Indiana State University Newsroom

Indiana State University and other schools in the Missouri Valley Conference have signed a nine-year contract with ESPN for live coverage of intercollegiate sports. The agreement will make Sycamore athletic contests available to more than 99 million homes.

"I am pleased to announce the launch of ‘The Valley on ESPN3'," said Ron Prettyman, athletics director at Indiana State. "This will allow our students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, parents and Sycamore Athletics supporters around the world to view most of our teams live, every time we compete home or away. I hope that everyone will join us as we support all of our Sycamore Athletics programs and have the opportunity to view them live on ‘The Valley on ESPN3'."

Students will produce the telecasts, gaining opportunities to serve as directors, producers, audio engineers, graphics and replay operators, camera operators and on-air talent. A full-time sports video expert from the ISU Student Media team will train and supervise the broadcast teams.

"This is fantastic experiential learning opportunity for our students," said Philip Glende, executive director of student media. "ESPN is a leader in sports broadcasting, and this partnership will give students a chance to be part of a team producing nationally distributed live sports video."

It all starts in September when students will produce telecasts of Sycamore volleyball games played at the ISU Arena. Several late season football games at Memorial Stadium will also be featured as well as all men's and women's basketball games at Hulman Center. In 2017-18, home baseball and softball will be added to the line-up and coverage of soccer games will be added in 2018-19. The full schedule will include about 90 games per year.

ESPN3 is a live multi-screen sports network accessible online at WatchESPN.com, on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app and streamed on televisions through Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. The network is available at no additional cost to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection or video subscription from an affiliated service provider. The network is also available at no cost to approximately 21 million U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel via computers, smartphones and tablets connected to on-campus educational and on-base military broadband and Wi-Fi networks.

The contract with ESPN was negotiated through the Missouri Valley Conference office in St. Louis in consultation with officials from member schools.

To create these video productions, Indiana State is acquiring broadcast-quality, high definition video cameras, lenses and field gear, and is constructing a central control room equipped with video mixing and switching equipment on the lower level of Dreiser Hall. The control room will be connected by fiber to all Sycamore sports venues.The video production season starts with the volleyball game against IUPUI on Sept. 8 and may include as many as 17 volleyball games, followed by football and basketball beginning in November.

Graphic element: http://www.smugmug.com/photos/i-kmD2cxG/0/X3/i-kmD2cxG-X3.jpg

Contacts: Philip Glende, executive director of student media, Indiana State University, 812-237-8133 or philip.glende@indstate.edu; Ace Hunt, director of athletic media relations, Indiana State University, 812-243-5568 or ace.hunt@indstate.edu