Oct. 14, 2005
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s basketball team will have nine of its regular-season games televised during the 2005-06 season, the BIG EAST Conference announced Friday. Highlighting this year’s television docket are six nationally-televised Irish women’s basketball contests, including three consecutive games on the ESPN family of networks during a 12-day span in mid-February. In addition, virtually every postseason game for Notre Dame, either in the BIG EAST Championship or NCAA Tournament, will be televised on a national basis this season.
“We are pleased that so many of our loyal and supportive fans, who may not be able to come out to the Joyce Center to see us in person, can follow our progress during the coming season,” Irish head coach Muffet McGraw said. “Between our television, radio and internet coverage, Notre Dame has been at the front of the pack in helping to set the bar higher for exposure of women’s college basketball. We’re looking forward to taking that even further this season and beyond.”
Friday’s announcement continues a recent trend that has seen the Irish become a regular fixture on television. Beginning with the NCAA championship season of 2000-01, Notre Dame has played in 60 televised games, including 37 that were broadcast nationally. Last year, the Irish had 17 games televised, with 10 being national broadcasts.
In addition, for the past six seasons, every Notre Dame women’s basketball game, home and away, has been broadcast live on radio, with this marking the fourth straight year the Irish will be heard on two stations in the South Bend market (ESPN Radio 1580 AM and WNDV 1490 AM). Veteran broadcaster Sean Stires returns for his sixth year behind the microphone as the radio voice of the Irish in 2005-06. Also, all Notre Dame women’s basketball games can be heard via the official Notre Dame athletics web site (www.und.com) through the Fighting Irish All-Access subscription service, and every Notre Dame home game once again will feature live in-game statistics, courtesy of College Sports Online’s GameTracker.
Notre Dame will make its 2005-06 television debut Nov. 20 when its 2 p.m. (EST) road opener at Western Michigan is aired live on Comcast Local. That will be the first of two regional Irish women’s basketball broadcasts for the Detroit-based network, with the second coming a week later (Nov. 27) in a 2 p.m. (EST) home game against USC. Last season, Comcast Local broadcast a total of five Notre Dame women’s basketball games, with former Irish All-American and current WNBA All-Star center Ruth Riley serving as color commentator on four of those telecasts.
The remaining six televised games on the ’05-06 Notre Dame schedule all are slated for national broadcasts. The first of three Irish appearances on College Sports Television (CSTV) comes on Dec. 31, when Notre Dame plays host to Tennessee at 2 p.m. (EST). Notre Dame returns to the CSTV airwaves for a pair of January contests that will be part of the BIG EAST/CSTV Tuesday Game of the Week package. The Irish will welcome DePaul to the Joyce Center on Jan. 17, before visiting Rutgers on Jan. 24, and both games will tip off at 7:30 p.m. (EST). CSTV has aired eight Notre Dame women’s basketball games during the past three seasons, with the first being that network’s inaugural broadcast of any sport (a Feb. 2003 game at Connecticut).
The Irish then make three consecutive appearances on the ESPN family of networks, beginning with a Feb. 7 home game against Villanova that will be broadcast live on ESPNU. That game now will tip off at 6 p.m. (EST), one hour earlier than previously listed on some schedules. The following Sunday (Feb. 12), Notre Dame will travel to DePaul for a 4 p.m. CST (5 p.m. EST) game that will air on ESPN2 as part of that network’s “whiparound coverage” designed to preview similar coverage for the NCAA Tournament. The Irish are back on ESPN2 on Feb. 19, when they play host to Connecticut in a 7 p.m. (EST) prime-time BIG EAST showdown at the Joyce Center. During the past five seasons, Notre Dame has appeared on the ESPN family of networks 24 times, averaging nearly five telecasts per year on “The Worldwide Leader in Sports”.
Notre Dame will make its final regular-season television appearance on Feb. 25, when it travels to new conference member Cincinnati for a 2 p.m. (EST) game that will air as part of the BIG EAST-Regional Sports Network (RSN) package. Among the outlets scheduled to televise the game live are WHME-TV (Channel 46 in South Bend), Comcast Chicago, Comcast Local, Comcast Philadelphia and Madison Square Garden Network. Other outlets for the BIG EAST-RSN package may be announced at a later date.
The conference also announced that the final three rounds of the 2006 BIG EAST Championship will be televised on a national basis. The quarterfinals will air on CSTV, the semifinals on ESPNU and the championship game on ESPN2, with all games originating from the Hartford Civic Center, the off-campus home of the conference tournament for the third consecutive year. In addition, all NCAA Tournament games will be broadcast nationally on either ESPN or ESPN2, culminating with the NCAA national championship game April 4 on ESPN from the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston.
— ND —
2005-06 Notre Dame Women’s Basketball Televised Games
Nov. 20 at Western Michigan 2 p.m. (EST) Comcast Local
Nov. 27 USC 2 p.m. (EST) Comcast Local
Dec. 31 Tennessee 2 p.m. (EST) CSTV
Jan. 17 DePaul 7:30 p.m. (EST) CSTV
Jan. 24 at Rutgers 7:30 p.m. (EST) CSTV
Feb. 7 Villanova 6 p.m. (EST) ESPNU
Feb. 12 at DePaul 4 p.m. (CST) ESPN2
Feb. 19 Connecticut 7 p.m. (EST) ESPN2
Feb. 25 at Cincinnati 2 p.m. (EST) BIG EAST TV*
* – includes WHME-TV (Channel 46 in South Bend)/Comcast Chicago/Comcast Local