A few years ago, catching the men's hockey match-up between Wisconsin and Minnesota Duluth on television would have been nearly impossible outside of those states.

It also would have been unlikely for television viewers to see Binghamton play Vermont in men's basketball or Texas Tech match up against Stanford in women's basketball.

But now, in response to a growing number of sports fans clamoring for coverage of their favorite college teams, all those games and more were televised by networks devoted exclusively to covering collegiate sports.

ESPN announced its college-sports-dominated ESPNU in 2004, and the network is advertising a March 4 launch. Fox Sports jumped into the game last fall with the debut of Fox College Sports. Both networks join the already-established College Sports Television (CSTV) in providing multi-media coverage in sports that otherwise wouldn't be seen.

Launched in August 2003, CSTV is the first of the networks dedicated solely to the college game. Its success proved to sports media powerhouses ESPN and Fox that such a network could work. Brian Bedol, president and CEO of CSTV, said the efforts of his competitors demonstrate that television coverage of college sports has an audience.

ESPN Vice-President and General Manager Burke Magnus said the ESPNU concept has been on the table for about five years, he said, and is simply something that made sense.

Fox College Sports is not the creation of a new network, Fox Sports Network President Bob Thompson said, but actually the merging of three existing regional channels the media conglomerate already had in operation: Fox Sports Pacific, Fox Sports Central and Fox Sports Atlantic. Thompson said Fox decided to "re-brand and re-focus" the networks that already concentrated primarily on collegiate sports.

"We decided to narrow the focus and really concentrate on the collegiate side because we feel that it certainly is an area of programming that on the whole has been a little under-served," Thompson said. "We're talking a lot of football and basketball, but there's also a lot of other events that we're airing that wouldn't necessarily get broad national distribution, and we wanted to ensure that happened."

CSTV began two years ago after Bedol, who was involved in the creation of the Classic Sports Network (now ESPN Classic), realized that a problem he faced was one likely faced by a superfluity of sports fans nationwide -- he couldn't follow one of his favorite sports teams on television. A Boston University alumnus, Bedol craved Terriers hockey coverage.

"We discovered a great opportunity to be in a sense an independent voice in sports at a time when sports media really was dominated by just one voice," he said. "As I learned more and more about the business side and the conference side of college sports, I realized that it is really under-represented to consumers."

Airing college sports has been successful for CSTV. In its "sophomore season" the network expanded its distribution and signed media and marketing agreements with the Mountain West Conference and with SIRIUS Satellite Radio to create the first college sports radio network. ESPNU and Fox College Sports officials anticipate the same long-term success because of the passion viewers have for collegiate athletics.

Thompson said he believes people will watch their alma mater's sporting events before they will watch any other sporting event on television.

"Alumni have an ingrained affinity for anything related to their school," he said. "Also, in many of the markets that major universities are located, they're the only game in town. You get that local following regardless of whether the people actually attended the school."

Lincoln, Nebraska, for example has the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, teams but no major professional sports team nearby.

Nostalgia is another factor the networks rely on in planning programming. Magnus of ESPNU said viewers watching their team play in the "big game" allows them to relive the happiest times of their lives.

"It's like a fountain of youth in a way," he said. "People can go back in time, revisit their days in college, fondly remember them and share in that same sort of community that they had when they were students. You get that feeling in college athletics way more than you do in being a fan of your local professional team."

Bedol said the level of the game is attractive to people who might be tired of the sometimes narcissistic, over-the-top showplace of professional sports.

"I think there's a purity and a passion that no longer exists in professional sports, and I think (college sports is) an alternative for those who truly love the game," he said. "Some people describe it as it's all about the name on the front of the jersey instead of the name on the back of the jersey, and I agree with that."

Room for Divisions II and III?

Officials at all three networks say finding programming is not the difficult part. What is hard is deciding what game gets covered or what coach deserves an extra feature. There are so many great games, great rivalries and great stories to tell in collegiate athletics.

"Our mission is to provide as much as possible to fans and the programs," Bedol said. CSTV, which in addition to game coverage also includes a heavy dose of original programming such as features on coaches, documentaries on different teams and trends in college sports, and original series. Expanding coverage to the "hidden-jewel" institutions competing in Divisions I-AA, II and III also is on the CSTV agenda.

"Our goal is to not try to filter what we show," Bedol said. "Ideally, we will be able to make as much as possible available to the fans. I'm not sure whether it's through multiple networks or through new technology, a combination of video on demand or broadband technology, but we clearly believe that Divisions I-AA, II and III programs have followers who are as passionate as those in Division I."

Magnus said ESPNU would consider expanding its coverage to Divisions II and III, but that Division I would definitely be the primary focus of the new effort.

"I'm not going to say that we're not going to do Divisions II and III, but it's going to have to be something that's really special and unique," he said.

Thompson said that Fox College Sports would have to look at its bottom line before committing to consistent broadcasting of Division II or Division III programming.

"It certainly is something we would look at, but ultimately for us it's about what does it cost to produce, and what an advertiser is prepared to pay. It just depends on the cachet of the university and what our expectations are as far as viewership," he said.

More TV raises concerns about atmosphere

While the benefits of cable increased coverage are obvious, some people wonder whether it may create an atmosphere at college athletics events that at times is more akin to professional sports.

ESPN college basketball commentator Len Elmore, an attorney and a member of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, said that too often coverage of college sports approximates the coverage of professional sports. Contributing to the "blurring of the lines," he said, are reporters and commentators who work on both sides of the line and portray story angles that glorify certain coaches and players.

"It creates a perception that (professional and collegiate athletics) are one and the same, and it's wholly unfair," Elmore said. He said that collegiate athletics are part of the academic mission of an institution, though he admitted that the separation between the collegiate and professional models is more difficult to see.

"I always try to speak about collegiate sports not so much in the mythical amateurism that really doesn't exist anymore but in terms of young people who are still learning, who are still works in progress," he said. "It's the unpredictability, the striving toward that maturity level that makes the game interesting for me. I try to color my comments and my analysis with that in mind."

Thompson said that having the television cameras around a college arena or stadium doesn't necessarily mean the setting is turning professional, though people know the cameras are there.

"When television cameras are around, I can tell you that the players know it, and the fans in the stands know it," he said. "I think it does create a heightened atmosphere, and they know that they're on television and they know they're representing their university to a much wider audience than just those sitting in the stands."

Magnus said ESPNU isn't interested in showing "professional athletes in the making." He instead plans to focus on the abilities of student-athletes on and off the playing field.

"We're interested in showing college athletics for what it is, stories about really talented student-athletes who are not one-dimensional and are not simply minding the store until they can get to the professional ranks," he said.

He said people aren't interested in college sports because they might be seeing the next Emeka Okafor or Diana Taurasi, but because they are passionate about great competition at the collegiate level.

Bedol noted that college athletics has evolved as society has evolved into a more media-conscious, television-savvy world, requiring schools to fight for television deals and promote their student-athletes on the field because that's what fans expect.

"I think that if schools want to remain competitive on the field and want to recruit the best players and want to have the best environment for their fans, they need to recognize that fans have certain expectations as well as the athletes," he said. "While the experience has changed as a result of changes in society, I think that it is still a special and different experience. It just has grown as the culture has evolved."