NBC Sports Network Has Inked A Collegiate Conference, The Colonial Athletic Association

Now that the NBC Sports Network, which was launched January 2, 2012, is up and running they need programming.

You can only show so much of hockey and hunting and fishing shows.

Monday NBCSN and the Colonial Athletic Association announced an new five year agreement to air CAA games.

“We are thrilled to be associated with the NBC Sports Group,” CAA Commissioner Tom Yeager said in a press release by the conference. “The NBC Sports Network now provides a national platform to elevate the conference in conjunction with the relationship we’ve had with the Comcast SportsNets, which have been the foundation of our television package for almost three decades.”

The five year agreement calls for 12 national telecasts of CAA men’s basketball games, including national television coverage of the semifinals and finals of the CAA Men’s Basketball Championship for the first time. Five national telecasts of CAA Football games for the first time in conference history and other CAA games and championships on NBCSports.com.

How much of a financial windfall this is for the CAA is not known, no financial numbers were released.

The CAA is the best football conference in the Football Championship Subdivision. Since 1998 the CAA has produced five NCAA national championships in football.

How that will translate nationally remains to be seen. The FCS is the old 1-AA and not on the big time scale for football.

As for college basketball the CAA has become the darlings of the mid-majors with George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth making memorable NCAA Final Four runs the last six years.

The member institutions in the CAA are: Delaware, Drexel, George Mason, Georgia State, Hofstra, James Madison, UNC Wilmington, New Hampshire, Northeastern, Old Dominion, Rhode Island, Towson University, Virginia Commonwealth and the College of William & Mary. The football only schools in the CAA are Villanova, Maine, Rhode Island and Richmond.

Keep in mind cable networks only care about size of TV markets and the CAA does deliver some major ones. With Georgia State you have the Atlanta market. Towson the Baltimore, Maryland market. Northeastern delivers the Boston market. Drexel the Philadelphia market and George Mason the Northern Virginia/Washington D.C. market. That's impressive.

Congrats to the CAA for inking a big time cable deal.