The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
UConn secures TV deal
UConn’s football program, which has been spiraling toward irrelevancy the past several seasons, took a step forward with the announcement of a multi-year television deal.
CBS Sports Network and UConn have partnered on an agreement that will televise four home games this fall and all home games through the 2023 season.
It’s a much needed maneuver to bolster a program that’s endured several losing seasons and will be left to fend for itself as an independent as UConn severs ties with the American Athletic Conference so it can return to the Big East this summer.
UConn athletic director David Benedict expects another deal to televise the remaining three home games this fall.
“We knew from the outset that both our schedule and partnering with someone from a TV standpoint would be significant in our ability to be successful in this endeavor,” Benedict said. “So today I’m very pleased and very excited and couldn’t be happier about this announcement.
“This coupled with the schedule that we’ve put together is going to put us in a terrific situation moving forward and provide coach (Randy) Edsall with a foundation as well as something to be able to communicate to both our current team as well as future prospects.”
This fall, CBS Sports Network will television UConn home games with Indiana, Liberty, Middle Tennessee State and Army. Future games included in the deal include Purdue in 2021, Syracuse and Boston College in 2022 and Duke, North Carolina State and Tennessee in 2023.
Edsall is rightfully thrilled with the development. In addition to the influx of TV money, the news will ease the strain of recruiting prospective players to a struggling program with no conference
or guaranteed bowl games.
UConn, which has qualified for just one bowl game over the past 10 years and managed a combined six wins over the past three seasons, may well be in a better position now. The AAC’s deal with ESPN, announced last year, relegated many of the Huskies games to ESPN+, an online streaming service with a monthly fee for subscribers.
“I would like just to thank David for all his hard work that he’s put in to get us in this situation,” Edsall said. “This is something that is a little bit unprecedented in terms of what we did and where we’re going to go. To have this kind of agreement with CBS Sports Network, to have our games televised nationally on linear TV is big from a recruiting standpoint and something that will aid us as we head into independence in football.”