The Pac-12 men's basketball TV contract is probably not going to be as highly scrutinized as the Pac-12 football deal, but the developments are just as positive for hoops fans. Here are the bullet point details of the article I wrote on the subject over at SBN Bay Area. You can view the official announcement over at the Pac-12 website.
- Fox Sports Net will transfer the majority of their basketball telecasts over to ESPN, with 46 in all to be broadcast on ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU. This means more national telecasts for the conference, and more national exposure for our Golden Bears in future seasons.
- The Thursday/Saturday schedule is no longer set. There will be Wednesday and Sunday games as well to spread out the places, presumably for more national broadcasts.
- The remaining games on regular cable will be shown on FSN networks. I'm not certain if they will be national telecasts, but I'd imagine Commissioner Scott will insist on the majority of these being carried throughout the country rather than regionally.
- The remainder of the games will be on the Pac-12 television and digital networks. All of them. So in some way and some fashion, every game will be available to Pac-12 fans next year.
- The Pac-12 Tournament will split between FOX/FX and ESPN/ESPN2, with FX broadcasting one quarterfinal bracket and a semifinal, and ESPN/ESPN2 taking care of another. The championship game will alternate on a yearly basis between ESPN & FOX.
More to come on the Pac-12 deal in the upcoming days and how it affects Cal fans in the upcoming days.
What do you think of the new basketball TV contract?