ESPN and Big Sky Announce Media Rights Extension Through 2029-30

ESPN and the Big Sky Conference have announced a five-year extension to their current media rights agreement, which doubles its televised coverage for football and provides a continued platform for the more than 600 Big Sky Conference live events streaming annually on ESPN+ and the ESPN App.

"We are proud to continue our wonderful relationship with ESPN and showcase the tremendous student-athletes, talented coaches, and passionate fan bases across the Big Sky Conference," Commissioner Tom Wistrcill said. "As the nation's preeminent FCS conference, we are thrilled that the increase in televised exposure will provide a national audience with even more opportunities to watch and appreciate our 12 football programs, a nation-best five of which qualified for the 2024 FCS Playoffs."

The new media rights agreement with ESPN will begin in the 2025-26 academic year and go through 2029-30.

"The Big Sky Conference continues to provide captivating storylines and top-tier competition across its 15 sports, and we're excited to expand our commitment to showcasing the conference's incredible student-athletes and member institutions through hundreds of matchups each year across ESPN platforms," said Mallory Kenny, ESPN director of programming and acquisitions.

The new contract doubles the Big Sky's exposure for nationally televised football games, with a minimum of four regular-season contests televised on a Friday or Saturday. A minimum of two of those games will air on ESPN or ESPN2.

For Big Sky basketball, ESPN will continue to televise at least one men's regular-season conference game, as well as three men's conference tournament games and one women's conference tournament game. On the men's side, at least one of the two televised semifinal games will be on either ESPN or ESPN2, with the championship game also having an ESPN or ESPN2 distinction. The women's championship game will continue to air on ESPNU, which first began in 2022.

In addition to all Big Sky home games for football, men's basketball and women's basketball presented on ESPN platforms, the league will continue to feature all home and conference tournament contests for soccer, volleyball, and softball on ESPN+, as well as conference championships for several other Big Sky sports. Since its launch on ESPN+ in July of 2021, the Big Sky and its member institutions have produced and distributed more than 2,500 live events to date, giving fans a familiar home to watch their favorite Big Sky teams.

The longstanding relationship between the Big Sky Conference and ESPN goes back to ESPN's formative years, when Big Sky football was featured on the network on October 4, 1980, for Northern Arizona's homecoming against Idaho State. Since at least 1989, ESPN has annually televised the championship game of the Big Sky Men's Basketball Tournament.

About the Big Sky Conference

Founded in 1963, the Big Sky Conference is a NCAA Division I conference competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. With nearly 150 teams representing 12 institutions in 15 sports (six men's, nine women's), the Big Sky prides itself on its "#ExperienceElevated" platform that emphasizes the unique traits and lifelong benefits that the conference and its member institutions provide to around 3,300 student-athletes each year.

The conference has 10 full members (Eastern Washington University; the University of Idaho; Idaho State University; the University of Montana; Montana State University; Northern Arizona University; the University of Northern Colorado; Portland State University; California State University, Sacramento; and Weber State University) located in eight states across the western United States, plus two football affiliate members (California Polytechnic State University and the University of California, Davis). Conference members have won 13 NCAA championships, including seven in football by five different members as well as six of the last nine Division I men's cross country titles by NAU.

About ESPN

ESPN, the world's leading multiplatform sports entertainment brand, features eight U.S. television networks, the leading sports app, direct-to-consumer ESPN+, leading social and digital platforms, ESPN.com, ESPN Audio, endeavors on every continent around the world, and more. ESPN is 80 percent owned by ABC, Inc. (an indirect subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company) and 20 percent by Hearst.

About ESPN+

ESPN+ is the No. 1 sports streaming platform, serving fans in the U.S. with exclusive access to more than 32,000 live sports events each year, an unmatched library of on-demand replays and acclaimed original content, and premium written articles by the top reporters and analysts from ESPN.com. Fans sign up to ESPN+ for just $10.99 a month (or $109.99 per year) at ESPN.com, ESPNplus.com, or in the ESPN App on mobile and connected devices. For more visit the ESPN+ Press Kit.

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