UConn has inked a multi-year television contract with CBS Sports Network to air many of its home football games nationally through the 2023 season.
CBS Sports will televise four UConn home games at East Hartford’s Rentschler Field during the 2020 season and all home games in the final three years of the deal, school officials announced late Monday. Financial terms of the four-year contract were not disclosed.
The CBS partnership offers some much needed exposure for a UConn football team that left the American Athletic Conference (AAC) after last year’s two-win season to play as an independent in football beginning this year.
The move came as UConn re-entered its men’s and women’s basketball programs, which have both won several national championships in recent decades, to the Big East athletic conference.
“CBS Sports is a tremendous brand for our football program to be associated with and I know UConn Nation will be pleased that it will be able to watch the Huskies compete against a compelling group of opponents on a nationally-distributed network,” UConn Athletics Director David Benedict said in a statement.
[Read more: UConn’s re-entry into the Big East puts the state’s highest-profile sports franchise at a financial crossroads]
This fall, if the season begins as planned in September amid the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS Sports will televise UConn home games against Indiana, Liberty, Army and Middle Tennessee State University. CBS is also slated to broadcast UConn games in the coming years against teams from the ACC, Big Ten, Conference USA and Mountain West conferences.
UConn is expected to start the 2020 football season at home on Sept. 3 against UMass. Its 12-game season is set to end Nov. 28 against Army.
UConn’s multimedia rights holder, Learfield IMG College, brokered the school’s deal with CBS Sports, officials say.
