CIAA to be Shown on National Television for First Time
By The Associated Press
(11/09/04 - NEW YORK) The nation's oldest black athletic conference will have its men's basketball tournament games televised nationally for the
first time this
season under a three-year deal with ESPN announced Tuesday. The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship game will be shown on ESPN2
on March 5, live from Raleigh, N.C. ESPN Classic also will show the men's quarterfinals March 2, and the semifinals March 4.
It also will be the first NCAA Division II conference to be part of the network's championship week. The CIAA drew a record 104,500 fans to its 2004
tournament, the
third-most attended college hoops tourney.
"It has been said the CIAA is the best-kept secret because of the history, the fans, the players," commissioner Leon Kerry said. "After today it will
no longer be the
best-kept secret."
ESPN Classic will show seven CIAA tournament games live. ESPN regional television also will show five regular-season CIAA games in local markets.
The conference's 12 schools are Bowie State, Elizabeth City State, Fayetteville State, Johnson C. Smith University, Livingstone, North Carolina
Central,
St. Augustine's, St. Paul's College, Shaw, Virginia State, Virginia Union, and Winston-Salem State.
visit the website
http://www.ciaa2005.com/
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