BYU's independent football program signs pact with ESPN, will also partner with BYUtv

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PROVO -- Brigham Young University, which will begin competing as a football independent in the 2011 season, today announced a new 8-year deal with ESPN to televise Cougar football on the sports leader’s family of networks.

ESPN has agreed that any BYU games it doesn’t select may be televised live on BYUtv.

Beginning next fall, every BYU home football game will be televised to a live national audience on the ESPN family of networks or BYUtv. Additionally, BYU’s national fan base will be able to view same-day rebroadcasts on BYUtv of every home game and any away game to which ESPN has rights through conference agreements with the host team.

Such enhanced exposure and fan access were important factors in the university’s decision to transition from the Mountain West Conference to independence in football and the West Coast Conference in other sports.

“We’ve long sought broad, nationwide access to our games for our fans and increased visibility among those who may be less familiar with our university and athletic programs,” said BYU President Cecil O. Samuelson. “We’ve also been looking for ways to take better advantage of our own unique broadcasting resources.”

BYUtv is available in 55 million North American homes and is growing every month. It’s on the basic tier of both Dish and DirectTV and is carried by more than 500 cable systems. The network owns a new state-of-the-art production truck that will allow it to televise games in HD.

ESPN and ESPN2 are both available in 99.5 million homes, while the 24-hour college sports network ESPNU is distributed to approximately 73 million homes. ESPN also produces college football games that are broadcast on ABC.

Working with ESPN will help in scheduling high-profile opponents, said BYU Director of Athletics Tom Holmoe.

“Thanks to the success of our programs, we’ve had a difficult time finding teams willing to come to LaVell Edwards Stadium to play us,” Holmoe said. “We believe the combined resources between BYU and ESPN are already paying off – we’re still working out the details, but we have agreed to a six-game deal through 2020 with Notre Dame football that will bring the Fighting Irish to Provo.”

Each year, a minimum of three games will be carried on ESPN, ESPN2, or ABC. Additional games will be on ESPNU. At least one game each season will be carried live on BYUtv.

ESPN has televised many of the great games in Cougar football history, beginning with the network’s first live college football telecast. In that 1984 game, the Cougars defeated No. 3 Pitt at the beginning of their national championship season.

ESPN also carried BYU’s defeat of top-ranked Miami in 1990, a contest that is still the 8th highest-rated regular season college football game on ESPN since that year.

Last year’s win over No. 3 Oklahoma was ESPN’s 9th highest-rated game of the 2009 regular season.

“BYU is nationally recognized as an outstanding university and for the history and tradition of its premier athletic programs,” said Burke Magnus, ESPN senior vice president, college sports programming. “Once BYU decided to chart an independent course for football, we both recognized it is a good opportunity to build and grow our strong 30-year relationship. With this agreement, college football fans around the country will see the quality and pageantry of BYU as well as the passion and enthusiasm of its supporters.”