SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Southern Conference, in conjunction with its marketing partner CSE, announced today (December 12) an eight-game men's basketball package to be broadcast on the SoCon Sports Network. The games will be televised on public television systems in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina along with WTCI (Chattanooga, Tenn.) and WABM (Birmingham, Ala.).
In addition to the eight-game regular season package, the SoCon Sports Network will broadcast the semifinals of the men's and women's basketball championships on Sunday, March 4 and the women's championship game on Monday, March 5.
Darren Goldwater will handle the play-by-play duties while Dean Keener will provide commentary. Goldwater worked on the SoCon Sports Network football games this fall after three years as play-by-play announcer for The Citadel football, basketball and baseball teams. Keener played collegiately at Davidson and served as team captain on the Wildcats' 1986 NCAA Tournament Team. He also worked as head coach at James Madison from 2004-08.
The SoCon Sports Network will reach 12 million homes throughout the league's geographic footprint. Additionally, games will be streamed live through ESPN3 as well as the individual public television web sites.
"The Southern Conference is delighted to again work with the same group of broadcast partners for our basketball Game of the Week beginning in January," said Southern Conference Commissioner John Iamarino. "This partnership gives us outstanding reach in our conference footprint while still affording viewers outside the region the opportunity to watch live through ESPN3 as well as the public television websites."
The Southern Conference and CSE will produce each telecast and retain the broadcast rights. Games will be available in Georgia on the GPB Knowledge channel as well as WUGA, and distributed throughout South Carolina on the South Carolina Channel. North Carolina viewers can find the games on UNC-EX, the Explorer Channel. WTCI, a public television affiliate in Chattanooga, Tenn., will carry the games as will WABM, a commercial station in Birmingham, Ala.
The package begins January 7 when Davidson hosts south division foe Georgia Southern. All 12 Southern Conference programs will make at least one appearance on the package this winter.
The package, along with the league's previously-announced ESPN3 schedule and individual broadcasts from various league institutions, increases the total number of SoCon men's basketball broadcasts in 2011-12 to 73 while 17 women's basketball games will also be broadcast.
2012 Southern Conference Men's Basketball Telecast Schedule
Date Teams Time
Jan. 7 Georgia Southern at Davidson 3:00 p.m.
Jan. 14 Chattanooga at Samford 3:00 p.m.
Jan. 21 Western Carolina at Appalachian State 3:00 p.m.
Jan. 28 Wofford at College of Charleston 3:00 p.m.
Feb. 4 UNCG at Furman 3:00 p.m.
Feb. 11 Davidson at College of Charleston 3:00 p.m.
Feb. 18 Western Carolina at Elon 3:00 p.m.
Feb. 25 College of Charleston at The Citadel 3:00 p.m.