Televising conference Championship matches

[Spike]

CSTV Secures Rights to Televise Men's Conference Championships

MPSF, MIVA and EIVA Championship Match to be televised

3/11/2003 -Colorado Springs, Colo. – College Sports Television (www.cstv.com), with assistance from the American Volleyball Coaches Association, has secured the rights to televise the championships of the three premier men’s volleyball conferences: the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA), Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF).

The conferences boast USA Today/AVCA Division I-II Men’s Volleyball Coaches Poll Top 15 schools such as Pepperdine, Hawai’i, Brigham Young, Lewis, Pacific, Long Beach State, Ohio State, Ball State and Penn State, as well as other nationally ranked teams. CSTV, the first television network devoted exclusively to college sports, will launch Monday, April 7.

“These three leagues represent the finest in men’s collegiate volleyball,” said Chris Bevilacqua, co-founder and executive vice president, College Sports Television. “With berths to the NCAA Championships on the line, the intensity and competitiveness will peak at these championships. The ‘best of the best’ will be on display on College Sports Television.”<br>
The championship matches for all three conferences are scheduled for Saturday, April 26. The champions of each of the three conferences, along with one at-large team, will advance to the 2003 NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championship May 1-3 in Long Beach, Calif.

“It is fabulous news that men’s volleyball will receive television exposure at the conference level,” Pacific Head Men’s Volleyball Coach Joe Wortmann, the men’s collegiate representative to the AVCA board of directors, said. “Men’s volleyball has such parity this year. Any team that makes it as far as the conference championship match will be a solid team that will produce an outstanding title match for television.”<br>
“The broadcast of these exciting men's matches leading to the NCAA Championship in Long Beach will give the men's game some well-deserved additional media exposure,” AVCA President Stephanie Schleuder said. “The AVCA is very pleased to help facilitate the agreement with CSTV.”<br>
College Sports Television has long-term programming and marketing agreements with 27 Division I athletic conferences, including the Big East, Big Ten, Big XII, Ivy League, Sun Belt and Atlantic 10. The network will televise live regular season and championship events across a broad spectrum of men's and women's college sports, including football, basketball, baseball, soccer, ice hockey and lacrosse. Dedicated to offering the widest variety of college athletics, College Sports Television will provide the most in-depth sports coverage of 1,200 universities and colleges across all of the major conferences at every level of college sports.

College Sports Television was co-founded by president/CEO Brian Bedol, chairman Stephen Greenberg and executive vice president Chris Bevilacqua. Bedol and Greenberg co-founded Classic Sports Network, which they sold to ESPN and which is now ESPN Classic. Bevilacqua is a former senior executive with Nike Inc., where he headed the company’s successful foray into the college market. For more information on College Sports Television, log on to www.cstv.com.

[vbcrusin on the road]

Hey Spike...

This is great and exciting news for the sport of volleyball. This increased exposure will definitely help in raising untapped fan interest in the sport. Now all we have to do is BUG the local newspapers to give the same exposure.

I'm going to write the Orange County Register and L.A. Times to INCREASE their coverages of all volleyball games (boys, girls, men and women)....maybe EVERYONE should do the same. Get a letter writing campaign going. Thanks for the info. I'll be watching them all. ;D

[Rollshot]

Guest-vbcrusin said:

I'm going to write the Orange County Register and L.A. Times to INCREASE their coverages of all volleyball games (boys, girls, men and women)....maybe EVERYONE should do the same. Get a letter writing campaign going. Thanks for the info. I'll be watching them all. ;D

Having been on the OTHER side of the fence as a member of the media, I'll tell you what works and what doesn't.

What works? A SHORT letter or email to the editor-in-chief or reporter which includes: (1) a quick 1 or 2 sentence summary of what article or kinds of articles they should write about; and (2) one or more compelling reasons why they should write said article.

What doesn't work? A LONG (or long-winded) letter or email that states, among other things: (1) what a great sport volleyball is; (2) what great athletes play the sport; and (3) why local papers and reporters are jackasses for not covering the sport. You have to give them compelling reasons to write a particular article or cover a particular sport (like volleyball). Your suggestion has to separate itself from the pack of other suggestions that litter a reporter's desk.

One reason that is not compelling enough is: "Hey, volleyball is a great sport and you should cover it, dummy!" I know it sounds counter-intuitive to say this but that's the way it is. Reporters and newspapers go for great stories that SELL more newspapers/magazines. Put yourself in the shoes of a typical reporter. You have deadlines to meet and pressures to come up with great stories. You don't have time to read a long letter or email from the public. If someone (like the lay public) came to you and practically gift-wrapped a story (in a short but to-the-point letter) for you to follow-up on, that's half the battle. That's one less pressure on you.

The face-to-face contact might even be better but you have to be careful, because not everyone wants that type of contact.

Good luck!

[Spike]

Above mentioned CSTV may not come to your neighborhood unless you act now.

We need all volleyball fans to call or write your local cable/satellite carrier to carry this channel.

You can log on to www.cstv.com and send a mail to your local cable company and request/ask them to add this channel to their local cable listing.

We need everyone's help !

[vballmom]

TWC better start carrying CSTV. I sent them my email :-). Thanks Spike!!
I definitely want to see some Men's volleyball on tv!!

[the future]

FYI,

Chris Bevilaqua is a PSU grad. He and his younger brother Mike both were top wrestlers at Penn State in the early to mid 80's. Good friends of many of the volleyball players of those era.

Good to see the "minor sports" athletes looking out for each other!



Very good news!

[sweetieVBfan]

sorry to be the big downer here (though i think it's great news); i managed to find a kinda bad part.

does this mean k5 won't be able to cover the matches anymore? and what's more important to me, does this mean we're gonna have more chris marlowe-heather cox type announcers? i don't think i'll be able to get cstv (most of maryland's games are televised in general, so my school will probably not care), so does this mean i won't be able to watch the games streamed on the 'net?

[Spike]

sweetieVBfan said:

sorry to be the big downer here (though i think it's great news); i managed to find a kinda bad part.

does this mean k5 won't be able to cover the matches anymore? and what's more important to me, does this mean we're gonna have more chris marlowe-heather cox type announcers? i don't think i'll be able to get cstv (most of maryland's games are televised in general, so my school will probably not care), so does this mean i won't be able to watch the games streamed on the 'net?

CSTV is only airing 3 major conference's champion matches (MPSF, MIVA, EIVA) that usually never get televised.

UH's regular season games on K5 and its internet webcast of your Warriors will have no effect at all so you don't have to worry.

Only the conference champion matches will be exclusively covered by CSTV.