Get Your UConn Sports Here!

UConn and Jim Calhoun have another home this season, as Huskies reach an agreement with SNY to broadcast not just basketball, but football as well. (Photo courtesy of NBC Sports)

It's not uncommon for a team to have a tie-in with a major network in the sports world. Some teams have media connections in their ownership, thus making the prospect of their own networks easier; (Examples include the New York Knicks and Rangers on MSG, as well as the Atlanta Braves on TBS) while others simply develop their own network as a means to generate more exposure. (Examples of this include the YES Network, home of the New York Yankees) When you get to the collegiate landscape, however, the networks are few and far between. Unless of course, you count conference networks such as those formed by the Big Ten and Mountain West. Even harder to come by is a college program signing an exclusive deal with a network, such as the agreement between Notre Dame and NBC that has featured the Fighting Irish on national television since I was just five years old back in 1991.

It's that last instance that has generated some attention lately, as the University of Connecticut has reached an agreement with SportsNet New York (the television home of the New York Mets) to become the "official television home of the UConn Huskies football and men's basketball programs," according to the press release issued by the school when the deal was announced two weeks ago. Under this new collaboration, UConn will have at least five football games, thirteen men's basketball contests, and one women's tilt televised on SNY, who can technically no longer use their slogan of "Get your New York sports here!" The network will also air approximately 300 hours of original programming devoted to the Huskies on an annual basis.

As a member of the media and broadcaster myself, I have a mixed opinion on this move. First and foremost, I feel it is about time that a school like UConn that has been among the national elite in both men's and women's basketball for over a decade finally gets an expanded platform; and their football program needs that platform to further evolve as a brand, a process that has accelerated exponentially following the reformation of the Big East and UConn's subsequent bowl appearances, which are becoming more frequent under head coach Randy Edsall.

On the contrary, though, SNY has professed to be the home of the Big East, and has been for the last several years, with original programming and simulcasts of ESPN regional games to back that claim up. With UConn getting more face time on the network, though, it will only be a matter of time before the other fifteen Big East institutions, including local members St. John's, Seton Hall and Rutgers, start to get wrongfully and unfortunately neglected in favor of the increased attention given toward their New England counterpart.

In addition, the Lady Huskies, who are arguably the most recognizable and most successful women's basketball team of all time, (it's debatable between UConn and Tennessee) and have had more undefeated seasons than all teams in the four major professional sports put together, should get more of a commitment than one game a season. I know it's a "minimum of one," as noted by the press release, but let's face it: Basketball isn't just a boys' club anymore. Whether or not some fans, male chauvinists, and basketball purists want to admit it, there are teenage girls out there that dream of going to Storrs and playing under the legend otherwise known as Geno Auriemma. Never mind the fact that women's sports probably will never draw as well as their masculine counterparts, or the general apathy expressed toward them. What could have been a landmark for both parties was left out in the cold.

Regardless of whether other Big East programs or the UConn women get as much attention as the Huskies men's hoops or football squads, (and if you disagree with my views, please let me know) the fact that a school like UConn, who has been a sleeping giant in the New York metropolitan area in more ways than one, can reach an agreement with a regional network is still a crowning achievement in the world of intercollegiate athletics.

Let's see if SNY remains as objective as it has always been (much to my delight as a sports fan) when it comes to the teams in the area. In the words of Billy Joel, "I like you just the way you are." Hopefully SNY doesn't go changing to try and please its new fans.