Notre Dame will play on the ESPN family of networks at least four times in 2009-10, including a pair of contests on ESPN2's 'Big Monday', it was announced Monday afternoon.

Fighting Irish To Make Three Monday Night Appearances On ESPN This Season

Sept. 21, 2009

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s basketball program has added three more nationally-televised appearances to its 2009-10 schedule, it was announced Monday afternoon by ESPN. The Fighting Irish will play three Monday night contests on the ESPN family of networks, including a pair of games as part of the “Big Monday” women’s college basketball package that will air live each Monday night during the final two months of the season.

A week prior to the debut of this year’s “Big Monday” package, Notre Dame will be featured in that same prime time slot, as the Fighting Irish travel to West Lafayette, Ind., on Jan. 4 for a 7 p.m. (ET) matchup with in-state rival Purdue on ESPN. It will be one of at least two games this season that Notre Dame will play on ESPN — on Jan. 16 at 9 p.m. (ET), the Fighting Irish will venture to Storrs, Conn., to take on defending national champion Connecticut in a nationally-televised BIG EAST Conference contest as part of the first-ever ESPN College GameDay broadcast held in conjunction with a women’s basketball game.

On Feb. 1, Notre Dame will make its “Big Monday” debut, when it heads to Piscataway, N.J., for a 7:30 p.m. (ET) encounter with BIG EAST rival Rutgers. One month later on March 1, the Fighting Irish will close out the 2009-10 regular season by playing host to Connecticut at 7 p.m. (ET) inside the newly-refurbished Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center. Both “Big Monday” games will be broadcast live on ESPN2, ESPN2HD and ESPN360.com.

It also was announced last week that Notre Dame’s Nov. 19 non-conference road game at Michigan State will be televised live by the Big Ten Network and will tip off at 6 p.m. (ET) from East Lansing, Mich. This marks the fourth consecutive season that a Fighting Irish women’s basketball game will air on the Big Ten Network, following broadcasts at Penn State (2006-07), Purdue (2007-08) and Michigan (2008-09).

It is expected that Notre Dame will have several additional games televised during the course of the 2009-10 women’s basketball season, with those national and regional TV broadcasts to be announced in the coming weeks. The BIG EAST will unveil its complete broadcast schedule during the conference’s annual Media Day activities on Oct. 22 at the ESPN Zone in New York City. What’s more, the official Fighting Irish athletics web site (www.UND.com) is planning to produce free live webcasts of several home games that may not be picked up for commercial television broadcast.

Notre Dame returns all 12 monogram winners and all five starters from last year’s club that registered a 22-9 record and made its 14th consecutive NCAA Championship appearance (and 16th overall). The Fighting Irish also add the nation’s No. 9-ranked incoming freshman class (according to All-Star Girls Report) and have earned top-15 preseason rankings from three major national media outlets — Lindy’s college basketball preview (5th), ESPN.com (5th) and Athlon Sports college basketball preview (12th).

— ND —