Skip to main content

League Unveils Free Streaming Sports For All: The Patriot League Network

It was hard to know what to think when the following announcement came up on the Patriot League Twitter account:


Out of the blue, there it was.  What could it be?  More (gasp) expansion news?  The pro-bono hiring of Jon Gruden as Frank Tavani's assistant defenisive coach at Lafayette?  Free sno-cones at football's Patriot League Media Day, scheduled for this Wednesday?

It wasn't any of these three possibilities, but it was something even better.

Now, any Patriot League fans with a decently-fast laptop, tablet or phone will now be able to stream a large number of games over the internet.

For free.

For years Lehigh fans wanting to stream select live games in football, basketball, and a litany of other sports would have to shell out cash.

Programs like Patriot League All-Access and Lehigh's paid streaming offerings were for the most part really good productions (well, except the time when I needed desperately to find an replay stream of the Lehigh/Monmouth game that finally showed up in a watchable format two days later, but I digress).

But in order to follow all the action at home, it would cost you.

While someone as nuts as me might be willing to fork over $100 a year to immerse myself in Patriot League sports, one can understand if not everyone might, um, avail themselves of the broadcasts.

But now, with the newly-announced Patriot League Network,that $100 can now go back towards my son's college fund:

The Patriot League, in collaboration with Campus Insiders, announced Monday the creation of the Patriot League Network (PLN) that will greatly expand the video content and reach of its digital programming starting in the fall of 2013. Under this multi-year agreement, the Patriot League will live-stream hundreds of its men and women's sporting events, add branded studio programming, develop sponsorship opportunities and grow distribution on multiple platforms and devices.

PLN offers marketers with a unique opportunity to reach a targeted audience both regionally and nationally, as well as enhancing the League's multimedia presence. The League also has a multi-sport television agreement with CBS Sports Network which includes live event coverage of football, men and women's basketball and men's lacrosse.

All Patriot League programming will be available through www.campusinsiders.com, the online destination and leading digital content syndication source for college sports, as well as through the Patriot League and member institution websites.

In football, this free model has worked extremely well for teams of the FCS.  The Big Sky offered free broadcasts of their league games for several years now, allowing fans like myself the opportunity to watch teams like Montana State and Eastern Washington that I wouldn't have been able to catch otherwise.

For recruiting, too, this is a valuable tool for the league, publicizing their league the same way the OVC, Big South, and some other leagues have done with their online streaming broadcasts. 
This is not only great news for cheapskates like me - it's great news for people who like to follow all the teams of the Patriot League and FCS, not just one team.

For example, on Lehigh's opening weekend, September 7th, I'll be at Murray Goodman finally enjoying the Mountain Hawks' opening game vs. Central Connecticut State, which is a 12:30 start.  But you can bet I'll be getting home to catch Fordham hosting Villanova, a preseason Top 10 team, for a 6PM start on PLN.

(Ironically, catching the game on PLN will probably be the only way Villanova fans will be able to watch the game locally.)

All the home games for five of the seven Patriot League teams, including out-of-conference games, will be available for streaming broadcast on PLN.  Lehigh is one of those five teams who will be broadcasting their home games on PLN.

“The Patriot Network will provide our league and all member schools expanded visibility through the combination of a league correspondent filing league reports for a nationally marketed website, and the broader access it will enable to our league and institutional content,” said Lehigh Murray H. Goodman Dean of Athletics Joe Sterrett. “The network will not have fees for most content and will enable viewing of content on a range of media devices, including smart phones and tablets.  Additionally, we will be migrating to high definition productions, which benefits our viewers.”
Available to fans in mid-August, high-quality PLN content will be accessible on multiple devices, including laptops, smartphones and tablets, and will feature 10 unique channels of Patriot League action. Each of the league's institutions will have its own individual school-branded channel, while the Patriot League will offer a Conference-wide channel featuring all available digital content. In addition, beginning in 2014, Campus Insiders will produce TV-quality basketball and football games for PLN, as well as various other sports and championship events. The Patriot League will also provide reports and content from its PLN Correspondent for Campus Insiders and PLN.


Importantly, on Lehigh's side the games are not simply going to be a student pointing a webcam in the press box - they're the same professional production crew that has produced the games for years. 

