NCSN Gives New Programming The Old College Try

With greed and other stigma surrounding players, teams, and entire sports, many consumers are skeptical about the current state of professional athletics?which is one theory for the surge in retro licensed apparel. A new television network is seeking to capitalize on this malaise by focusing solely on college athletics. The National Collegiate Sports Network (NCSN) will showcase marquee events, rivalries and tournaments across a broad spectrum of colleges and sports. More than a dozen conferences representing more than 200 colleges and universities have committed to partnering with NCSN, which plans to launch its 24-hour sports format in the first quarter of 2003.

Heading up this venture are Chris Bevilacqua, a former Nike marketing executive who played a key role in putting the swoosh on college playing fields in the '90s, and two co-founders of the Classic Sports Network (now ESPN Classic), Brian Bedol and Steven Greenberg.

Bevilacqua first got the idea of starting a TV network dedicated to college sports while putting together licensing deals at Nike. "As [Nike] started making bigger investments in college sports, I started to see its value to Nike, not only on the licensing side, but to the value of the brand, what it did for areas like footwear, and how it helped the company literally triple in size," Bevilacqua recalls. "Nike tripled in size in under two years in the mid-'90s, and I think largely [it was] due to the investment in college sports. There's no way to scientifically prove it, but I just know the value of that audience and that market to Nike."

College is already the strongest part of many retailers' licensing business. NCSN programming will give more coverage to top-selling universities like Michigan and UCLA, but smaller schools in divisions 1-AA, II and III will also be featured. Do you know the school colors and mascot of McNeese State? How about William & Mary or Bethune-Cookman? After NCSN features these lesser-known schools, consumers may be clamoring for the blue and gold of the Cowboys, the green, gold and silver of the Tribe, or the maroon and gold of the Wildcats.

Kit Walsh, SVP of marketing for the Collegiate Licensing Company, says that NCSN will complement college sports licensing. "So many colleges and universities compete in only smaller sports," Walsh says, "that for a large number of people, their college glory is tied to [smaller sports]. Because of that, I think [NCSN] could enhance [CLC's] business."

To date, NCSN has reached agreements to televise sporting events from some of the major conferences including the Big 12, Big Ten, Mountain West, and Big East. Many smaller conferences have also inked deals with NCSN including: the Big South, Mid-Continent, Northeast, American East, The Big West, Colonial Athletic Association, Gateway Football Conference, Horizon League, Western Athletic Conference, Ohio Valley, Southland, the West Coast, and the Atlantic 10. Bevilacqua says that NCSN also expects to sign pacts with other conferences.

Based on early planning, the network expects, at its launch, to be in two million to three million homes in areas where college sports are dominant, and as many as 15 million households by the end of the first year. NCSN's target audience is 25- to 39-year-old college alumni?a moneyed demographic inherently appealing to retailers and advertisers?with a secondary market of 17- to 24-year-old college students.

The big plums in college sports are football and men's basketball, with the Bowl Championship Series and the NCAA basketball tournament being the ripest fruit. But there are more than 70 championship contests across a range of college sports, few of which are televised. Women's sports are largely ignored on TV and the increase in popularity and participation by young women provides excellent programming, marketing, and merchandising opportunities in an under-served demographic.

"[Women's sports] is one of our major key initiatives," says Bevilacqua. "We've got a real opportunity here to do something that hasn't been done before: use women's sports as a priority from a programming standpoint, and try to build and enhance women's sports." He adds, "The Olympics is a perfect example. Nobody looks at the Olympics and says it's men's sports and women's sports?it's the Olympics, the best athletes in the world. I don't think [college sports] is any different, it's just thus far been treated that way."

Sports like gymnastics, swimming, and track and field only receive attention once every four years at the Olympics, and can provide compelling programming. Bevilacqua, who was an All-American wrestler at Penn State, has seen first-hand the type of programming "second tier" sports can provide.

"We used to have what's called 'Pack the Track' night at Penn State in [Recreation] Hall," he says. "There was a track around the top of the arena, and it would be standing room only on the track?they turn the lights out, they drop the scoreboard and they spotlight the mat?it is incredibly compelling programming." He adds, "That's just Penn State wrestling. You've got it with UCLA volleyball, you've got it with Florida baseball, you've got it with Georgia gymnastics. You've got it all over the country in a variety of sports, and in a variety of conferences and universities where sports like that matter. That's the driving force behind this network."

?MATTHEW HEREK