NBC Sports, Atlantic 10 Conference Ink Extension to Basketball Media Rights Deal

The Atlantic 10 Conference and NBC Sports have extended their partnership for men’s and women’s basketball with a multi-year renewal of their media rights agreement.

“The Atlantic 10 has enjoyed a strong relationship with NBC Sports for the past eight years,” states Commissioner Bernadette V. McGlade. “NBC Sports’ high-quality productions during the regular season and across eight championship games have provided tremendous distribution for the conference. This extension is exciting and we’re looking forward to continuing this great partnership.”

As part of the agreement, NBC Sports will continue to provide live linear and streaming coverage of more than 35 A-10 men’s and women’s basketball games, including more than 25 regular-season games and eight games of the A-10 Men’s Basketball Championship.

“We’re thrilled to continue our partnership with the Atlantic 10 Conference, which consistently provides high-quality, compelling competition for college basketball fans across the nation,” says Marc Iacovelli, senior director, programming, NBC Sports. “We’ve enjoyed a great relationship with the A-10 and Commissioner McGlade for the better part of a decade and we look forward to showcasing the conference in the years to come.”

The rights renewal marks “10 years with the A-10,” dating back to the original agreement between NBC Sports and the A-10 in October 2012. Atlantic 10 institutions reside in states that comprise 33.3 million television households, approximately 30 percent of the total national media market. There are eight A-10 institutions in the top 25 media markets in the country, and all 14 A-10 institutions are located in or adjacent to the top 65 media markets.

The extension keeps the Atlantic 10, which is celebrating its 45th Anniversary in 2020-21, among the top basketball conferences in television coverage. The A-10 has boasted 65 postseason appearances in the last decade, 35 of which have been bids to the NCAA Tournament. The conference earned multiple at-large bids to 13 of the last 14 NCAA Tournaments.

Over the past seven years, every A-10 member has made at least one postseason appearance. League member Dayton had a magical season last year, reaching a No. 3 ranking in the AP and Coaches’ Polls. The Flyers, behind National Player of the Year Obi Toppin and National Coach of the Year Anthony Grant, were being forecasted as a Final Four team in media predictions before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the postseason.