The Southern Conference announced Wednesday that it has reached a multi-year programming agreement with the nation’s first 24-hour all-college sports network, the National College Sports Network.
As part of the agreement, NCSN will have the rights to cover championships, tournaments, events and regular season games across a variety of men’s and women’s sports of the SoCon’s member schools.
“We look forward to working with the National College Sports Network and increasing the national exposure for the Southern Conference through the network,” said SoCon Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs Steve Shutt.
NCSN will cover the action of both men’s and women’s basketball, cross-country, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, golf and soccer. Men’s baseball, football, tennis and wrestling, in addition to women’s softball and volleyball will also be showcased.
“Since our initial announcement last month to build the nation’s first 24-hour cable network for college sports, the response by college sports fans, athletes, administrators and athletic directors has been nothing short of extraordinary,” said Brian Bedol, president, CEO and co-founder of the network. “Today we are one important step closer to delivering on our promise to be the home of college sports in this country.”
The Southern Conference is the 18th college conference to strike an agreement with the soon-to-be-launched cable network. Other conferences that have signed multi-year agreements with NCSN include the Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Mountain West, Atlantic 10, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Southland, Mid-Continent, Big South, West Coast, America East, Big West, and Colonial Athletic.
In addition, NCSN recently announced a precedent-setting agreement for the exclusive programming rights to football games featuring a consortium of Division 1-AA schools.
“The agreement between the SoCon and NCSN continues to support our vision that there is real value to conferences and universities from national exposure for their athletic programs and well-deserving student athletes,” said Chris Bevilacqua, executive vice president and co-founder of NCSN. “Working towards our goal to become the ‘best of the best’ of college sports, the members of the SoCon are a welcome and an exciting addition to NCSN.

Author