The recent increase in cable channels televising college athletics is creating unprecedented opportunities to win audiences for women's sports, and programmers are eager to provide TV time to women -- so long as schools can ensure visually exciting events and be flexible about when games are played.

That's the advice from two cable television executives who spoke during the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators national convention.

Cable programmers are excited about the potential that women's sports offers for filling airtime and reaching desirable audiences, but "the hard part" is that many sports haven't yet adjusted to the opportunity, said Tim Pernetti, senior vice president of programming and talent at College Sports Television (CSTV). For example, lacrosse coaches once expressed concern that televising their sport could affect the way the game is played.

"If a women's lacrosse coach can get one game on a year, tell me that doesn't have a great benefit for recruiting, and a great benefit for exposure," he said. "I think that's the way you, and your coaches, need to look at it and understand it."

Pernetti and Carol Stiff, director of programming and acquisitions at ESPN, both urged administrators to join their networks in taking risks to advance women's sports.

"The nice thing about college athletics, and women's sports, is that you've been taking some risks with us, whether it's softball moving off Memorial Day weekend or the Women's Final Four moving from a Friday-Sunday to Sunday-Tuesday format, and I applaud you for that," Stiff said.

"As we grow, we need to work together and to be smart about how we're programming."

Programming opportunities recently have expanded with CSTV's debut in 2003 as the first channel devoted exclusively to covering college sports and the introduction earlier this year of ESPNU, as well as increased coverage on existing channels.

Increased exposure already has produced success stories -- such as softball, which attracted unprecedented viewership for this year's Women's College World Series -- and soon may benefit volleyball, a sport Stiff believes is "about to take off."

The networks rapidly are moving beyond coverage of championships competition into regular-season play, and also are looking beyond NCAA Division I for opportunities in other divisions, although the cost of televising competition in Division II and III remains a major issue.

"There is a business side to what we do, and we have to be smart about these decisions, but we are gradually growing our presence in Division II and Division III," Pernetti said, adding that he appreciates recent NCAA actions to underwrite production costs of broadcasts of those divisions' championships.

Pernetti asked schools to pay particular attention to how games look on television, saying it is crucial to have fans in the stands and to create an appealing atmosphere for viewers who want to enjoy a college athletics experience.

Flexibility in scheduling -- particularly a willingness to move games to fill holes in networks' schedules -- also will help build audiences for women's sports.

"In the very beginning of our existence, we looked at the dates and times and said, you know what, let's make this as easy and as painless for these people as possible," Pernetti said. However, as coverage of college sports grows and channels face choices between which sports to televise at a given time, women's sports will be served best by a willingness to play at times when they can generate viewers.

"With women's sports, you'll find that you'll encounter this a lot more -- we'll come to you and ask you to do something different."

Stiff, a former college field hockey and basketball coach, urged woman administrators to shape television coverage of sports by inserting themselves into discussions at the campus and conference levels -- including negotiations with networks.

"Be a player, sit at the table, learn, get educated, ask smart questions and come up with solutions for the problems you have out there," she said.