SBJ College: Fueling ACC Network's Launch

Michael Smith is working on his tan on the Carolina coast, so Austin Karp here filling in this week. I'm on the MLB At Bat app tonight with four of my fantasy pitchers on the mound. Big matchup against my brother this week in our head-to-head league. 

Here’s what is cooking on campus:

ACC NETWORK LOOKS TO DIFFERENTIATE ITSELF

ACC Network will look to differentiate itself from SEC Network with heavy basketball coverage

• The soon-to-launch ACC Network already has benefited from the roadmap that ESPN navigated back when it launched the SEC Network, according to ESPN Senior Director of Programming & Acquisitions Stacie McCollum. Football was the rocket fuel that drove the SEC Network launch, but McCollum has other ideas for the ACC. “We’re going to own basketball. It is the ACC. If we’re not talking basketball, I don’t think we’re doing a service to our fans.” Expect coverage of men’s hoops to be a major highlight in the first year, with over 100 games already on the slate.
  
  
• McCollum yesterday was in Winston-Salem at the NSMA Sports Media Convergence Summit. Just two months before the channel’s launch, McCollum told SBJ’s Thomas Leary that she is taking a point of personal pride on the amount of coverage for women’s sports -- especially soccer and field hockey. Volleyball is also a love for McCollum -- she played at Concordia Univ. -- and she said she “would have loved the chance to be on TV.”
  
  
• ACC Net Studio Coordinating Producer Aaron Katzman stressed that having the channel based in Connecticut, as opposed to North Carolina, will give it a solid technical infrastructure for the launch. Another underrated aspect? Easier access to talent in Bristol, such as hoops experts and ACC alums Jay Bilas and Jay Williams, Katzman said.

UCONN SWITCH DRIVES NEWS HEADLINES ACROSS THE COUNTRY

• Any sort of college realignment news makes for big headlines these days. With UConn likely bolting the AAC for the Big East, what stood out to me were stories within the state that were supportive of the move and generally apathetic about the future of the football program. In AAC markets, media attention primarily turned to which program might replace UConn -- if any. Nationally, articles seemed to applaud the move as good for college basketball and questioned whether there is a future for football at UConn. Below are some the headlines that stuck out.
  
  
• From Connecticut papers:
  • Hartford Courant: "UConn Women’s Basketball Better Off In The Big East, Even If The Program Never Struggled In Six Years Without It"
  • New London Day: "UConn Football Set Up To Fail By People Who Need To Support It The Most"
  • Waterbury Republican American: "Let’s Not Overstate UConn Football’s Value"
  • Hartford Courant: "UConn's Move Back To The Big East Strengthens A Brand That is About National Championship Caliber Basketball"
  • Middletown Press: "Move To Big East Could Be Right Call, But Questions Remain"
  • Hartford Courant: "It’s Time For David Benedict To Handle The Football Problems That UConn’s Big East Move Creates"
    
    
• From other markets:
  • Asbury Park Press: "UConn's Big East Return As Close As We'll Ever Get To Old Days"
  • Orlando Sentinel: "What’s Next For AAC After UConn? BYU, Boise State Or Army Would Be Ideal"
  • Memphis Commercial Appeal: "Will AAC Replace UConn? If So, Who Are Top Candidates? If Not, How Does It Affect Memphis?"
  • NJ.com: "UConn Wants Rutgers’ Help As It Forges New Football Path; When Could Scarlet Knights Provide It?"
  • Daily Hampshire Gazette: "The Case Against UMass Joining The AAC"
  • Biloxi Sun Herald: "With UConn Likely Leaving AAC, What Does It Mean For Southern Miss And C-USA?"
  • Lexington Herald Leader: "UConn’s Big East Return Is Good News For College Basketball"
  • Oklahoman: "Should UConn Drop Football?"
    
    
• From national sites:
  • AP: "Auriemma Cautions UConn Fans Not To Expect Old Big East"
  • USA Today: "UConn Rejoining The Big East Means The School Has Given Up On Football Program"
  • Sporting News: "UConn's Football Options: Does Dropping Sport Make Sense With Big East Move?"

SPEED READS 

• I'm not sure many folks -- if any -- saw Michigan's run at the College World Series coming. It was near freezing in Ann Arbor when the season started Feb. 15, and the Wolverines played on the road for a month before their first home game. That's not something that affects SEC or ACC or Pac-12 baseball teams. But after getting one of the last at-large bids this year, Big Blue is now one win away from a national title. 

• Want a reason to watch Golf Channel's "Driven" next year? Look no further than this past weekend's PGA Tour stop in Hartford, where former Oklahoma State stars Viktor Hovland and Matthew Wolff made the cut in their pro debuts. Both were featured in the Rickie Fowler-produced college golf documentary series.
  
  
• College hoops abroad in August? FloSports just cut a deal with Syracuse, Seton Hall, Washington, Georgia Tech, Xavier and Georgetown to stream 21 total games that those schools will play as part of foreign tours from Aug. 8-20. We don't have specifics of the contract, but the deal should help FloSports attract some new subscribers.
  
  
• The Pac-12 Sustainability Conference started today at Husky Stadium. Former UCLA QB Josh Rosen and ESPN's Bill Walton are among the founding members of a new ambassador program, dubbed "Team Green Champions," and Rosen is helping unveil the initiative with a special recorded message.

Enjoying this newsletter? We've got more! Check out SBJ Media with John Ourand on Mondays and Wednesdays for insights into all the latest news around the world of sports media.

Something on the College beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (msmith@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessdaily.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).