Campus Clips: NBC Sports Group Doubles Down on Hockey; Introducing the New Football Playoff Selection Committee

Compiled by Brandon Costa, Senior Editor, Sports Video Group

NBCSN and Hockey East locked up a two-year extension to their national television rights agreement earlier this month. Beginning with the upcoming 2013-14 college hockey season and continuing through the 2014-15 season, NBCSN will annually televise a minimum of five Hockey East games, and up to 12 regular-season games over the next two years. The network’s coverage of Hockey East begins on October 25 at 8 p.m. ET when Massachusetts visits Maine. As part of the agreement, Boston University will appear three times on NBCSN and Massachusetts will appear twice. No. 4 Boston College, New Hampshire and Maine will also play games on the network this season…

…NBC Sports Group and Notre Dame inked a three-year agreement to annually telecast 12 Notre Dame men’s ice hockey home games on NBCSN. In addition, NBC Sports Live Extra will live stream all 12 games telecast on NBCSN and eight additional Notre Dame Hockey home games…

…NBC Sports Group further bolstered their college hockey offering through a deal with the new Big Ten conference. NBC Sports and the Big Ten will collaborate to present five Big Ten men’s hockey games this season on NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra. NBCSN’s coverage of Big Ten hockey will feature all six member schools with hockey programs. Wisconsin will appear three times and Penn State will appear twice. Minnesota, Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State will also play games on NBCSN…

…The College Football Playoff formally unveiled its selection committee on Wednesday, four days before the first release of the final BCS standings. Headed up by chairman Jeff Long – the director of athletics at the University of Arkansas – the group includes Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez, retired 3-Star General Lt. Gen. Mike Gould, USC Athletic Director Pat Haden, former president of USA Basketball Tom Jernstedt, West Virginia Athletic Director Oliver Luck, College Football Hall of Famers Archie Manning and Tom Osborne, Clemson Athletic Director Dan Radakovich, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese, founding member at USA Today Steve Wieberg, and former Notre Dame and Washington head coach Tyrone Willingham…

…The Ohio Valley Conference announced its slate of conference men’s basketball games across ESPN platforms for the upcoming season. The schedule includes seven games (four regular season contests and three OVC Tournament games) that will appear on one of the networks during the season. Each of the regular season games and the OVC Tournament semifinals will air live on ESPNU. The OVC Tournament championship game will air on ESPN2 at 6:00 p.m. CT on March 8 from Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn. The package is part of a five-year agreement with ESPN. The new deal runs through the completion of the 2017-18 season and also includes a minimum of eight football games to be carried on ESPN3 annually as well as the ability for the OVC to receive additional national exposure…

… ESPN Regional Television announced the creation of the Boca Raton Bowl in a six-year agreement beginning in 2014. The pre-Christmas bowl game will be affiliated with the American Athletic Conference, Conference USA and the Mid-American Conference with each conference participating an expected four times during the six-year span. The bowl game will be played at FAU Stadium in Boca Raton, Fla., on the campus of Florida Atlantic University and nationally televised on ESPN or ESPN2. The open-air stadium opened in 2011 and seats just under 30,000 fans…

…The College All-Star Bowl is moving to Valentine’s Day, according to the Associated Press. The game – which was originally scheduled for March – will air on CBS Sports Network on Feb. 14…

…Barclays Center is teaming with FOX Sports 1 to broadcast college basketball games held at the arena as part of what the arena is branding as the BROOKLYN HOOPS college basketball season. FS1television coverage begins on Dec. 1 at 8:30 p.m. ET when Kentucky faces Providence…

…Elms College, in partnership with PrestoSports, launched its new website, ECBlazers.com.