In just two years, the Kent State Sports Network has grown from a fledgling student operation to the major production arm of the Mid-American Conference. Under the direction of Executive Producer Jeff Bentley, the network boasts a fully digital high-definition production facility, and a purchase order has already been placed for a satellite uplink truck. Kent State students will have the opportunity to work on more than 30 full production broadcasts this year for men’s and women’s basketball and, beginning next fall, will be able to enroll in a new Sports Production major.

November is a tough month for college-sports broadcasters. With football season still in full swing outdoors, basketball teams take the court indoors, and broadcasting resources can be pushed to the limit. Token Creek Mobile Television is currently supporting both sports, providing mobile-production units for ESPN’s college-basketball coverage while finishing up football-coverage packages for both ESPN and Raycom Sports. Luckily for Token Creek, however, straddling two sports does not necessarily mean straddling two coasts.

There is no shortage of college-football fan Websites, but not all of them are worthy of being part of a TEAM. Three years ago, Lee Schear, publisher of popular Ohio State fan site Bucknuts.com, founded TEAM, a network of sites dedicated to serving fans of BCS conference teams. He has since brought 30 sites under the TEAM umbrella, which is now affiliated with ESPN, and hopes to use the hyper-local model to continue to grow the network.

This continues a series of weekly articles by David Lind, Executive Producer, WIUP-TV. Each week, Lind goes behind the scenes at Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s TV production of the school’s 11-game football season, offering insight into what it takes to produce college-football coverage in a cost-effective manner. In Week 11, economics wins out over a “meaningless” game.

Through 10 weeks of the college football season, CBS Sports’ coverage of the Southeastern Conference is averaging a national household rating/share of 4.0/9, up 29% from last year’s 3.1/7. The 4.0/9 marks the highest rating in 13 years at this point in the season since college football returned to the network in 1996.

SportsNet New York is ready for the tipoff of the Big East Conference college basketball season, as the regional sports network outlined its multiplatform coverage, which will include more than 110 games and more than 500 hours of coverage.

College Fanz Sports Network will stream the pairings for the first round of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Football Championship Series live Sunday, Nov. 15. College Fanz NAIA Football Selection Sunday Show will originate from the campus of Azuza Pacific University in California.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication (JOMC) underwent a complete HD-studio upgrade based on the Broadcast Pix Slate 5000 integrated production system.

Daktronics will design, manufacture, and deliver new light-emitting-diode scorer’s tables for the McCarthey Athletic Center, home of Gonzaga University Bulldog basketball, following an agreement with the university and IMG College.

For a city of less than 5,000 people Woodruff, South Carolina boasts more than its share of football history. From the mid-1960s through the 1990s, Woodruff High School coach Willie Varner led the team to a total of 10 state championships, coaching future greats like Notre Dame quarterback Tony Rice.

Stanford University's Athletic Hall of Fame is housed in a room so packed with prizes that, months after winning top honors as college sports' best all-around program for the 15th straight year, officials have yet to find room for the trophy.

The lousy economy is playing havoc on attendance for the Valley's sports teams, but there are deals for fans looking to see a game on the cheap. Every professional sports team in metro Phoenix, along with Arizona State University's football team and the annual Fiesta Bowl, has had trouble selling tickets this year as growing unemployment and declining wages are keeping fans home.

The first major college football game at the new Meadowlands Stadium is going to feature Rutgers and Army. The schools and the New Meadowlands Stadium Corporation announced this week that the two New York metropolitan area teams will play on Oct. 16. It will be the 37th meeting between the teams and the 10th at the Meadowlands, with the first nine being played at Giants Stadium.

Former Ivy League Executive Director Jeff Orleans, Clemson Athletics Director Terry Don Phillips, Title IX advocate Nancy Hogshead-Makar and Southern Methodist University President Gerald Turner are among speakers at the third annual NCAA Scholarly Colloquium on Intercollegiate Athletics to be conducted January 12-13 in conjunction with the NCAA Convention in Atlanta.

The Men's Basketball Enhancement Group wants the NCAA to shorten the rigors of the basketball season by eliminating a regular-season game. But Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams, rival coaches at Duke and North Carolina, may have a better idea: Just push back the start date.

Conference USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky announced that the conference has secured future commitments with seven bowl partners, the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, EagleBank Bowl, R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl, the St. Petersburg Bowl, along with the new Dallas Football Classic.

The Major Soccer League playoffs may be in full swing in the United States, but it is a female soccer player who has been appearing coast to coast on television this week. But even David Beckham might not want the publicity and the notoriety that has the United Stated fixated on Elizabeth Ann Lambert.

Watching two of the most powerful people in college sports — SEC commissioner Mike Slive and Mike Aresco, the executive vice president of programming for CBS Sports — standing on the sidelines toward the end of the epic LSU-Alabama game and wearing their best Mount Rushmore stares reminded me of that old story from the Wizard of Oz.

The Boise State athletic department is selling stock. Athletics director Gene Bleymaier unveiled the fundraising program in hopes of bringing in $20 million for renovating and upgrading sports facilities. Shares are $100 apiece.

Renewal agreements with the FedEx Orange Bowl, the Chick-fil-A Bowl, the Champs Sports Bowl, the Meineke Car Care Bowl, the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl and the EagleBank Bowl along with new partnerships with the Brut Sun and Advocare 100 Independence Bowl--a pair of bowl games with 110 years of combined experience--headline the 2010-13 bowl partnerships announced by Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford.

Somewhat lost amid the hubbub of John Calipari leaving Memphis for Kentucky this season was the arrival in the Southeastern Conference of two other coaches who hope to transfer the success they found at mid-major programs to schools that have fallen on hard times.

Football is one of those TV genres, like with home shopping or cooking, where nobody talks about anything even vaguely political.

Footage of the final seconds of Villanova’s 21-20 upset of No. 1 Richmond was uploaded to YouTube fewer than two hours after the game. Not for its dramatic finish, but what was said on-air during the closing moments of the game that was regionally broadcast on Comcast SportsNet.

The Southland Conference Television Network will televise 16 men's and women's basketball games during the 2009-10 season, the league office announced. "We are very pleased to again announce a very attractive basketball package on the Southland Network," league commissioner Tom Burnett said.

The 2K Sports Classic, which tipped off Monday night, goes against the conventional rules of college basketball tournaments, Brad Humphreys of The Sports Economist writes. In order to avoid having an upset winner host a game in a prime television spot, the tournament teams are divided into hosts (Syracuse, North Carolina, Ohio State and Cal) and “others” (Albany, FIU, Alcorn State, Murray State, Robert Morris, NC Central, Detroit and James Madison).

Mid-Atlantic Sports Network will air nine Georgetown University Hoyas men’s basketball games during the upcoming 2009-10 season, tipping off with Lafayette at Georgetown Nov. 28, Multichannel News reported.

Saturday’s college football matchup between Georgia and visiting Tennessee Tech is only available on pay-per-view, and only in the states of Georgia and Tennessee. But Bill King of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wonders if enough people will actually purchase the game.