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ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and
satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...
sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a
joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...
between
the Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...
(which owns a controlling 80% stake) and
Hearst Communications Hearst Corporation, Hearst Holdings Inc. and Hearst Communications Inc. comprise an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate owned by the Hearst family and based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan in New York ...
(which owns the remaining 20%). The channel is primarily dedicated to coverage of
college athletics College sports or college athletics encompasses amateur sports played by non- professional, collegiate and university-level student athletes in competitive sports and games. College sports have led to many college rivalries. College sports ...
, and is also used as an additional outlet for general ESPN programming. ESPNU is based alongside its sister networks at ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. , ESPNU is available to approximately 36,000,000 pay television households in the United States, down from its 2014 peak of 75,000,000 households.


History

The network was launched on March 4, 2005, with its first broadcast originating from the site of Gallagher-Iba Arena on the Oklahoma State University campus in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The network's first live event was a semifinal game of the Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball tournament between Southeast Missouri State University and Eastern Kentucky University. The network was launched as a response to rival College Sports Television (CSTV) (now
CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...
). ESPN was also being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department on allegations of "warehousing" collegiate sporting events from certain conferences, or signing a deal with a conference for all their games, but only televising a small number and not allowing the conference to make other arrangements for television broadcasts. ESPN and XOS Technologies entered into a partnership for college athletics websites to compete directly with CSTV's growing internet presence. On August 28, 2006, ESPNU launched a new '' SportsCenter'' spin-off focusing entirely on college sports. The program, '' SportsCenterU'', was originally scheduled to be broadcast from ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. However, ESPN instead chose to originate the show from Charlotte. Mike Hall was the program's lead anchor until August 2007, when he left for the new Big Ten Network. He was replaced by Mike Gleason and Lowell Galindo. The two are joined on-set by color commentators that vary depending on the sports season. The same day as ''SportsCenterU''s debut, ESPNU launched the website ESPNU.com. The site included live-streaming of college sports events, a multimedia player dedicated to college sports, podcasts and ESPN Motion clips of studio programming from the ESPNU television network. ESPNU expanded its live programming to
water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...
by broadcasting its first-ever water polo match between the women's teams of
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
and
Bucknell University Bucknell University is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal-arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1846 as the University at Lewisburg, it now consists of the College of Arts a ...
on March 28, 2009, from DeNunzio Pool in
Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...
. In addition to its collegiate sports coverage, ESPNU has simulcast
ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...
's midday program over its airwaves since 2008, with the exception of a brief period between 2011 and 2012. The program airing for the majority of that time was '' The Herd with Colin Cowherd'', which has since moved to
Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports Radio is an Radio in the United States, American Sports radio, sports radio network. Based in Los Angeles, California, the network is operated and managed by Premiere Networks in a content partnership with Fox Corporation's Fox Sports ...
and is simulcast on Fox Sports 1. Following Cowherd's departure and several weeks of guest hosts taking over the timeslot, '' The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz'' became the permanent replacement for ''The Herd''. On April 26, 2017, as part of a larger series of company-wide cuts, it was announced that ESPNU's studio operations would be re-located from Charlotte to ESPN's main headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. Less than 10 employees were laid off as part of the cuts. SEC Network and ESPN Events continue to operate out of Charlotte. On August 8, 2017, ESPNU aired a marathon of lesser-known and unconventional non-college sports as " ESPN 8: The Ocho"—an homage to a fictitious eighth ESPN channel portrayed in the film '' DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story'', which aired events that were "almost a sport". The stunt was reprised the following year on ESPN2. On August 31, 2017, as part of an extension of ESPN's agreements with the service, Sirius XM's channel College Sports Nation was relaunched as ESPNU Radio. The channel carries audio simulcasts of ESPN college sports studio programming, as well as other programs and event coverage. The co-branding agreement ended on February 4, 2023.


Carriage

On May 19, 2009, ESPN announced it had reached a carriage agreement with Comcast, which allows the cable provider to carry ESPNU on a widely distributed digital cable tier, instead of a less popular sports tier. ESPNU was added to most Comcast systems in time for the start of the 2009–10
college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
season. This ended several years of negotiations and somewhat of a feud between Comcast and ESPN over carriage of ESPNU. On that same date, ESPNU reached a new carriage agreement with
DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...
, which moved the channel from the satellite provider's add-on "Sports Pack" to its basic "Choice" package on July 1, 2009, swapping channels and packages with ESPN Classic. Cablevision added ESPNU to its systems on March 23, 2010. ESPNU is carried on PlayStation Vue, and Sling TV. Outside the United States, ESPNU became available in Mexico in 2017.


