Division I women's basketball's primary postseason television home will remain ESPN now that the cable sports network and the NCAA have reached an 11-year agreement for broadcasting rights to the women's basketball championship through 2013.

The contract announced July 5 also grants ESPN television rights for 20 other championships.

"We've accomplished all of that with this agreement."

The contract includes a number of improvements for exposure of the Division I Women's Basketball Championship, including a proposed date change for Women's Final Four semifinals and championship game from a Friday-Sunday format to Sunday-Tuesday.

"Our intention was to get the best deal for the growth of the game," said Maryalyce Jeremiah, chair of the Division I Women's Basketball Committee and associate director of athletics at California State University, Fullerton. "The committee believes we got that."

ESPN also will provide a significantly enhanced promotional package for the NCAA and college sports, including eight highlight programs (up from two) during the women's championship, as well as an annual promotional campaign to run from November to March on ESPN and ESPN2.

The proposal to move the semifinals and final still must be approved by the Division I Championships/
Competition Cabinet, which next meets in September. If approved, the format change could be implemented as early as 2003.

Other proposed scheduling changes for the women's tournament include moving the first two rounds from Friday-Saturday to Saturday-Sunday and spreading the regional semifinals and finals over four days instead of two. In addition, ESPN will air a special program from the open practice sessions at the Women's Final Four.

"The date change just enhances the coverage for us," Jeremiah said. "And spreading the regional coverage around not only moves us away from competing with men's basketball, but also from competing with ourselves."

In past years, all four sets of regional semifinals and finals have been held on the same two days. Though all are televised via ESPN and ESPN2, some games overlap.

Other components

Also new to the package of championship events are two games -- game No. 3 and the final (both Saturday games) -- of the Men's College World Series, which have been carried by CBS. ESPN also will have exclusive rights to the opening-round game of the Division I Men's Basketball Championship. The network also will air a special from the Friday practice sessions at the Men's Final Four and have one hour of network time on CBS to promote Division I women's basketball stories.

"This agreement represents a somewhat historic and collaborative relationship between the NCAA and its two television rights holders," Dempsey said. "The result will mean more coverage for our events and new programming for college sports fans."

The collaborative arrangement also gives ESPN the opportunity for studio reports from the Final Four venue at times other than when CBS is telecasting from the site. The two networks will explore cross promotion of
the men's and women's basketball championships on their respective telecasts.

Changes for other NCAA championships in the ESPN package include an increase in cov-

erage for the Women's College World Series and a proposed schedule change to Friday (from Saturday) for live coverage of the Division II Women's Basketball Championship to avoid conflict with the Division I Men's Basketball Championship.

In addition, ESPN will provide coverage of all NCAA championships throughout the year on ESPN Classic and will carry NCAA championship highlights on ESPN.com.

Under the terms of the new agreement with the NCAA, ESPN will continue to televise bracket announcement shows for the Division I Baseball, Men's Ice Hockey and Women's Basketball Championships.

ESPN also will telecast NCAA special programs (Home Run Challenge, Woman of the Year and NCAA Honors Dinner).

Though financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, Dempsey said the total value of the package is more than $200 million.

"Dollar for dollar, we've met our projections for the first eight years," Dempsey said. "But the value of the agreement extends well beyond those dollars. The multiple platforms, the promotional campaign, the collaborative arrangement
among CBS, NCAA and ESPN for all championships make this a significantly better agreement than we have ever negotiated before with this package."

ESPN President George Bodenheimer said that specific components of the agreement -- including the women's basketball coverage -- had not been measured in dollars, but that the entire package suited the network's commitment to college sports.

"The value to ESPN is in the bundle, not in any one component," Bodenheimer said.

Dempsey said that whatever revenues may be realized from the contract would be distributed to the membership.

NCAA championships on ESPN

Division I Baseball (College World Series)

Division I Women's Basketball

Division II Women's Basketball

Divisions I-AA, II and III Football

National Collegiate Men's Gymnastics

Division I Men's Ice Hockey (Men's Frozen Four)

Division I Men's Lacrosse

Division I Men's Soccer

Division I Women's Soccer

Division I Women's Softball (Women's College World Series)

Division I Men's Swimming and Diving

Division I Women's Swimming and Diving

Division I Men's Tennis

Division I Women's Tennis

Division I Men's and Women's Indoor Track and Field

National Collegiate Men's Volleyball

Division I Women's Volleyball

Division I Wrestling