ESPN locked in programming with the Ivy League and America East courtesy of new deals. The first saw the conference agree with the network to broadcast the inaugural Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments, which will be held March 11-12 next year at The Palestra in Philadelphia. In addition, 15 regular season games will now be featured through the League’s television package with the conference set to make 30 appearances on national television throughout the 2016-17 season. Meanwhile, all six games of the inaugural Ivy League Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments will be showcased live across the ESPN networks, with the men’s semifinals on ESPNU and the championship on ESPN2. On the women’s side, the semifinals will be carried by ESPN3, with a tape delay run on ESPNU, which will also carry the championship live. The deal comes via a collaborative effort between JMI Sports and Lagardere SE.
Meanwhile, ESPN’s deal with the America East Conference marks an 11-year extension to their current media rights agreement and runs through 2026-27. The agreement will see the extension and creation of a co-branded network, dubbed The AE on ESPN3. “This initiative represents a significant commitment on behalf of our member institutions and I’m enormously grateful to our Board of Presidents and Athletics Directors Council for their vision and collaborative leadership to build an infrastructure that will showcase and promote their athletics programs and overall institutions to a wide audience,” said America East Commissioner Amy Huchthausen. America East’s nine member institutions will work collaboratively with ESPN and the conference office to develop their own in-house production operations on their campuses, showcasing more than 3,000 America East events over the term of the agreement. As part of the deal, ESPN also retains the rights to the conference’s men’s basketball championship game, which has aired on either ESPN or ESPN2 each of the last 29 years. Additionally, select regular-season men’s basketball games and other conference championship games, including women’s basketball and men’s lacrosse, will continue to be televised on ESPN linear channels.
