ESPN Plus

ESPN Plus
ESPN Regional Television

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Media
Genre	Sports
Predecessor(s)	Creative Sports Ohlmeyer Communications Corporation
Headquarters	Charlotte, NC
Key people	Pete Derzis, GM, Sr. VP
Services	College sports syndicator
Parent	ESPN
Website	espnplus.com

ESPN Plus, the popular name of ESPN Regional Television, is an American television program syndicator. ERT is based along with sister network ESPNU in Charlotte, North Carolina. Prior to its purchase by ESPN, this sports package's syndicator was known as Creative Sports, which in turn merged with Don Ohlmeyer's self-titled Ohlmeyer Communication Corporation (OCC).

Telecasts [edit]

ESPN Plus produces and syndicates the following telecasts:

• Big East Conference football and men's college basketball (starting with the 2008 football season these games are branded as the Big East Network with SNY as the flagship station)
• Big 12 Conference basketball (under the name Big 12 Network beginning in the 2008–09 season).^[1]
• Southeastern Conference football and basketball (under the name SEC Network starting in 2009, taking over for Raycom Sports). ^[2][3]
• Mid-American Conference football
• Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference men's and women's basketball
• Sun Belt Conference football and men’s basketball (under the name Sun Belt Network)
• Western Athletic Conference football and men's basketball

Games air on broadcast stations, regional sports networks, and on ESPN GamePlan and ESPN Full Court, both of which are out of market sports packages, and also on ESPN3 (formerly known as ESPN360.com) since 2007.

College Football Broadcast teams [edit]

2009 [edit]

• SEC: Dave Neal / Andre Ware / Cara Capuano
• Big East: Mike Gleason / John Congemi / Quint Kessenich
• MAC: Michael Reghi / Doug Chapman

2010 [edit]

• SEC: Dave Neal / Andre Ware / Cara Capuano
• Big East: Mike Gleason / John Congemi / Eamon McAnaney
• MAC: Michael Reghi / Doug Graber or Doug Chapman

2011 [edit]

• SEC: Dave Neal / Andre Ware / Cara Capuano
• Big East: Mike Gleason / John Congemi / Eamon McAnaney
• MAC: Michael Reghi / Doug Graber or Doug Chapman

2012 [edit]

• SEC: Dave Neal / Andre Ware / Cara Capuano
• Big East: Eamon McAnaney / David Diaz-Infante / Paul Carcaterra
• MAC: Michael Reghi / Doug Graber or Doug Chapman

College Basketball Broadcast Teams [edit]

2010-2011 [edit]

• SEC: Carter Blackburn and Clay Matvick / Mark Gottfried and Joe Dean Jr.
• Big 12: Dave Armstrong, Mitch Holthus and Brad Sham / Reid Gettys, Jon Sundvold and Stephen Howard
• Big East: Mike Gleason / Bob Wenzel

2011-2012 [edit]

• SEC: Carter Blackburn and Clay Matvick / Kara Lawson and Joe Dean Jr.
• Big 12: Dave Armstrong, Mitch Holthus and Brad Sham/ Reid Gettys, Jon Sundvold and Stephen Howard
• Big East: Mike Gleason / Bob Wenzel

2012-2013 [edit]

• SEC: Clay Matvick , Dave Baker, Dave Neal and Dave Lamont / Joe Dean Jr., Kara Lawson, Barry Booker, Jon Sundvold or Kyle Macy
• Big 12: Dave Armstrong, Mitch Holthus and Brad Sham/ Reid Gettys, Stephen Howard, Bryndon Manzer. Chris Piper, or Rich Zvosec
• Big East: Anish Shroff / Bob Wenzel

Former rights [edit]

ESPN Plus once had rights to Conference USA football and basketball, Mountain West Conference football and basketball, and Big Ten Conference football and basketball, but has since lost them as detailed below:

• Conference USA - Broadcast rights to C-USA football, outside of the CUSA championship, are owned by CBS Sports Network and Fox Sports. Basketball rights are owned by those two and CBS.
• Mid-American Conference basketball moved to SportsTime Ohio in 2010.
• Mountain West Conference - Broadcast rights to MWC football and basketball games are now owned by CBS Sports Network, NBC Sports Network, and were formerly shown on the (now defunct) MTN.
• Big Ten Conference - Broadcast rights to Big Ten Conference football and basketball games not selected to air regionally or nationally on CBS, ESPN or ESPN2 are owned by BTN. ESPN Plus lost the rights to the new network in August 2007.

Event organizer [edit]

• It owns^[4][5][6] and organizes the following college football bowl games, which are televised on either ESPN or ESPN2: BBVA Compass Bowl; Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl; Bell Helicopters Armed Forces Bowl; Maaco Bowl Las Vegas; Gildan New Mexico Bowl; Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas and the Sheraton Hawaiʻi Bowl. Most of these games (except the Armed Forces, BBVA Compass and Texas Bowls) are usually held before Christmas and until 2006 were branded under the name "Bowl Road Trip," while ESPN telecasts after Christmas were referred to as "Capital One Bowl Week." (As of the 2007 bowl season, however, Bowl Week now covers all non-BCS games shown on ESPN, ESPN2, or ABC.) ^[7]

• It also organizes the MEAC/SWAC Challenge presented by Disney, a regular season game between teams representing two conferences of historically black colleges and universities in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision.

• ESPN Plus also organizes the following college basketball events: the DirecTV Classic in Anaheim, the Champions Classic, the Charleston Classic in South Carolina, the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii, the Old Spice Classic held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, the Puerto Rico Tip-Off held in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, and the SEARS BracketBusters games held in February each year. Most games in these tournaments are shown on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU; those not shown on television air on ESPN3

• In golf, ERT produced the PGA Tour's LG Skins Game and the Champions Tour's Wendy's Champions Skins Game, which aired on ABC and ESPN2 respectively. ERT also organizes the National Golf Challenge for amateur players.

• ESPN+ also produces the Warrior Lacrosse Challenge.

References [edit]

Notes

External links [edit]

• Corporate site
• ESPN Plus program listing
• MEAC-SWAC Challenge page
• National Golf Challenge