
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 25, 1994                   TAG: 9402250043
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BIG EAST, ESPN MAKE DEAL

As expected, the Big East came to an agreement Thursday with ESPN for cable telecasts of conference football, adding to the five-year, $72.5 million deal the league made last week with CBS Sports.

The ESPN agreement, like the CBS contract, will run five seasons beginning in 1996 and will earn the conference approximately $22 million. The network announced that 12 Big East home games - league or non-conference - will be shown annually between ESPN and ESPN2.

Like $58 million of the CBS' rights targeted for football, the $22 million will be shared among only the eight football-playing Big East members - Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Miami, Syracuse, Boston College, Pitt, Rutgers and Temple.

By 1996, ESPN2 is predicted to have reached 30 million homes, or about half of ESPN's current potential audience. The Big East joins the ACC as the only conferences that have signed football contracts with ESPN beyond the '96 season.

An ESPN spokesman said the network's college football schedule in 1996 is expected to look similar to the current CFA schedule, with prime-time games on Thursdays and Saturdays and a few late-afternoon Saturday dates.

by CNB