoops men’s college basketball schedule for this week will showcase four of the seven remaining undefeated teams, including unbeaten No. 8 Missouri against one-loss No. 24 Illinois in the Braggin’ Rights game from St. Louis on Thursday, Dec. 22, at 9 p.m. on ESPN2 and ESPN3. Additional undefeated teams:

• No. 4 Louisville against Western Kentucky on Friday, Dec. 23, at 7 p.m. on ESPN2 and ESPN3
• No. 7 Baylor twice in the Las Vegas Invitational: against St. Mary’s (Calif.) on Thursday, Dec. 22, at 10:30 p.m. on ESPN3 and against West Virginia on Friday, Dec. 23, at 9 p.m. on ESPN and ESPN3
• No. 18 Indiana against UMBC on Thursday, Dec. 22, at 6 p.m. on ESPN3

In addition, ESPNU, ESPN2 and ESPN3 will offer exclusive coverage of the Diamond Head Classic from Honolulu December 22-25. The field includes three one-loss teams in No. 15 Xavier, Kansas State, Auburn as well as Clemson, Hawaii, Long Beach State, UTEP and Southern Illinois.

Date	Time (ET)	Game/Commentators	Network
Wed, Dec 21	7 p.m.	Texas at No. 6 North Carolina Dave O’Brien & Jay Bilas	ESPN2 / ESPN3
	9 p.m.	Oklahoma State at Alabama Bob Wischusen & Fran Fraschilla	ESPN2 / ESPN3
Thu, Dec 22	2:30 p.m.	Diamond Head Classic (Quarterfinal): UTEP vs. Clemson (Honolulu) Roxy Bernstein & Doug Gottlieb	ESPNU
	4:30 p.m.	Diamond Head Classic (Quarterfinal): Kansas State vs. Southern Illinois (Honolulu) Roxy Bernstein & Doug Gottlieb	ESPNU
	6 p.m.	UMBC at No. 18 Indiana Steve Andress & Perry Clark	ESPN3 *
	7 p.m.	Memphis at No. 16 Georgetown Sean McDonough & Bill Raftery	ESPN2/ESPN3
		Florida State at No. 12 Florida Carter Blackburn & Jimmy Dykes	ESPNU
		Mercer at Georgia Tech	ESPN3 *
		Northeastern at NC State Walter Storholt & Paul Biancardi	ESPN3 *
		Virginia Commonwealth at UNC Greensboro	ESPN3 *
		Eastern Michigan at Virginia Tech Quint Kessenich & Glenn Consor	ESPN3 *
	8 p.m.	Las Vegas Classic: West Virginia vs. Missouri State (Las Vegas) Joe Block & Steve Cleveland	ESPN3 *
	9 p.m.	Braggin’ Rights: No. 24 Illinois vs. No. 8 Missouri (St. Louis) Dave Pasch & Bob Knight	ESPN2/ESPN3
		Lehigh at No. 20 Michigan State Jim Barbar & Tim McCormick	ESPNU
	10:30 p.m.	Las Vegas Classic: No. 7 Baylor vs. St. Mary’s (Calif.) (Las Vegas) Joe Block & Steve Cleveland	ESPN3 *
	11 p.m.	Diamond Head Classic (Quarterfinal): Long Beach State vs. No. 15 Xavier (Honolulu) Kanoa Leahy & Stephen Bardo	ESPNU
Fri, Dec 23	1 a.m.	Diamond Head Classic (Quarterfinal): Auburn vs. Hawaii (Honolulu) Kanoa Leahy & Stephen Bardo	ESPNU
	3 p.m.	Diamond Head Classic (Consolation): TBD (Honolulu) Kanoa Leahy & Doug Gottlieb	ESPNU
	5 p.m.	Diamond Head Classic (Semifinal): TBD (Honolulu) Roxy Bernstein & Doug Gottlieb	ESPNU
	7 p.m.	Western Kentucky at No. 4 Louisville Carter Blackburn & Jimmy Dykes	ESPN2/ESPN3
	8 p.m.	Wagner at No. 13 Pittsburgh Adam Amin & Tim Welsh	ESPNU
		Radford at Maryland Quint Kessenich & Glenn Consor	ESPN3 *
	9 p.m.	Las Vegas Classic: No. 7 Baylor vs. West Virginia (Las Vegas) Dave Fleming & Miles Simon	ESPN/ESPN3
	11 p.m.	Diamond Head Classic (Semifinal): TBD (Honolulu) Roxy Bernstein & Stephen Bardo	ESPN2/ESPN3
	11:30 p.m.	Las Vegas Classic: St. Mary’s (Calif.) vs. Missouri State (Las Vegas) Joe Block & Steve Cleveland	ESPN3 *
Sat, Dec 24	1:30 a.m.	Diamond Head Classic (Consolation): TBD (Honolulu) Kanoa Leahy & Stephen Bardo	ESPNU

* Exclusive

That’s it for this post.