Dish Network lawsuit

On August 4, 2009 Dish Network sued ESPN for $1 million in a federal lawsuit, alleging that ESPN breached its contract by not extending the same carriage terms that the programmer provided to Comcast and DirecTV for ESPNU and ESPN Classic. The lawsuit claims ESPN violated the " Most Favored Nations" clause. The next day, ESPN announced it would fight the lawsuit and said in a press release: "We have repeatedly advised Dish that we are in full compliance with our agreement and have offered them a distribution opportunity with respect to ESPNU and ESPN Classic consistent with the rest of the industry. We will not renegotiate settled contracts and will vigorously defend this legal action, the apparent sole purpose of which is to get a better deal." Dish Network moved the channel from its "Classic Gold 250" package to its "Classic Bronze 100" package on September 30, 2009. However, it claimed that the move had nothing to do with the lawsuit.


Coverage rights

ESPNU has rights to sporting events from the following collegiate athletic conferences: *
American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and 6 affiliate member universities that compete in t ...
*
Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...
(ACC) *
Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...
*
Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...
* Conference USA *
Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...
*
Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...
(MAC) * Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) *
Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...
* Missouri Valley Football Conference *
Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...
*
Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...
(SEC) * Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) * Sun Belt Conference * Western Athletic Conference (WAC) * West Coast Conference (WCC)


List of programs broadcast by ESPNU


Current


Studio

*''ESPNU Bracketology'' (2006–present) *''ESPNU Coaches Spotlight'' (2006–present) *''Give 'N Go'' (2007–present) *''Inside the Big East'' (2006–present) *''ESPNU Inside the Polls'' (2005–present) *''ESPNU Recruiting Insider'' (2006–present) *'' SportsCenterU'' (2006–present) *'' College Football Live''


Live sports programs

*''ESPNU College Baseball'' (2005–present) Regular Season & select NCAA Tournament games LIVE *'' ESPNU College Basketball'' (2005–present) *'' ESPNU College Football'' (2005–present) *''ESPNU College Hockey'' (2005–present) Coverage of the Men's DI NCAA tournament regionals and the Women's National Collegiate Frozen Four (since 2021); select regular season games from the Big Ten (since 2013) and Hockey East (beginning 2022) *''ESPNU College Lacrosse'' (2005–present) Includes D1 Men's Tournament until Semis when it moves to ESPN 2. *''ESPNU College Soccer'' (2005–present) NCAA D1 Men's Semifinals Finals & Women's Semifinals & Finals as well as select men's & women's regular season games *''ESPNU College Softball'' (2005–present) Regular Season & select NCAA Tournament games LIVE *''ESPNU College Volleyball'' (2005–present) Women's games as well as Beach Volleyball Tournament Day 1 *'' ESPN Megacast'' (2006–2007 as ''ESPN Full Circle'', 2015–present) *'' High School Showcase'' (2005–present) *'' NHL on ESPN'' (2022–present) - Playoff broadcasts *'' NBA on ESPN'' (2015–2017?) - Playoff broadcasts *''
NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is a professional basketball league in North America that serves as the Minor league#Basketball, developmental league of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The league comprises 31 teams; as of ...
'' (2015–present) Mainly playoff games or G League showcase (since no fans are allowed to watch live at the stadium) *'' International Champions Cup'' (2018–present) When there is more than one game on or an early morning game in United States Local Time *'' United Soccer League'' (2018–present) a secondary network for the game of the week when ESPN2 or ESPNews has a live event at the games start *''FIL World Lacrosse Championships'' (2018–present) *''ESPN Radio TV Broadcasts'' – Only when ESPNews has a planned live sports "game" event cuts off there coverage of the broadcast will it be on ESPNU. *''
Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...
'' (2018–present) Live Telecast of Sky Sports F1 Grand Prix Practice 2 Coverage Only as ESPN 2 airs Practice 1 & Qualifying Sessions with ESPNews & Major Races On ESPN/ABC *'' Pan American Games'' (2011, 2015 & 2019) English coverage of the games when ESPN 2 or ESPN has other sports coverage. Just a loop around of the main events/matches going on at that moment, however every match is in Spanish only on ESPN 3 *''Summer of Next'' (2013–present) Showcases the best High School Athletes in the semi-finals & championship matches of some of the best tournaments in High School Lacrosse, Basketball, Softball, & Baseball. It ends with the best High School Football teams, players & games in the first weekend of the High School Football season with a three day event on the ESPN Networks. *'' The Basketball Tournament'' Quarterfinal matches that ESPN or ESPN 2 can not show due to other sports. *'' Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge'' Live annual competition with more than 2,800 registered students from 93 countries and 596 universities and colleges.


