Maryland's Gary Williams Comments On ACC's New TV Affiliation
8/3/2000 8:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Aug. 3, 2000
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - On Thursday, FOX Sports Net and Raycom/Jefferson Pilot announced a 10-year agreement for an exclusive Sunday evening package to telecast Atlantic Coast Conference basketball beginning with the 2001-02 season. The new "ACC Sunday Night" Game of the Week franchise will run from December through March.
The FSN rights deal makes the ACC the only major conference in the country with two national cable partners. FSN's national rights agreement allows for 19 games to be telecast each season. A total of 14 conference games will run on Sunday nights from December to March, and will showcase ACC basketball by bringing national attention to the conference on a night when college basketball has traditionally never aired. Through a dedicated promotion and marketing effort, the weekly package will be branded under the conference banner to build the Sunday night franchise and its national prime time TV presence.
In conjunction with the announcement, Maryland's Gary Williams joined Dave Odom of Wake Forest and Mike Krzyzewski of Duke to comment on the league's new TV deal. Here are Williams' comments:
Opening statement
"I think any time you're affiliated with FOX, it certainly adds something to our conference and each of our teams. What it does is give us more exposure. You're always looking for exposure for your team and your conference, and it puts us in a position where, on a Sunday night, I think we will be the league that will be watched. I think it's a great opportunity for our players."
On some teams playing on TV more often than others
"I've been in the Big Ten and the Big East before the ACC. [TV scheduling] has been the same in each of the three conferences: the best teams get on TV the most. But all teams get on. I think that's just the way it is. The better teams probably deserve the most exposures, but at the same time, everybody gets their share."
On a Sunday night TV game impacting students' schedules
"That's always been an issue. It's been an issue for mostly for late-starting games, but the thing that most teams in our league do, now, is charter so we're back on campus even during mid-week games. If we play at, say 7:00 on a Sunday night, I don't think that's a hardship on anybody. It's a good time for our students to go to a game and, let's face it, college students don't usually go to bed at 9:30 at night."
