BYU basketball: West Coast Conference, ESPN sign 8-year extension

SAN BRUNO, Calif. — The West Coast Conference and ESPN announced today that an eight-year contract extension, which will make the ESPN networks the conference's men's basketball national television home through the 2018-19 school year, has been struck.

"We are elated to reaffirm our long-term partnership with ESPN for another eight years," West Coast Conference commissioner Jamie Zaninovich said. "ESPN has played a critical role in helping build and extend our brand as a premier national basketball conference, and this agreement will ensure that more West Coast Conference events will be telecast across more national television platforms than ever before."

"We're looking forward to our relationship with ESPN," BYU basketball coach Dave Rose said. "We've enjoyed a lot of success the last few years and the increased exposure with ESPN will help us grow even stronger as a program."

According to terms of the agreement, the WCC will receive a minimum of 48 annual men's basketball appearances on the ESPN networks from the 2011-12 through 2018-19 seasons. The 48 annual appearances include conference games and home non-conference games that are televised on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. The WCC has averaged 38 ESPN annual men's basketball appearances over the last three seasons with conference games counting as two appearances and non-conference games as one appearance.

Burke Magnus, ESPN senior vice president, college sports programming, said, "We are thrilled to continue our exclusive long-term relationship with the West Coast Conference and its member institutions. The WCC is a premier conference, recently made even better by the addition of Brigham Young University. This agreement allows us to showcase more WCC content than ever before to fans through all our networks and platforms, and via any available technology or device."

As part of the agreement, ESPN will continue its commitment to regular telecasts of conference men's basketball games on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU. A minimum of seven conference men's basketball games will be televised on ESPN or ESPN2, with a minimum of seven additional games on ESPNU. All nine institutions are guaranteed a minimum of one men's basketball exposure per year, and all of the WCC's appearances will be distributed across ESPN's wide range of mobile and online platforms.

The agreement will also feature expanded coverage of the Zappos.com West Coast Conference Basketball Championships. In addition to continuing coverage of the men's basketball championship game on ESPN and semifinals on ESPN2, both quarterfinal games will be televised live on ESPNU beginning in 2012.

Including the men's basketball telecasts, the ESPN networks will air a total of five exposures across women's basketball/soccer/volleyball/baseball for each year of the agreement. The WCC will also have the right to re-air all of its ESPN telecasts on the official conference website.