There is a transition going on behind the cameras at various NCAA championships. It's not necessarily a visible change, either -- partly because the transition is indeed happening behind the cameras, but mostly because the transition is being accomplished seamlessly.

NCAA Productions, which for the last seven years has produced more than 175 NCAA championship events for ESPN, is becoming a chameleon. Currently, the NCAA is under contract with ESPN to produce eight championships -- the Women's College World Series, the Division I Men's and Women's Soccer and Division I Men's and Women's Tennis Championships, the Division I Women's and National Collegiate Men's Volleyball Championships, and the National Collegiate Men's Gymnastics Championships -- plus several preliminary-round games in the Division I Women's Basketball Championship. But in the new contract that begins in September, ESPN will undertake the responsibility of producing all 21 championships for which it purchased rights fees.

That's a significant cost impact for the NCAA. In the last contract, the NCAA received a rights fee from ESPN but gave some back in production costs. Now, the Association not only receives a rights fee for those 21 championship events, it also saves the production costs.

What that means is that the old NCAA Productions now becomes, well, more or less the NCAA.

"The impact is a better service product for the membership," said Jo Jo Rinebold, the NCAA's director of broadcasting and media integration. "We can take the dollars that had been allocated to NCAA Productions and reallocate them to the NCAA's new branding initiative. Those resources then will help the NCAA more as a whole rather than through just nine championships."

The new contract also has a minimal impact on personnel. NCAA Productions contracted with freelancers to produce the events. Some of those individuals may resurface as ESPN subcontractors.

Another advantage of the new arrangement is that the NCAA has the production experience behind it now and can help steer future decisions.

"Our staff can take a more strategic management role with the networks now," Rinebold said. "Because we were in the trenches in the past, we understand what the networks need, so we will be able to adopt a more effective troubleshooting role. We expect things to go even smoother than before in that regard."

Rinebold said the NCAA still will cover a handful of events itself, such as regionals in women's volleyball or men's ice hockey, and it will oversee the production of news highlights for numerous championships. The Association also will continue to produce coverage of the NCAA Honors Dinner, the Woman of the Year Awards dinner and the annual Year in Review championships highlight video for ESPN.

"We won't get out of the remote production business altogether," Rinebold said. "It just won't be 'NCAA Productions' anymore -- it'll be just 'NCAA.'

It's a transition that will no doubt look good on camera.

NCAA Productions telecasts since 1995

NCAA championship events that have been produced by NCAA Productions for ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Fullcourt since 1995: