December 4, 2010

New start time; Doubleheader on Dec. 19 added to OVC TV package

The tipoff time for the women's basketball game on Sunday, Dec. 19, has been moved ahead an hour to 1 p.m., and both games of Tech's doubleheader with Eastern Illinois that afternoon have been added to the OVC schedule of TV games for 2010-11.

View a complete list of OVC TV games in 2010-11 (PDF)

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- The tipoff time for the women's basketball game on Sunday, Dec. 19, has been moved ahead one hour to 1 p.m., and both games of Tennessee Tech's doubleheader against Eastern Illinois that afternoon have been added to the Ohio Valley Conference television package for 2010-11.

The women's game against the EIU Panthers will be televised regionally by Wazoo Sports, while the men's contest at 4 p.m. is now scheduled to be aired throughout the entire southeast by CSS.

"This is exciting news for our basketball programs," said Mark Wilson, TTU Director of Athletics. "We've been working with the OVC office to increase our exposure, and adding these games to the television packages offers our fans more opportunities to follow the Golden Eagles.

"It's great for our student-athletes, and it adds a new dimension for fans to be able to watch our games throughout a much larger region," Wilson said.

Those two games were among the nine that the OVC announced Friday as additions to the 2010-11 basketball television package, including four men's games and five women's.

In October the league announced that nine men’s basketball games would air on ESPNU or ESPN2. The addition of these new contests brings the total number of games in the Conference-sponsored package to 18. That number will grow to 21 when the details of the OVC Women’s Tournament semifinals and final are announced at a later date.

In addition to this Conference-sponsored package, there are approximately 62 additional games that will air either locally, regionally or nationally involving OVC institutions during the season. That brings the total number of television games involving OVC schools this season to 83.

The nine newly announced games will be produced by and seen on the Wazoo Sports network. Wazoo Sports is a Regional Sports Network located in London, Ky. Wazoo Sports (http://www.wazoosports.com) launched online in December of 2007 and expanded to a 24/7 sports television network on September 25, 2009. During the 2010 football season Wazoo produced an aired a 10-game OVC Football Game of the Week package.

The four newly announced men’s games can be seen on the Wazoo Sports Network in addition to CSS (Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast), ESPN3.com and ESPN Full Court. Four of the five women’s games will air on Wazoo, ESPN3.com and ESPN Full Court, while the fifth will be exclusive to Wazoo. In addition, WEIU (http://www.weiu.net), an affiliate located in Charleston, Ill., will pick up all nine of the games.

CSS, which was launched in 1999, can be found only on cable and serves over six million customers in 13 states. CSS (http://www.csssports.com) delivers a mix of live sports programming, sports news and in-depth sports analysis geared towards southern sports fans.

ESPN3.com, the network’s live 24/7 broadband channel, was launched as ESPN360 in 2001 and renamed ESPN3.com in April, it is available at no additional cost to fans with a high-speed Internet connection from an affiliated provider. Distribution doubled in 2009 to more than 50 million homes – two-thirds of U.S. broadband homes. It is available via dozens of providers, including Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, Cox, Charter, and many more. It is also free to U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel connected to on-campus educational networks and on-base military networks.

ESPN Full Court is an out-of-market pay-per-view sports package. The package is available on most major cable and satellite television providers. ESPN Full Court airs more than 150 men’s and women’s basketball contests annually and offers full season, half-season and single day packages. More information can be found here: http://proxy.espn.go.com/ncb/fullcourt/index.