Sept. 30, 2010
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame women’s basketball team will have a minimum of 20 games on television during the 2010-11 regular season, according to the full BIG EAST Conference television package and other arrangements announced Thursday. This year’s Fighting Irish TV slate, which includes seven national or regionally-televised contests and all 17 home games, is one of the most extensive in the program’s 34-year history and continues to put Notre Dame among the nation’s elite in terms of television coverage.
It also will mark the 10th consecutive season that the Fighting Irish will have at least seven games on broadcast television. Notre Dame has made a total of 167 televised appearances in the past 10 seasons (2000-01 through 2009-10), and additional games this season could be selected to air on either a regional or local basis, with further announcements pending.
The premier game on this year’s Fighting Irish television docket is the Jan. 8 matchup with defending national champion (and BIG EAST rival) Connecticut inside Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center, a game that will air live nationally on CBS at 2 p.m. (ET). Notre Dame will be seen on the Tiffany Network for the fourth time in program history, following a 1997 road game at Ohio State and two other home contests (2003 vs. Purdue, 2008 vs. Tennessee), with all three also coming in the month of January. What’s more, this year’s game with Connecticut is likely to be a sellout, which would mark the fourth time overall, and the third in four years that the Fighting Irish and Huskies would play inside a packed Purcell Pavilion.
Notre Dame also has a pair of regular-season home games scheduled for the ESPN family of networks. The Fighting Irish will play host to in-state rival Purdue on Dec. 5, with the 2 p.m. (ET) contest to air live on ESPN2. Then, on Jan. 23, Notre Dame welcomes St. John’s to Purcell Pavilion for a 2 p.m. (ET) Sunday matinee that will be broadcast live on ESPNU.
In addition, the Fighting Irish are in line to make three national appearances on the BIG EAST-CBS College Sports Game of the Week package — Jan. 18 at home against Georgetown, Feb. 22 at West Virginia and Feb. 28 at DePaul. The Georgetown and West Virginia games will tip off at 7 p.m. (ET), while the DePaul contest will start at 9 p.m. ET (8 p.m. CT). CBS College Sports is available on most cable systems around the country, including Comcast Cable in South Bend and on the Notre Dame campus (CableCard and digital tiers Channel 418), and also can be seen on satellite via DirecTV (Channel 610) or Dish Network (Channel 152).
The Fighting Irish also will play at least one regionally-televised game during the upcoming season, as Notre Dame’s Feb. 19 visit to Connecticut (2 p.m. ET) has been selected for the BIG EAST Network Syndicated Game of the Week broadcast. It will air on various regional sports networks around the country (check local listings; also attainable through DirecTV or Dish Network), including live coverage on the network’s flagship carrier, SportsNet New York (SNY), which reaches nearly 12 million homes in the nation’s No. 1 media market. For the past several years, the BIG EAST Network Game of the Week has been carried in the South Bend market on WHME-TV (Channel 46), with clearances for this season still pending.
Outside of commercial television agreements, Notre Dame tentatively is slated to show its remaining 13 home games (as well as its Nov. 3 exhibition against Michigan Tech) live free of charge on its official athletics web site, www.UND.com. This will mark the fifth consecutive season that selected Fighting Irish women’s basketball games have been webcast live on the Internet through the free All-Access package on UND.com, which consistently has been ranked as one of the top CBSSports.com College Network web sites in the country throughout the past decade.
Besides its regular-season TV slate, nearly every one of Notre Dame’s postseason contests will be televised live nationally on the ESPN family of networks, with only the BIG EAST Championship first-round games on March 4 being webcast live on the BIG EAST multimedia web site, www.bigeast.tv, and the conference tournament second-round games on March 5 being televised on the BIG EAST Network. The quarterfinal (March 6) and semifinal (March 7) games will air on ESPNU, while the BIG EAST title game on March 8 will be shown on ESPN at 7 p.m. (ET). For the eighth consecutive year, the BIG EAST Championship is scheduled to be played at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn.
What’s more, ESPN and ESPN2 will show all 63 games from the 2011 NCAA Tournament, which gets underway March 19 and culminates with the NCAA national championship game April 5 from Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
For more information on the Notre Dame women’s basketball program, sign up to follow the Fighting Irish women’s basketball Twitter pages (www.twitter.com/ndwbbsid or www.twitter.com/notredamewbb) or register for the Irish ALERT text-messaging system through the sidebar on the women’s basketball page at UND.com.
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2010-11 Notre Dame Women's Basketball Regular Season TV Games (as of Sept. 30, 2010)Dec. 5 PURDUE (ESPN2) 2 p.m.Jan. 8 CONNECTICUT (CBS) 2 p.m.Jan. 18 GEORGETOWN (CBS College Sports) 7 p.m.Jan. 23 ST. JOHN'S (ESPNU) 2 p.m.Feb. 19 at Connecticut (BIG EAST Network) 2 p.m.Feb. 22 at West Virginia (CBS College Sports) 7 p.m.Feb. 28 at DePaul (CBS College Sports) 9 p.m.
All times Eastern // Home games listed in ALL CAPS* - BIG EAST Network television package (check local listings for availability)NOTE: Home games not listed above tentatively are scheduled to be webcast live on the official Notre Dame athletics web site (www.UND.com)Broadcast times and outlets are subject to change (check UND.com for latest information)