The UConn Huskies have signed a multi-year agreement with CBS Sports Network (CBSSN) to televised home football games, the school announced on Monday.
Per the terms of the agreement, CBS Sports Network will televise four home UConn football games in 2020 and all homes games during the 2021 through 2023 seasons.
“I am excited that we have been able to finalize this multi-year partnership with CBS Sports,” UConn director of athletics David Benedict said. “CBS Sports is a tremendous brand for our football program to be associated with and I know UConn Nation will be pleased that it will be able to watch the Huskies compete against a compelling group of opponents on a nationally-distributed network.”
“Adding UConn football to our already robust lineup of partners provides more high-quality football content for CBS Sports Network,” said Dan Weinberg, EVP, Programming, CBS Sports. “We look forward to a long and successful relationship with UConn in the years ahead.”
The 2019 season was the last for UConn as a football member of the American Athletic Conference. The Huskies begin playing as a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Independent team in 2020.
For the 2020 season, CBS Sports Network will televise the UConn football contests against Indiana (Sept. 26), Liberty (Oct. 31), Middle Tennessee (Nov. 21), and Army (Nov. 28). Other home games that season that were not selected by CBSSN include UMass and Maine.
Below are the home contests for UConn that are currently scheduled for 2021 through 2023:
- 09/02 – Holy Cross
- 09/11 – Purdue
- 10/23 – Middle Tennessee
- 09/03 – Central Connecticut
- 09/10 – Syracuse
- 10/01 – Fresno State
- 10/29 – Boston College
- 11/12 – Liberty
- 09/02 – Duke
- 09/09 – Lafayette
- 09/23 – NC State
- 09/30 – Utah State
UConn's four-year deal with CBSSN reportedly will pay the Huskies more than $1M total. And they don't have to produce the games. https://t.co/fuFlb6q58O
— Michael Smith (@SmittySBJ) May 11, 2020
Good for them. Not a UConn fan, but I’d like to see them back in fighting form, and any college football being televised is a plus to me. Hope going Indy helps them out to keep them around.
So CBSSN now has:
1. AAC
2. MAC
3. MWC
4. C-USA
5. Academy home games (Army, Navy)
6. UConn home games
Assuming 4 slots per Saturday with the late slot used for MWC games, CBSSN now has 3 slots per Saturday for 5 entities. Will be interesting to see how they make this work.
The AACs new tv deal starting next year does not currently include CBSSN, which explains how UConn probably got this deal.
Air Force should have its home games exclusively televised by CBSSN too. This would be allowable due to CBSSN having MWC rights. Navy home games are staying on CBSSN while the rest of the American for the most part is bolting the network,
And I’m currently projecting Air Force to join the Patriot League in Olympic sports and being an FBS independent. In that scenario I have CBSSN still television Air Force home games.
It seems the UConn games are when Army is on the road and Navy does not have a home game.
Do Navy AAC home games count against the AAC contract or the Academy? Anyway Navy plays Air Force, Army Notre Dame and AAC schedule and one other game (usually FCS) each year. Army as an Indpendent plays 6 or so home games a year.
They also play Old Dom in 2020
So UConn has completely severed ties with ESPN. The current Big East doesn’t have ESPN as a broadcast partner. I wonder how ESPN is taking the loss of UConn athletics, especially basketball.