College Basketball Viewing Picks For 12/17 & 12/18, All Times Eastern

Schedule courtesy of Matt’s College Sports

Saturday, December 17

Noon
American at Georgetown — Big East Network

Alabama A&M at Michigan — Big Ten Network

Ohio State at South Carolina — ESPN

Mississippi State at Detroit — Fox College Sports Atlantic/Fox Sports Detroit
Florida Atlantic vs. Miami (FL) at Sunrise, FL — Fox Sports Net (national)

2 p.m.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at West Virginia — Big East Network

Baylor at BYU — BYU TV

Purdue vs. Butler at Indianapolis, IN — CBS

2:30 p.m.
Temple at Texas — ESPN2

Texas A&M vs. Florida at Sunrise, FL — Fox Sports Net (national)

3 p.m.
Cal-Davis at UCLA — Fox College Sports Pacific/Fox Sports Prime Ticket

4 p.m.
Northern Colorado at Marquette — Big East Network

Arizona vs. Gonzaga at Seattle, WA — CBS
Memphis at Louisville — CBS

4:30 p.m.
Notre Dame vs. Indiana at Indianapolis, IN — ESPN2

Mississippi at Southern Mississippi — Fox Sports Net (national)
Winthrop at Clemson — Fox Sports Net (regional)

5 p.m.
UNLV vs. Illinois at Chicago, IL — Big Ten Network

5:30 p.m.
Indiana State at Vanderbilt — CSS

6 p.m.
South Carolina State at Pittsburgh — Big East Network

Appalachian State at North Carolina — ESPNU

Northern Arizona at Arizona State — Fox College Sports Pacific/Fox Sports Arizona

6:30 p.m.
Syracuse at NC State — ESPN2

Boise State at Denver — Fox College Sports Atlantic/Root Sports Rocky Mountain

7 p.m.
Bowling Green at Michigan State — Big Ten Network

Quinnipiac at UMass — NESN

8 p.m.
Villanova at St. Joseph’s — CBS Sports Network

Chattanooga at Kentucky — CSS/Comcast SportsNet Bay Area/Comcast SportsNet Chicago/Cox Sports Television/YES

Houston vs. Oklahoma at Oklahoma City, OK — ESPNU

Furman at Western Kentcucky — Fox College Sports Pacific

9 p.m.
Drake at Iowa — Big Ten Network

10 p.m.
Alabama vs. Kansas State at Kansas City, MO — ESPNU

Georgia at USC — Fox Sports Net (national)

10:30 p.m.
New Mexico vs. Oklahoma State at Oklahoma City, OK — ESPN2

Sunday, December 18

1 p.m.
Holy Cross at UConn — Big East Network

Oral Roberts at Xavier — Fox College Sports Atlantic/Fox Sports Ohio
Bryant at Boston College — Fox Sports Net (regional)

women’s: Kentucky at Notre Dame — ESPNU

2 p.m.
Yale at URI — Cox Sports RI

3 p.m.
Loyola Marymount at Florida State — ESPNU

South Dakota State at Washington — Fox College Sports Pacific/Root Sports Northwest

women’s: USC at Texas A&M — Fox Sports Net

4 p.m.
Mount St. Mary’s at Penn State — Big Ten Network

5:30 p.m.
Virginia at Oregon — Fox Sports Net (national)

6 p.m.
Eastern Illinois at Northwestern — Big Ten Network

8:30 p.m.
women’s: UConn at Baylor — ESPN

10 p.m.
Portland State at Oregon State — Fox College Sports Pacific/Root Sports Northwest

ESPN Extends Agreement With NCAA For Championships Through 2023-24

The networks continue to lock in long-terms agreements and today, we receive this press release from ESPN regarding the NCAA Championships. With this agreement, the ESPN networks will air championships in sports including Football, Women’s Basketball, Hockey, Soccer, Volleyball, Track & Field, Gymnastics, Lacrosse, Softball and Baseball.

The championships will be aired on all ESPN platforms including TV and online. ESPNU will get a huge block of programming devoted to college sports. ESPN will also get various streaming rights for ESPN3.