Original series

*''Faces of Sports'' (2005–present) *''Honor Roll'' (2005–present) *''The Season: Ole Miss Football'' (2018–present)


Former

*'' Summer House'' (2006–2007) *''The U'' (2005–2006) *''UNITE'' (2012–2013)


Personalities


Current


Announcers, reporters and hosts

* Dave Armstrong: (play-by-play, 2005–present) '' ESPNU College Football'' * Rece Davis: (host, 2005–present) '' Honor Roll'' * Mike Gleason: (host and play-by-play, 2005––present) '' SportsCenterU'' and ''ESPNU College Football Primetime'' * Clay Matvick: (host, reporter and play-by-play, 2006–present) '' ESPNU College Football'' and '' ESPNU College Basketball'' * Chris Spielman: (host, 2006–present) '' Summer House'' *
Lisa Salters Alisia "Lisa" Salters (born March 6, 1966) is an American journalist and former college basketball player. She has been a reporter for ESPN and ESPN on ABC since 2000. Salters previously covered the O. J. Simpson murder case for American Broadc ...
: (reporter, 2008–present) ESPNU reporter * Ian Darke: (play-by-play, 2010–present) ESPNU play-by-play * Joe Davis: (play-by-play, 2012–present) ESPNU play-by-play * Jaymee Sire: (reporter, 2013–present) ESPNU reporter * Mark Jones: (host, 2006–present) ESPNU host * Anish Shroff: (host, 2005–present) ESPNU host SportsCenterU * Carter Blackburn: (reporter, 2006–present) ESPNU reporter * Mike Crispino: (reporter, 2005–present) ESPNU reporter * Craig Custance: (reporter, 2012–present) ESPNU reporter * Bob Wischusen: (play-by-play, 2006–present) ESPNU play-by-play


College hockey

* Barry Melrose: (analyst, 1993–2023) ESPNU College Hockey * Colby Cohen: (analyst, 2016–present) ESPNU College Hockey


College football

* Lee Corso: (analyst, 2003–present) ESPNU College Football * Mike Tomczak: (analyst, 2005–present) '' ESPNU College Football'' * Jay Walker: (analyst, 2005–present) ''ESPNU College Football Primetime'' * Todd McShay: (analyst, 2005–present) '' ESPNU Inside the Polls'' * Charles Arbuckle: (analyst, 2005–present) ''ESPNU College Football Primetime'' * David Diaz-Infante: (analyst, 2005–present) ''ESPNU College Football Primetime'' * Chris Martin: (analyst, 2006–present) ''ESPNU College Football Primetime'' * Brian Kinchen: (analyst, 2006) '' ESPNU College Football'' * Mike Adamle: (play-by-play, 2005–present) ''ESPNU College Football Primetime'' * Desmond Howard: (analyst, 2005–present) ESPNU College Football


College baseball

* Mark Mulder: (analyst, 2011–present) ESPNU College Baseball * Tom Luginbill: (analyst, 2006–present) '' SportsCenterU'' and '' ESPNU Recruiting Insider'' and ESPNU College Baseball * John Kruk: (analyst, 2003–present) ESPNU College Baseball * Doug Glanville: (analyst, 2011–present) ESPNU College Baseball


College basketball

* Jay Bilas: (analyst, 2003–present) ESPNU College Basketball * Dick Vitale: (analyst, 1985–present) ESPNU College Basketball * Digger Phelps: (analyst, 2000–present) ESPNU College Basketball * Jalen Rose: (analyst, 2007–present) ESPNU College Basketball * Andy Katz: (analyst, 2005–present) ESPNU College Basketball * Tim Legler: (analyst, 2003–present) ESPNU College Basketball * Jon Barry: (analyst, 2003–present) ESPNU College Basketball * Mark Adams: (analyst, 2003–present) ESPNU College Basketball * Tim Welsh: (analyst, 2003–present) ESPNU College Basketball * Adrian Branch: (analyst, 2006–present) ESPNU College Basketball


Former

* Colin Cowherd: (host, 2008–2015) ESPNU Host * Mike Gottfried: (analyst, 2005–) '' ESPNU Inside the Polls'' and ESPNU College Basketball * Mike Hall: (host, 2005–2007) '' SportsCenterU'', '' ESPNU Recruiting Insider'', '' ESPNU Inside the Polls'' and '' ESPNU Coaches Spotlight'' * Wayne Larrivee: (play-by-play, 2005) '' ESPNU College Football'' * Kelly Stouffer: (analyst, 2005) ''ESPNU College Football Primetime'' * Howie Schwab: (reporter, 2005–2013) ESPNU Reporter * Randy Walker: (analyst, 2005) '' ESPNU College Football''


See also

* College football on television * Men's college basketball on television


References


External links


ESPNU official website

ESPNU program listings

ESPNtv.com – The People
{{DEFAULTSORT:Espnu Companies based in Charlotte, North Carolina ESPN media outlets Disney acquisitions The Walt Disney Company subsidiaries Television channels and stations established in 2005 English-language television stations in the United States ESPN College Basketball College sports television networks