College Hoops Preview 2025: ESPN Remote-Ops Team Preps for Massive Slate of Men’s/Women’s Games

Busy opening week includes Oui-Play Event in Paris, Armed Forces Classic in Annapolis, Dick Vitale Classic in Charlotte

Tipping off this week, ESPN’s coverage of the men’s and women’s college basketball 2025-26 season will comprise more than 7,400 scheduled broadcasts. On the men’s side, 24 of the AP top 25 teams are set to appear on ESPN throughout the regular season; 23 of the top 25 women’s teams will do so. The total lineup will include 40 appearances from last year’s Final Four teams.

Crew in NEP OB van UHD 42 at Oui-Play Paris

“We’re thrilled for another unforgettable season of college basketball and the incredible stories it will bring,” says Leigh Michaud, manager, remote operations, ESPN. “As someone new to managing college basketball, I’m especially excited to work with this Operations team, together for the first time this season, bringing years of experience from a wide range of events and projects. It’s a pleasure every day to learn from and collaborate with such a talented group dedicated to delivering an outstanding season of CBB coverage.”

Big-Time Tip-Off: Armed Forces Classic, Dick Vitale Invitational

View from Camera 2 at Oui-Play Paris

The 2025-26 women’s season tipped off last night with a doubleheader in Paris, with four storied programs — Duke-Baylor and Cal-Vanderbilt — facing off in the Oui-Play Event.

Two major events air later today on ESPN, including the first-ever women’s college basketball matchup in the Armed Forces Classic. The game, featuring preseason No. 1 UConn vs. No. 20 Louisville at 5:30 p.m. ET, serves as one of the openers for the women’s regular season. Play by play caller Ryan Ruocco, analyst Rebecca Lobo, and sideline reporter Holly Rowe will be on hand.

The marquee matchup was originally scheduled to be held at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany but, because of the U.S. government shutdown, had to be relocated to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.

“Our Operations team has spent more than nine months planning for this production,” Michaud explains, “coordinating two site surveys, international shipping, and over 100 base clearances while navigating vendor changes and rebuilding an entirely new production plan after the venue shift with less than three weeks’ notice. Through close collaboration with ESPN Events, Production, and many other teams, the group has worked tirelessly to ensure a seamless broadcast that both celebrates the start of the college basketball season and honors the service members who protect our country.”

Marshal camera setup at Dick Vitale Invitational in Charlotte, NC

Today’s other event — the primetime matchup of men’s No. 6 Duke and Texas in the inaugural Dick Vitale Invitational in Charlotte, NC — airs at 8:45 p.m. Dave O’Brien will serve as the play-by-play voice alongside analysts Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale and sideline reporter Kris Budden.

“This game will follow the CBB Saturday Prime production model including Faction Media SDF, Fletcher ATR robotic cameras, HD Proton cameras, and a Nucleus package,” says ESPN Ops Supervisor Abby Hurlbert. “In the first two weeks of November, our team will support coverage of 56 college basketball games, utilizing REMI, SCR, Packager, and full-truck productions.”

Staying Flexible: ESPN Leverages Multiple Production Models

For the 2025-26 college basketball season, which includes an upcoming crossover event on Nov. 18 between the College Football Playoff and the 2025 State Farm Champions Classic, ESPN will deploy its packaged and school–control-room operations and four distinct production models for traditional truck shows, according to Spencer Chmiel, senior operations producer and college basketball tech/ops planning lead, ESPN.

NEP Supershooter 33 at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, for the Armed Forces Classic

“These range from a base setup of four operated cameras to enhanced configurations featuring up to 10 operated cameras,” he says, “including Above the Rim robotic cameras, multiple super-slo-mo systems, and additional tools to enhance the broadcast on our marquee events. We will also streamline our REMI productions with a single standardized model featuring seven transmission paths and onsite announcers to deliver consistency and efficiency across productions.”

ESPN will continue to work with NEP Rentals (formerly Fletcher) for ancillary equipment and specialty capture solutions, including robotic cameras, Chmiel notes. The broadcaster will partner with CP Communications for RF systems and POV camera rentals in addition to other mobile-unit vendors and specialty partners to support large-scale events and postseason productions.

Operations Producer Alice Garrett sets up at the Dick Vitale Invitational in Charlotte, NC

This season’s college-basketball coverage will be produced in three video formats, with selected games in 1080p HDR, says ESPN Director, Specialist Operations, Nick Romano. The broadcaster will “strive to broadcast many of the other games in 1080p SDR based on the facilities available throughout the season.” The base of the college basketball programming will be produced in 720p SDR.

Although “it’s ESPN’s goal to integrate technology into games and tournaments in ways that best enhance our team’s storytelling capabilities,” he says, “[ESPN] will be selective in determining where this technology can have the greatest impact” given the number of games broadcast across its platforms.

Team Effort: ESPN Departments Unite To Pull Off Crazy Schedule

Several internal groups — including production, programming, and finance — and vendor partners have worked together to properly plan and budget each game of ESPN’s college-basketball coverage, according to Michaud. Within content operations, her team partners with Packaging Operations, REMI, ACRF, Mobile Units, Crewing, Live From Home, and Resource Scheduling to ensure that each broadcast is appropriately resourced.

