posted on Nov, 11 2004 @ 12:20 PM
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
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.
source
CBS
[Edited on 11/11/2004 by Gibbs Baby!!!]