Root Sports to Air Big Sky Conference Football & Basketball Games

The Big Sky Conference has agreed a deal with DirecTV Sports Networks for its Root Sports network to replace Altitude Sports as its official TV partner for Big Sky football and men’s basketball starting this summer.

The five-year deal was made with DirecTV Sports Networks, which owns the Root Sports networks. Root Sports consists of three networks which has more than 8.7 million viewers across 18 states.

The change will begin with the 2012 football season. The deal was set for broadcasting up to 18 Big Sky football games and 12 Big Sky basketball conference games each season, as well as the Big Sky quarterfinal and semifinal men’s basketball tournament games.

Each game will broadcast in high definition with state-of-the-art graphic elements customized for the Big Sky, but no definitive schedule has been set yet for each team’s air-time.

Sacramento State Athletic Director Terry Wanless said the move, which takes place on July 1, is going to be a great chance for Sac State to be seen all around.

“It’s an exciting opportunity for us as a league because it gives us by far the greatest number of exposures,” Wanless said.

The previous deal with Altitude cost the Big Sky $100,000 among nine schools, which was about $11,000 per school.

Wanless said the new deal with Root Sports would save Sac State and the other Big Sky schools the money and bring them some money too.

“Right now, (the Big Sky) is paying a company, Altitude Sports, $11,000 per school to cover football only,” Wanless said. “We are going to save $11,000 immediately, plus were going to get some residual dollars back from this contract.”