The brain trust that runs ABC-TV and ESPN made moves this summer to help ensure that more casual eyeballs might be tempted to watch the NCAA Division I women’s indoor volleyball national-title match in December when it it moves to over-the-air ABC.
ESPN announced last week that a whopping and unprecedented 2,500-plus matches will be shown across its various linear cable-TV and streaming platforms during the upcoming collegiate season.
It’s not just that more matches will be available to die-hard fans. Significantly, the flagship ESPN channel and cable sibling ESPN2 will play a bigger role in that coverage, meaning that casual viewers in greater numbers have the opportunity to become invested in the sport during the regular season.
This should be seen as a gigantic positive for the collegiate women’s game. ESPN chose to provide more consistent exposure on channels with high visibility, demonstrating a greater confidence that women’s sports in general, and volleyball in particular, can generate viewership in a crowded and highly fractured TV landscape.
The endgame will be the NCAA championship match aired live on ABC on the Sunday afternoon (3 p.m. start time) of December 17 from Tampa, Fla. ABC is rolling the dice that volleyball on broadcast TV might piggyback on the sensational ratings posted in the spring by the NCAA women’s basketball final. The showdown between LSU and Iowa was watched by 9.9 million total-average viewers, a record for a women’s college game.
But before that, the Worldwide Leader in Sports will give viewers a chance to see numerous nationally ranked teams in action in 100 offerings across its cable-TV channels that include ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, ACC Network and Longhorn Network (which is in its final season as Texas moves to the SEC for the 2024-25 sports year).
In this era of customers fleeing cable in ever-growing numbers, ESPN (with access in 72.495 million U.S. TV households as of June) and ESPN2 (72.481 million) remain the heaviest hitters on cable, reaching roughly 58% percent of America’s 123.8 million TV homes. College-specific ESPNU, which has been the home for the bulk of ESPN’s volleyball offerings in the past, can be seen in 37.929 million households, so being on the big two, particularly ESPN, is no small deal.
ESPN senior director of programming & acquisitions Dan Margulis acknowledged that the network has placed added emphasis on the regular season.
“We are pleased with the performance of women’s volleyball over the past couple of seasons,” Margulis told us, “and are working to grow the exposure of the sport on our platforms leading into and through the NCAA Tournament. The atmosphere at these games is fantastic and it translates really well to broadcasts.”
Dan Margulis
Margulis added that, “ESPN’s commitment to women’s sports has always been strong, and our strategy regarding more expansive scheduling and programming for various women’s sports, including volleyball, is in lockstep with that commitment. Each season, we’re always looking for new ways to focus our efforts surrounding audience expansion and innovative programming.”
An additional incentive in the fall is the opportunity to fill valuable TV time with meaningful content as the ongoing strike by actors and screenwriters unions figures to push back the broadcast network’s traditional fall schedule of original scripted series.
ESPN will telecast matches involving past NCAA champions on back-to-back nights. On Tuesday, Sept. 12, Nebraska (ranked fifth in the AVCA preseason D-I poll) will visit Stanford (ranked third). No. 4 Louisville, the national runner-up in 2022, will host No. 10 Kentucky on Wednesday, Sept 13.
ESPN2’s slate of a dozen Sunday matches over roughly two months features three doubleheaders. It tips off with a doozie on Sept. 3 with Stanford at No. 1 Texas, the defending NCAA champion.
A rundown of the others: Sept. 10, No. 8 Penn State at Louisville; Sept. 17, Stanford at Louisville and No. 2 Wisconsin at No. 11 Florida; Sept. 24, Tennessee at Kentucky in the SEC; Oct. 1, Georgia at Auburn in the SEC; Oct. 15, No. 15 Baylor at Iowa State and Texas at No. 19 Houston, both in the Big 12; Oct. 22, UCF at Baylor, Big 12, and Stanford at No. 9 Oregon, Pac-12; Oct. 29, Oregon at Washington, Pac-12; and Nov. 5, Kentucky at Florida, SEC.
ESPNU features 18 offerings, including the tournament finals in the MEAC and the SWAC. Among the attractive matches on ESPN are Wisconsin at No. 25 Arkansas on Thursday, Aug. 31; No. 7 Minnesota at Florida, Sunday, Sept. 3; No. 6 Pittsburgh, a national semifinalist in 202, at Louisville, Friday, Oct. 13; and Loyola Marymount at No. 13. San Diego, a Final 4 team last season, Thursday, Oct. 26, in the West Coast Conference.
