National Signing Day Once Again Featuring Heavy Digital Focus

By Eric Fisher, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal

College football's National Signing Day, set for Wednesday, will again take on a heavy digital focus as ESPN, Yahoo, CBS and others conduct extensive programming efforts for the annual event across their online properties. ESPNU will conduct a live two-set studio show from its facilities in Charlotte for nine hours on Wednesday, with the programming to be simulcast on ESPN360.com for the first time. Under Armour will be the presenting sponsor for its programming. Other ESPN properties also participating in the effort will include ESPN.com, ESPNRise.com, and several of its linear TV channels, including ESPN and ESPNews. CBS will lean on its MaxPreps.com property and run five hours of live coverage on the CBS College Sports Network that carries a presenting sponsorship from Old Spice. Yahoo, which owns National Signing Day trail blazer Rivals.com, will again feature its much-discussed ranking lists of individual prospects and team signings, and a collection of live chats with local site publishers, prospect videos and other content. Each of the major sites will also feature a variety of live signing announcements by top-rated prospects.