Nov. 5, 2012

Complete MW Men's Basketball Television Schedule

PLANO, Texas - Learfield Sports and DIRECTV Sports Networks, parent company of ROOT SPORTS, have reached an agreement for ROOT SPORTS to broadcast a package of 14 Mountain West Conference men's basketball games, featuring Boise State University, University of New Mexico and University of Wyoming home games. The three MW schools are represented by Learfield Sports, the collegiate multimedia rights holder.

The 14-game package tips off with the match-up between University of Portland and the University of New Mexico on Nov. 25 at 6 p.m. MT. All games will be distributed by ROOT SPORTS Rocky Mountain, which is available on most cable and satellite providers and approximately 3 million homes throughout Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and New Mexico. ROOT SPORTS Northwest will also distribute many of the games to its territory, representing approximately 3 million additional homes throughout Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Alaska.

The new ROOT SPORTS relationship with Learfield will allow greater visibility and broader game distribution for Learfield Sports' partner schools in the targeted distribution areas.

"We're thrilled to bring the highly competitive brand of Mountain West men's basketball to millions of viewers throughout the massive ROOT SPORTS regional networks territory," said Learfield Sports' Chief Content Officer Joe Ferreira. "This will provide Boise State, New Mexico and Wyoming with an impressive distribution footprint to grow their already strong university brands."

"We are excited to be working with Learfield Sports to provide our viewers and fans and alumni of Mountain West schools high quality broadcasts of their favorite teams," said DIRECTV Sports Networks' Vice President of Content Bill Roberts. "The addition of these games coupled with the 10 MW football games we telecast this year provide MW fans with a significant package of conference games on our networks."

"The Mountain West greatly appreciates the commitment ROOT SPORTS has made to the Conference and its member institutions," said Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson. "This is a great platform to showcase our men's basketball programs throughout a significant portion of the Mountain West footprint - in the same high-quality fashion as is being done with this season's 10-game football package on ROOT SPORTS."

ROOT SPORTS will distribute the following 14-game MW men's basketball package for the 2012-13 season. Some games will be subject to Utah Jazz territorial restrictions. Bolded university names represent Learfield Sports' partner schools (all times are MT and subject to change):

Nov. 25 - Portland at New Mexico, 6 p.m.
Nov. 28 - Mercer at New Mexico, 7 p.m.
Dec. 1 - Colorado at Wyoming, 8 p.m.
Dec. 8 - Valparaiso at New Mexico, 7 p.m.
Dec. 22 - South Dakota State at New Mexico, 1 p.m.
Jan. 9 - Boise State at Wyoming, 8 p.m.
Jan. 16 - New Mexico at Boise State, 7 p.m.
Jan. 26 - Air Force at Wyoming, 8 p.m.
Jan. 30 - New Mexico at Wyoming, 7 p.m.
Feb. 6 - Air Force at New Mexico, 7 p.m.
Feb. 16 - Boise State at New Mexico, 7 p.m.
March 2 - Wyoming at New Mexico, 3 p.m.
March 6 - Colorado State at Wyoming, 8 p.m.
*Additional game featuring Boise State will be announced in December.

The DIRECTV Sports Networks agreement with Learfield Sports still allows the schools to stream these games on their respective official athletics websites outside of the ROOT SPORTS territory.

About Learfield Sports
Learfield Sports, which manages multimedia rights for more than 50 collegiate institutions and associations, holds individual rights agreements for six of the 10 Mountain West Conference members - Boise State, Fresno State, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State and Wyoming. The company also titles the prestigious Learfield Sports Directors' Cup with award co-founders NACDA and USA Today. Its multimedia rights encompass numerous content distribution platforms to deliver the passion of college athletics across radio, television and digital networks to fans globally. Today, Learfield Sports' exclusive sports programming reaches more than 50 million television households nationally and delivers nearly 17,000 hours of radio programming on more than 1,000 radio stations. For additional information about the company's 40-year history and complete collegiate portfolio, visit learfieldsports.com.

About DIRECTV Sports Networks
Seattle-based DIRECTV Sports Networks is a wholly owned subsidiary of DIRECTV and operates three regional sports networks branded as ROOT SPORTS^TM. The three networks (based in Bellevue WA, Denver CO, and Pittsburgh PA) are distributed in 18 states and hold exclusive regional telecast rights to over twenty professional and collegiate teams, including the Colorado Rockies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Seattle Mariners, Pittsburgh Penguins, Pittsburgh Steelers, Utah Jazz, Seattle Sounders FC, Portland Timbers , Gonzaga University, West Virginia University, University of Denver and Seattle University. The ROOT SPORTS networks also have exclusive national distribution rights for the Big Sky Conference, as well as distributing Big 12, Pac-12, Mountain West, and Conference USA and other collegiate football and basketball games.