The NCAA has announced that ESPN will increase the coverage of seven NCAA championships as part of the Association's new agreement with the network.

A minimum of 35 additional championship rounds and a maximum of 41 rounds will be broadcast among those seven championships during the 2002-03 season. Most events will be broadcast nationally on ESPN and ESPN2, and a number of other championship preliminary-round contests will be syndicated through ESPN-affiliate marketing and sales. Syndicated coverage will be delivered live or tape-delayed on various regional sports networks such as New England Sports Network and Madison Square Garden Network, as well as on selected local cable outlets. The syndicated coverage currently includes at least 18 million households.

The expanded coverage includes:

Division I-AA football semifinals. For the first time, the semifinals will be televised live in a regionalized format. Both games will be played at 2 p.m. Eastern time December 14 and will air live regionally on ESPN2.

Division I women's volleyball regional finals. ESPN will provide syndicated coverage of the four regional finals December 13-15.

Division I wrestling semifinals. The semifinals will be syndicated live by ESPN Friday, March 21.

Division I men's ice hockey regional finals. ESPN will provide syndicated coverage of the four regional finals March 29-30.

Division I men's lacrosse national quarterfinals. ESPN will provide syndicated coverage of the four national quarterfinal games May 17-18.

Division I softball regionals. ESPN or ESPN2 will air two or three regional games from a single site.

Division I baseball super regionals. Every game will have some type of television coverage. First games from six of the eight sites will be produced by ESPN and aired for local syndication coverage June 6-7. All remaining super regional games will air live on ESPN or ESPN2 in a regionalized format. ESPN and ESPN2 will air as many as 18 super regional games in seven broadcast windows from June 7 to 9.

* For the first time, ESPN will provide exclusive coverage of the 2003 Men's College World Series (previously broadcast on CBS), including the best- of-three championship-series round.

Also, ESPNews will provide exclusive coverage of nine championship bracket announcements.

A minimum of 88 hours of additional NCAA championship coverage will be guaranteed in the coming championships year.

The increased coverage is guaranteed for only the first year of ESPN's 11-year contract with the NCAA.

Additionally, ESPN has developed a Division I women's basketball promotional campaign to run from November through March, as well as an NCAA image spot to run in 400 regular-season basketball games via ESPN Regional.

For updated NCAA championship television schedule information, visit www.ncaa
sports.com. Check local television listings or DirecTV/Dish Network listings for specific dates and times.