ESPN picks up seven NCAA Championships in this agreement including three from CBS/CBS Sports Network women’s gymnastics, women’s lacrosse and men’s and women’s outdoor track & field.

Here’s the announcement from ESPN and the NCAA.

ESPN and NCAA® Extend Rights Agreement through 2023-24

Expanded Rights Secured for ESPN3 and Other Multi-media Platforms for 24 NCAA Championships;
Exclusive International Rights for NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship;
NIT^® Season Tip-Off and NIT Postseason Coverage

ESPN, Inc. and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) today announced a multiyear agreement through 2023-24 for worldwide, multi-media rights to 24 NCAA championships and exclusive multi-media rights outside the United States, its territories and Bermuda for the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. The new agreement, which takes effect immediately, also provides expanded coverage of each round of the NIT Season Tip-Off and all games from the NIT Postseason Tournament across the ESPN networks.

The new agreement includes 600-plus hours and 300 telecasts of live coverage annually across more platforms than ever before. It contains rights for ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3, ESPN 3D, ESPN Mobile, ESPN FULL COURT, GamePlan, Buzzer Beater, Goal Line, ESPN International, ESPN Deportes, ESPN.com and WatchESPN, with many of the 24 championships produced in high definition on ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD and ESPNU HD.

Exclusive coverage of the Division I Women’s Basketball Championship and broad rights covering the NCAA Division I Football Championship, and the Men’s and Women’s College World Series, among others, will continue on the ESPN networks.

“We have enjoyed a great relationship with the NCAA that has spanned the history of ESPN,” said George Bodenheimer, President, ESPN and ABC Sports, and Co-Chairman, Disney Media Networks. “This is our most comprehensive agreement yet and ensures sports fans will have access to top-level NCAA athletics across ESPN networks and platforms.”

“Thousands of inspiring and compelling student-athletes make it to the championship level every year, and we at the NCAA are excited to be able to share their stories with a broader audience than ever,” said NCAA President Mark Emmert. “Across all sports and divisions, our primary goal is to support student-athlete success both on the field and in the classroom, and this new agreement provides us a greater ability to do so.”

ESPN expands its exclusive final round NCAA coverage with 24 NCAA championships:

• Fall – Division I women’s soccer; Division I men’s soccer; Division I women’s volleyball; Division I football (FCS); Division II football and Division III football
• Winter – Division I men’s and women’s indoor track & field; Division I men’s and women’s swimming & diving; Division I women’s basketball; Division I wrestling; Division I men’s ice hockey; National Collegiate women’s bowling; National Collegiate women’s gymnastics and National Collegiate men’s and women’s fencing.
• Spring – National Collegiate men’s volleyball; Division I men’s and women’s lacrosse; Division I men’s and women’s outdoor track & field; Division I softball and Division I baseball

ESPN is adding coverage of seven NCAA championships: National Collegiate women’s gymnastics, National Collegiate men’s and women’s fencing, Division I women’s lacrosse, Division I men’s and women’s outdoor track & field and National Collegiate women’s bowling (previously sublicensed from CBS). ESPN will also air additional preliminary round coverage of selected NCAA championships including Division I football (FCS), Division I women’s volleyball, Division I softball and Division I baseball.

ESPNU

• Additional coverage on ESPN’s 24-hour college sports network, including high-profile, preliminary-round NCAA championships exposure. ESPNU has featured original NCAA content since the network’s inception on March 4, 2005
• During the 2011-12 season, 15 NCAA national champions will be crowned on ESPNU in the following events: National Collegiate women’s bowling; National collegiate men’s and women’s fencing; Division III football; National Collegiate women’s gymnastics; Division I men’s and women’s indoor track & field; Division I women’s lacrosse; Division I men’s and women’s outdoor track & field; Division I men’s and women’s soccer; Division I men’s and women’s swimming & diving, and National Collegiate men’s volleyball
• More than 90 events and 220 hours of NCAA championship programming during the 2011-12 season

ESPN3

• ESPN’s live multi-screen sports network will feature exclusive coverage from selected rounds and sites of 16 NCAA championships including: Division I baseball; National Collegiate men’s and women’s fencing; Division I football (FCS); National Collegiate women’s gymnastics; Division I men’s and women’s indoor track & field; Division I women’s lacrosse; Division I men’s and women’s outdoor track & field; Division I women’s soccer; Division I softball; Division I men’s and women’s swimming & diving; Division I women’s volleyball and Division I wrestling
• Extensive early-round event coverage from Division I baseball, Division I football (FCS), Division I men’s ice hockey, Division I softball, Division I women’s volleyball and Division I wrestling
• 80-plus live exclusive events from NCAA championships, the NIT Season Tip-Off and NIT Postseason Tournament during the 2011-12 season

