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Conference USA & Fox Sports Announce New Television Contract

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Huge news from the C-USA athletic offices as the league has announced a 5 year contract with Fox Sports. Fox Sports has agreed to air 20 C-USA football games over their networks (including Fox Sports Southwest in El Paso) from 2011 through the 2015-16 season. Also, the league will have 10 mens basketball games, and 5 womens, shown over the Fox family of sports networks. The C-USA Football Championship Game will also move to Fox Sports. As realignment talk continues to swirl, note that this deal will be huge for the Houston Cougars and Rice Owls who should be featured prominently on Fox Sports Houston. If Houston stays, the C-USA West should stay in tact. According to the Orlando Sentinel's Iliana Limon (EP Shoutout!); the new deal will bring in $14.5 million. C-USA has already signed a secondary TV deal with CBS College Sports, so we will still have games there. Now, no C-USA games will be shown on ESPN. But, know that the old contract brought in only $9.5 million annually. So, now the C-USA will see a huge revenue increase, have more games aired, and have vastly superior regional flexibility in broadcasting. This is a big deal.

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