ESPN Regional Television And MAC Announce College Football Syndication Package

CELEBRATION, Fla. ? ESPN Regional Television, Inc. (ERT) and the Mid-American Conference (MAC) have announced a six-week regionally syndicated football package that will air in 34 television markets, including Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Grand Rapids (Mich.) and Buffalo for the upcoming season. The package will consist of six consecutive weeks of MAC conference and non-conference matchups, beginning Saturday, Sept. 15.

“We are pleased to provide our viewers with a consistent window for Mid-American Conference football,” said Pete Derzis, senior vice president and general manager of ESPN Regional Television. “With ESPN's multimedia platforms, we anticipate MAC football will touch a significant base of college football fans.”

All games will begin at noon ET, with the telecast window extending to 3:30 p.m. ET. The games will be distributed nationally via the ESPN GamePlan pay-per-view package, which is available to fans via cable, DirecTV and Dish Network.

“We were thrilled when ESPN Regional approached us about this tremendous opportunity to bring more MAC football to our geographic footprint on television stations that have never before been available to us,” said Rick Chryst, commissioner of the Mid-American Conference. “The continuing growth of the conference in terms of competitiveness, bowl opportunities and NFL-caliber performers is at an all-time high, and that is being reflected in the marketplace.”

The six-week package will begin with a split window Sept. 15 that will feature Eastern Michigan at Northern Illinois along with Cincinnati of the Big East at Miami. The package will conclude with Miami at Temple on Oct. 20. A full list of games can be found below.

The 34 markets that will air the package represent more than 24 million television households, or 22 percent of the U.S. Those markets and affiliates include: Chicago (WPWR ? MyTV); Philadelphia (WPHL ? MyTV); Detroit (WXYZ ? ABC); Cleveland (WEWS ? ABC); St. Louis (Charter Cable); Indianapolis (WNDY ? MyTV); Columbus (WWHO ? CW); Cincinnati (WKRC ? CBS); Milwaukee (WDJT ? CBS); Grand Rapids (WXSP ? MyTV); and Buffalo (WNGS ? Independent). A full listing can be found below.

2007 MAC “Game of the Week” Schedule (All Times at Noon ET)

Saturday, Sept. 15

Eastern Michigan at Northern Illinois

Cincinnati at Miami

Saturday, Sept. 22

Temple at Bowling Green

Saturday, Sept. 29

Northern Illinois at Central Michigan

Saturday, Oct. 6

Central Michigan at Ball State

Saturday, Oct. 13

Eastern Michigan at Ohio

Saturday, Oct. 20

Miami at Temple

2007 MAC Affiliates

Chicago

WPWR-MyTV

Philadelphia

WPHL-MyTV

Detroit

WXYZ-ABC

Cleveland

WEWS-ABC

St. Louis

Charter Cable

Indianapolis

WNDY-MyTV

Columbus, Ohio

WWHO-CW

Cincinnati

WKRC-CBS

Milwaukee

WDJT-CBS

Grand Rapids, Mich.

WXSP-MyTV

Las Vegas

KEGS or KBNY-Independent

Buffalo

WNGS-Independent

Little Rock, Ark.

KWBF-MyTV

Dayton, Ohio

WKEF-ABC

Charleston, W.Va.

WSAZ-DT2-MyTV

Flint, Mich.

WNEM-DT-CBS

Green Bay, Wis.

WACY-MyTV

Toledo, Ohio

WTVG-ABC

Springfield, Mo.

KWBM-MyTV

South Bend, Ind.

WBND-ABC; WMWB-WB

Cedar Rapids, Mich.

KWWF-Independent

Davenport, Iowa

WBQD-MyTV

Evansville, Ill.

WAZE-CW

Fort Smith, Alaska

KFDF-Independent

Youngstown, Pa.

WYTV-ABC

Fort Wayne, Ind.

WPTA-DT2

Tyler, Texas

KYTX-DT

Lansing, Mich.

WHTV-MyTV

Traverse City, Mich.

WFQX-Fox

Peoria, Ill.

WAOE-MyTV

Rockford, Ill.

WTVO-DT-ABC

Marquette, Wis.

WMQF-MyTV

Wheeling, Ill.

WTRF-CBS

Roanoke, Va.

WDRL-Independent

MAC Football

The 2007 football campaign marks the 61^st season of MAC football and will culminate with the Marathon MAC Championship Game at Ford Field in Detroit on Saturday, Dec. 1 on ESPN or ESPN2. With four MAC schools participating in bowl games last season, the league has produced bowl teams from nine conference schools in the past three years. In addition, the competitiveness of the league has resulted in six schools representing their respective divisions in the last three championship games.

The number of MAC players in the NFL continues to grow as 100 former student-athletes were on active NFL rosters as of June 2007. Among the athletes are offensive tackle Ryan Diem (Northern Illinois) of the Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts and Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (Miami), who is the youngest professional signal caller to guide his team to the Lombardi Trophy.

The legacy of the MAC was heightened this year with the selection of Central Michigan head coach Herb Deromedi, No. 1 on the all-time wins list in the MAC, to the College Football Hall of Fame. Deromedi joins former great MAC head coaches Sid Gillman, Woody Hayes, Don James, Don Nehlen, Ara Parseghian, Doyt Perry and Bo Schembechler in the Hall of Fame.

With the 61,500-seat Soldier Field in Chicago already sold out for the Sept. 1 matchup between Northern Illinois and Iowa, MAC football continues to draw interest at new levels.

ESPN Regional Television ? Event Ownership

The nation's largest syndicator of collegiate sports programming, ESPN Regional Television (ERT) produces more than 900 sporting events annually. Programming includes football, basketball, NCAA events, golf and NHRA events accounting for more than 2,200 live and/or original hours of programming. In addition to event ownership, ERT is the production headquarters for ESPNU, the 24-hour college sports network; syndication rights-holder and producer of national, regional and local shows for college conferences (e.g. ? Big East, Big 12, Mid-American, Sun Belt, Western Athletic). ESPN Regional Television markets and/or owns several other sporting events, including the Bell Helicopter Armed Forced Bowl; the papajohns.com Bowl; the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl; the PioneerPureVison Las Vegas Bowl, the New Mexico Bowl; the MEAC/SWAC Football Classic; the National Golf Challenge presented by Callaway; and collegiate basketball events including the Spartan Clash (Auburn Hills, MI); the O'Reilly Auto Parts All-College Classic (Oklahoma City, OK); the Old Spice Classic (Orlando, FL); the ESPNU Puerto Rico Tip-Off Classic (San Juan, PR); and the Anaheim Basketball Classic (Anaheim, CA).

-30-

Media Contact:
Doug Grassian, ESPN Communications at (407) 566-2216

(doug.grassian@espn.com)

Ball State University Athletics

ESPN Regional Television And MAC Announce College Football Syndication Package

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