In football, they're the same local broadcasts that will air on local TV on Service Electric 2, with Mike Yadush and Mike Zambelli calling the games.

It's basically the same broadcast I paid for in the past, but free.


(The two CBS Sports Network games, Lehigh vs. Fordham on 10/5 and Colgate at Holy Cross on 10/'19, will not be broadcast over PLN.  For those games, you'll have to watch it on cable, if you get the CBS Sports Network, or head to your local sports bar.)

For me, of course, my excitement about the network focuses on the amount of football games I'll now have access to for free.  But what others will also undoubtedly drool over is the fact that almost all the schools' home games in basketball will be broadcast on PLN as well.

Last year, in order to get all of Lehigh's home basketball games you had to nab a monthly subscription through LehighSports.com, then you had to subscribe to Patriot League All-Access for the rest.  Now, it's all under one network.  For free.
 
There's also going to be two online shows devoted to the Patriot League, produced by Silver Chalice Ventures and features two different shows, individually hosted by CBS broadcasters Bonnie Bernstein and Seth Davis.  (Remember Mr. Davis during the NCAA tournament, when Lehigh beat Duke?)  For free.

Then there's other championships - field hockey, softball, baseball, lacrosse, you name it.  Home games for free.

I probably don't need to tell you that this is a great deal for fans of all Patriot League schools, but all I know for sure is I'll be using PLN frequently all throughout the 2013-2014 season.

Let's hope I don't break it.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How The Ivy League Is Able To Break the NCAA's Scholarship Limits and Still Consider Themselves FCS

By now you've seen the results.  In 2018, the Ivy League has taken the FCS by storm. Perhaps it was Penn's 30-10 defeat of Lehigh a couple of weeks ago .  Or maybe it was Princeton's 50-9 drubbing of another team that made the FCS Playoffs last year, Monmouth.  Or maybe it was Yale's shockingly dominant 35-14 win over nationally-ranked Maine last weekend. The Ivy League has gone an astounding 12-4 so far in out-of-conference play, many of those wins coming against the Patriot League. But it's not just against the Patriot League where the Ivy League has excelled.  Every Ivy League school has at least one out-of-conference victory, which is remarkable since it is only three games into their football season.  The four losses - Rhode Island over Harvard, Holy Cross over Yale, Delaware over Cornell, and Cal Poly over Brown - were either close losses that could have gone either way or expected blowouts of teams picked to be at the bottom of the Ivy League. W
41 comments
Read more

Eleven Guys Who Might Be Lafayette's Next Head Football Coach

It was a surprise.  Well, to me, anyway. Most people assumed that Lafayette head coach John Garrett was safe as the Leopards' head coach.  Though his five year record wasn't great, he had beaten bitter Rival Lehigh in two out of the last three Rivalry games, despite a tough 17-10 loss to Lehigh the final week of the year. Listening to the post-game press conference, I also didn't pick up on some of the signs that his job security might be in jeopardy.  Garrett was a bit prickly, but it was understandable - he had just lost a game to Lafayette's Rivals.  "The future is bright for Lafayette football," he said, not letting on that he might not be a part of that future. But by Monday, the announcement was made - after five years leading the Leopard football team, "Lafayette College will not renew the contract of head football coach John Garrett," a short press release stated.  "A national search for his replacement will begin immediately.  Defensive
14 comments
Read more

My Lehigh Football Head Coaching Shortlist of 15 Names (and three more)

We didn't want to be here, but we're here now once again.  Lehigh fans have entered this offseason wondering who might be on the Lehigh Athletic Department's shortlist for the next head football coach of the Lehigh Mountain Hawks. I do not know who has applied, or who is under active consideration for the position.  However as the biggest Lehigh football follower you know, I have some ideas, ideas I am sharing with you now.  (For free!) I've come up with a list of fifteen possible names, some which I've heard whispered as candidates, others which might be good fits at Lehigh for a variety of reasons.  What all of these candidates have in common is that any one of them would be tremendous candidates to be Lehigh's next head football coach. Let's get to it. UPDATE: Four more names. John Allen Current Position : Wide Receivers Coach/Passing Game Coordinator, UConn (2022-present) Resume : Allen, with a long list of qualifications, is well known, as his UConn
18 comments
Read more