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Nearly two-thirds of conference games to tip on new channel

CHICAGO – The race to the 2008 Big Ten men's basketball championship begins on the Big Ten Network Jan. 2 with a double-header featuring first-year coach John Beilein and his Michigan Wolverines hosting last year's Big Ten runner-up Wisconsin.  Perennial powerhouse Indiana travels to Iowa City to face the Hawkeyes and newly appointed Todd Lickliter. The tip times are at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. EST, respectively.

The network's conference slate was announced today by Big Ten Network President Mark Silverman.

In its first year, the Big Ten Network will carry 64 of the conference's 99 regular season men's basketball games plus three Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Tournament games from Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis next March. Indiana will play at least six conference games; Ohio State, which finished second in the final USA Today poll last season, will play at least seven conference games; and Michigan State will play at least eight conference games on the Big Ten Network. Every other university will play at least half of their 18-game conference schedule on the network. Six additional late-season games will be selected as the season unfolds.

"We are thrilled to bring so many great basketball games to Big Ten fans," Silverman said.  "This schedule demonstrates the value of our programming, and makes the case for it to be distributed as widely as possible. Sports fans will miss some great basketball games this winter if their cable or satellite provider does not carry the network."

Fans who want the network should call 1-866-WANT-B10 to be connected directly to their cable or satellite provider.

During the conference season, the Big Ten Network will feature games on Tuesdays, a double-header every Wednesday night and a heavy dose of contests on the weekends, including double-, triple- and quadruple-headers. 

All intra-conference games will be distributed nationally, which means the end of the split-regional or local broadcasts that occurred in past seasons. 

In addition, the Big Ten Network will also televise three Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Tournament games in March.  The network will carry the opening game on Thursday, March 13, 2008, between the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds.  Action continues Friday night, March 14, on the Big Ten Network with two quarterfinal match-ups, including the opening game for the second and third seeds.

The network will announce its non-conference schedule early next week.

The official launch of the Big Ten Network comes Aug. 30, two days before the kick-off of the 2007 Big Ten football season.  Big Ten Tonight, a nightly studio show hosted by Dave Revsine, will preview the upcoming season and closely examine all of the weekend's conference teams in action. The network will televise more live events in HD than any other new network in television history.  The network recently announced a commitment to gender equality by 2010, when all Big Ten Network-controlled television, Internet and mobile media will provide equal men's and women's athletic coverage.

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