Women’s Basketball

• ESPN remains the exclusive home of the Division I Women’s Basketball Championship.  ESPN has carried the championship since 1996
• 2012 marks the 10^th consecutive year of airing the entire championship with all 63 games tipping-off live on ESPN networks
• ESPN continues to feature the NCAA Women’s Basketball Selection Special with Selection Monday on ESPN

Men’s Basketball

• International rights for the entire NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, including distribution in Latin America (Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America), the Middle East and Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands, Europe, Japan and Canada (via TSN)
• Selected highlight rights from the complete championship for distribution in the U.S. and international territories
• Exclusive home of the men’s basketball NIT Season Tip-Off and NIT Postseason Tournament, including expanded coverage of the tip-off event and all rounds from the postseason tournament
• Live studio coverage from inside the stadium at the Men’s Final Four^®

Studio Shows

• In addition to women’s basketball, ESPN maintains exclusive rights to selected NCAA championship selection shows. ESPNU will showcase Division I baseball, Division I football (FCS), Division I men’s ice hockey, Division I men’s lacrosse, Division I softball, and Division I women’s volleyball selection shows.

That will do it.

ESPN Airs #1 Baylor vs. #2 UConn on Sunday; Jeff Van Gundy Joins Crew

In what will be a crowded courtside broadcast table for ESPN, Jeff Van Gundy joins Dave O’Brien and Doris Burke to call a #1 vs. #2 women’s college basketball matchup on Sunday. It’ll be Baylor hosting perennial powerhouse UConn live on ESPN at 8:30 p.m. ET.

Rebecca Lobo will report from the sidelines for the game as well.

We have ESPN’s preview of the game.

Women’s College Basketball: No. 1 Baylor to Face No. 2 Connecticut on Sunday on ESPN

In a much-anticipated women’s college basketball matchup, No. 1 Baylor hosts No. 2 Connecticut on Sunday, Dec. 18, at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN. For the first time in program history, Baylor plays on its home court in front of an advanced sell-out crowd. The women’s Final Four crew of Dave O’Brien, Doris Burke and Rebecca Lobo will call the game, joined by NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy.

“When you have two great teams like that (Baylor & Connecticut), it is just so good for the sport because people that normally wouldn’t watch women’s college basketball – you get the casual fan to maybe give it a shot, and realize just how talented these women really are,” said Van Gundy, in previewing the Baylor-UConn game during Villanova-Boston University men’s college basketball game on Tuesday night.

Junior 6’8” center Brittney Griner leads the Lady Bears (10-0), averaging a double-double of 22.8 points and 10.7 rebounds per game. Connecticut (9-0) senior guard Tiffany Hayes is second in scoring for the Huskies at 14.4 points per game, and first in rebounding, pulling down 6.2 boards per contest.

ESPN.com’s Mechelle Voepel previews Connecticut-Baylor matchup this week, in addition to writing live from the game for ESPN.com and espnW.com:

“While nothing is replacing Tennessee-UConn as that longtime rivalry in women’s hoops, UConn-Baylor has at least some of the same elements as two colorful coaches lead a Southern program against a Northern program.”

espnW will feature Baylor in its Hoops Across America series Friday, as well as thoughts from Beth Mowins and Debbie Antonelli’s weekly ESPN Women’s Basketball Podcast: Shootaround with Beth and Debbie.

The rivalry game features No. 1 vs. No. 2 for the second straight year, however, last season the rankings were reversed, and the game was played in Hartford, Conn. The then-top ranked Huskies defeated No. 2 Baylor 65-64 on November 16.

Also this week, No. 3 Notre Dame hosts No. 7 Kentucky on Sunday at 1 p.m. on ESPNU. Jim Barber and Abby Waner have the call as Kentucky faces its third top-10 opponent of the season, and Notre Dame will play a ranked team for the fourth time.

On ESPN3, Western Carolina plays at Samford on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Date	Time (ET)	Game	Networks
Sat, Dec 17	3 p.m.	Western Carolina at Samford	ESPN3
Sun, Dec 18	1 p.m.	No. 7 Kentucky at No. 3 Notre Dame Jim Barbar & Abby Waner	ESPNU
	8:30 p.m.	No. 2 Connecticut at No. 1 Baylor Dave O’Brien, Doris Burke, Jeff Van Gundy & Rebecca Lobo	ESPN/ESPN3

That does it.