Louisville is featured prominently in the games on the national channels and coach Dani Busboom Kelly spoke glowingly about the prospect of competing on that stage.
Anna DeBeer and her Louisville teammates will get plenty of TV time this season/Louisville photo
“First and foremost, nationally volleyball is growing,” Busboom Kelly told the media last week. “ESPN just released their TV schedule and it’s by far the most volleyball matches they’ve ever televised, and on their networks, which are ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. That’s huge for our sport.”
Busboom Kelly also reflected on her program’s “responsibility to move the sport forward” by playing select matches in the off-campus 21,500-set Yum! Center, rather than the 1,200-seat volleyball-specific L&N arena. The Cardinals’ dates against Kentucky, Stanford and Pitt will be at the Yum.
“I appreciate the Yum and the amount of people that we can share the sport of volleyball with there,” she said. “Part of being a top program is the responsibility to move the sport forward, so can’t get more eyes on us, that’s not really moving the sport forward.”
The story linked here from ESPN has a schedule with all of the 100 regular-season offerings to be telecast on its linear cable-TV channels.
ESPN’s announcement also mentioned that the national semifinals will air on ESPN from the Amalie Arena in Tampa on Thursday, Dec. 14. The first final-four match will start at 7 p.m. Eastern. But the remainder of the NCAA Tournament schedule was not detailed.
VolleyballMag.com asked Margulis whether any matches in the first and second rounds might find their way onto one of the linear channels. In the past, those rounds have been on ESPN+, which has for all purposes left casual fans out of loop. Streaming platform ESPN+ has roughly 25 million subscribers and has more regular-season volleyball on it than you can shake a stick at, with matches from conferences affiliated with ESPN with proprietary networks, as well smaller leagues.
Marguils responded with some nicely worded corporate-speak that skirted the question.
“We have seen significant success making all matches available on ESPN+ and presenting the whip-around coverage to account for matches being played simultaneously, as well as a mix of both tight finishes and lopsided results in early rounds,” Margulis told us. “As with last year, there will be linear windows for the ‘Fifth Set’ where possible, and we are developing our plans for our postseason programming and coverage. The feedback we received for how we presented last year’s NCAA Tournament was overwhelmingly positive and we look forward to this fall.”
Reading between the verbiage, that sounds like a “no” for full first- or second-round matches, even on ESPNU.
Now let’s move on to other avenues of access on linear TV platforms for volleyball fans.
The Big Ten, which is affiliated with Fox Sports, has announced that a record 65 matches involving conference teams will air nationally on cable channels Big Ten Network, FS1, FS2 and even over-the-air FOX. The Big Ten Network will air at least 55 matches, most in its history. The Big Ten boasts four ranked teams in the top eight of the AVCA preseason poll and six in the first 16. The Big Ten Network reaches 48.76 million households, FS1 72.32 million and FS2 52.65 million.
The match volleyball fans should want to see if for no other reason than the spectacle is Nebraska-Omaha on the Big Ten Network on Wednesday, Aug. 30 (8 p.m. Eastern). It will be played outdoors at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln and has sold out with more than 80,000 tickets moved.
Broadcast FOX enters the picture with a match on Sunday, Oct. 29. Different markets will see No. 14 Ohio State at Michigan or Minnesota at Wisconsin. FS1’s schedule includes three matches: Arizona at Wisconsin, Thursday, Sept. 7; Minnesota at Iowa, Thursday, Sept. 21; and Illinois at No. 16 Purdue, Wednesday, Oct. 4.
Click here for the offerings on the Fox channels.
The powerful Pac-12 is in its last year of competition with this lineup of schools and is in danger of being disbanded. But it’s business as usual for Pac-12 Networks, which has a slate of 72 women’s volleyball matches. Each conference member will appear at least nine times.
Here is a link to a story from the Pac-12 announcing its fall schedule on Pac-12 Networks.
The Big 12 does not have a stand-alone network, so TV matches involving its teams can be found on Longhorn Network, the ESPN channels or FS1. The FS1 slate includes No. 17 BYU at Texas on Thursday, Sept. 28, and Baylor at Texas, on Thursday, Oct. 26.
Click here for the TV matches in the Big 12.
