May 20, 2004
NEW YORK — CSTV: College Sports Television (www.collegesports.com), which introduced CSTV Softball, the first live, nationally televised college softball package, this spring, will continue providing fans with the “best of the best” of college softball when it televises live at least four games from the NCAA Softball Championship Regional in Tucson, Ariz. Saturday and Sunday, May 22-23.
The Tucson NCAA Regional at Hillenbrand Stadium commences Thursday, May 20, and will follow a double-elimination format. College Sports TV’s coverage will include every game on Saturday and Sunday, including the game determining the Regional champion. In addition to host team and number one seed Arizona, other teams in the Tucson Regional include Oklahoma, Northwestern, South Carolina, Lousiana-Lafayette, UC Santa Barbara, Temple and Centenary. Dave Pasch will call the action on CSTV’s telecasts and Ann Schatz will provide color commentary.
College Sports TV’s live NCAA Softball Championship Regional telecasts spearhead its Arizona Weekend: Regionals and Rivalries, a weekend dedicated to the best of college sports action from the state of Arizona. As part of Arizona Weekend, CSTV will premiere its Nike Training Camp special on the University of Arizona softball team Saturday, May 22, at 4:30 p.m. ET/1:30 p.m. PT. Saturday’s Nike Training Camp show will reveal the “secrets of success” of the Arizona softball program, which has captured six NCAA National Championships under head coach Mike Candrea while producing 43 first-team All-Americas.
Other Arizona Weekend programming includes #19 Arizona State at Arizona baseball live Friday at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, and CSTV Retrovision classic basketball telecasts featuring the Arizona Wildcats taking on Gonzaga (2000), Texas (2002) and Cincinnati (1996).
College Sports TV’s Live NCAA Softball Championship Coverage from Tucson
- Saturday, May 22, 2:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. PT
- Saturday, May 22, 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT
- Saturday, May 22, 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT
- Sunday, May 23, 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT
- Sunday, May 23, 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT (if necessary)
College Sports TV’s NCAA Softball Championship coverage will extend to the network’s live Tourney Talk, CSTV Primetime and CSTV Scoreboard studio shows originating from the CSTV Fieldhouse in New York. Tourney Talk is College Sports TV’s innovative call-in program in which the show’s hosts field phone calls, emails and AOL instant messages from fans, media and coaches. The hosts and guests will analyze the on-field action and off-field storylines from the NCAA Softball Championships and from throughout the world of college sports. The network’s CSTV Primetime and CSTV Scoreboard shows provide fans with the latest news, scores, analysis and features.
This spring’s CSTV Softball package has included regular season games featuring defending national champion UCLA and highly ranked teams such as Arizona, Stanford, Fresno State, Nebraska and Texas. CSTV Softball has also featured the Big Ten and Conference USA Softball Championships.
College Sports TV, the first 24-hour college sports network, is available to more than 20 million homes nationally on cable and satellite. The network is available on Time Warner, Adelphia and Insight cable systems, among others, and is also available on DirecTV (channel 610). For information on CSTV availability in particular markets, consumers can log on to www.collegesports.com or call their cable or satellite operator.
The NCAA is a membership-led nonprofit association of colleges and universities committed to supporting academic and athletic opportunities for more than 360,000 student-athletes at more than 1,000 member colleges and universities. Each year, more than 49,000 student-athletes compete in NCAA Championships in Division I, II and III sports. For more information, go to www.ncaa.org.
CSTV is comprised of two primary business units: College Sports TV and CollegeSports.com. College Sports TV televises regular season and championship event coverage from every major collegiate athletic conference and televises nine NCAA Championships. In addition, the network has a programming and marketing agreement with the U.S. Olympic Committee. CollegeSports.com, the most-trafficked college sports Web site, and its network of 150 official athletic sites for top colleges, universities and athletic associations, is the number one online source for college sports news, information, scores and analysis.
College Sports TV was co-founded by President/CEO Brian Bedol, Chairman Stephen Greenberg and Executive Vice President Chris Bevilacqua. Bedol and Greenberg co-founded Classic Sports Network, which they sold to ESPN. It is now ESPN Classic. Bevilacqua is a former senior executive with Nike Inc., where he headed the company’s successful foray into the college market.