The operations crew at the Armed Forces Classic: (from left) Diana MacLeod, Jalen Taylor, Nick Romano

The college basketball operations team includes, besides Chmiel, Senior Director, Remote Operations, Carlton Young; Operations Manager Leigh Michaud; Director, Specialist Operations, Nick Romano; Operations Supervisor Abby Hurlbert; Senior Operations Coordinator Gui Rebelo; and Ops Coordinator Jalen Taylor.

The production team features SVP, Production, Meg Aronowitz; VP, ACC Network and NCAA Studio, Alex Farmartino; Coordinating Producers Brian Boyle, Jodi Denk, and Lya Vallat; Senior Managing Producer Ester van Huystee; Senior Production Manager, Production, Tonya Alleyne; Production Managers Chris Normand and Elizabeth Hembekides; Senior Production Coordinator Brittney Wilson; and Production Coordinator Lexi Link.

The programming team is Senior Director, Programming and Acquisitions, Dan Margulis and Associate Manager, Programming, Shay Smith.

A Deeper Look at the Men’s Schedule

ESPN’s men’s college basketball schedule comprises more than 4,000 games during the 2025-26 regular season. In all, nearly 700 games will air across ESPN networks: ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, and ACC Network. All 4,000 games will be available to stream on the ESPN App via ESPN DTC or pay-TV authentication.

Extensive coverage of 30 conferences — including the ACC, the American, Atlantic 10, Big 12, BIG EAST, Big West, CUSA, Horizon League, MAAC, MAC, Missouri Valley, SEC, Sun Belt, West Coast Conference — will be featured across ESPN platforms. The signature men’s basketball franchises ESPN Blockbuster, Saturday Prime, Big Monday, and Super Tuesday Presented by Progressive return this season, and the sport’s premier pregame show, College GameDay Covered by State Farm, returns with a special-edition show at the State Farm Champions Classic and weekly shows beginning in January.

SEC Network: More than 100 men’s basketball games will be featured on SEC Network. The 2025-26 campaign began Nov. 3, when the preseason No. 14 Arkansas Razorbacks defeated the Southern Jaguars. Conference play begins Jan. 3 at 1 p.m. with a quadruple-header of games on SECN. The season culminates with the 2026 SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament (March 11-15) at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

ACC Network: ACC Network (ACCN) will be the exclusive home to more than 115 men’s basketball games during the season. Anticipated matchups include Georgia Tech at No. 6 Duke on New Year’s Eve, Wake Forest at No. 25 UNC on Jan. 10, NC State at Virginia on Feb. 24, and Syracuse at No. 11 Louisville on March 3. ACCN will also showcase early-round games from the 2026 ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament (March 10-14) at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, NC.

Big 12: Big 12 basketball is set for more than 75 matchups across ESPN linear networks, with more than 120 conference showdowns streaming on the ESPN App. ESPN’s coverage of Big 12 men’s season tips off on Sunday, Nov. 9 with a pair of Big 12 teams hosting power-conference opponents: Oklahoma State takes on Texas A&M in Stillwater (2 p.m. ET, ESPN2), and Baylor hosts Washington (8:30 p.m., ESPN). The Big 12 enters the season with six teams ranked in the AP Preseason Top 25: 2024 national semifinalist No. 2 Houston, No. 8 BYU, No. 10 Texas Tech, No. 13 Arizona, No. 16 Iowa State, and No. 19 Kansas. Full Big 12 schedule.

ESPN+: More than 3,200 games are slated exclusively for ESPN+, including 800 in November alone. The season starts with four ranked appearances on Monday: New Haven at No. 4 UConn (7:00 p.m.), Fairleigh Dickinson at No. 16 Iowa State (8:00 p.m.), Green Bay at No. 19 Kansas (8:00 p.m.), and Texas Southern at No. 21 Gonzaga (9:00 p.m.). All the games will stream on the all-new ESPN App. Full ESPN+ schedule.

A Deeper Look at the Women’s Slate

Nearly 240 games on the women’s schedule will air on ESPN linear platforms: ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, and ACC Network. All 3,400+ women’s games will be available to stream on the ESPN App via ESPN DTC or pay-TV authentication, more than 3,000 of them on ESPN+.

SEC Network: SEC Network will showcase more than 70 women’s games. The second-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks will appear on SECN nine times throughout the season; combining for 25 appearances will be fellow top-10 conference foes No. 4 Texas (8), No. 5 LSU (8), No. 6 Oklahoma (5) and No. 8 Tennessee (4). SEC Network+ will stream an additional 180+ games throughout the season.

ACC Network: ACC Network will highlight more than 70 women’s games, beginning on Nov. 16. Anticipated matchups include No. 20 Louisville at No. 11 North Carolina on Dec. 14, Stanford at No. 9 NC State on New Year’s Day and Florida State at No. 7 Duke on Feb. 26. ACC Network Extra will stream an additional 180+ games throughout the season. ACCN will also once again offer extensive studio coverage of ACC women’s basketball throughout the season with flagship daily studio show ACC PM, the ACC Network Basketball Podcast, and signature basketball show Nothing But Net, all offering insight and analysis of the latest news, storylines. and highlights from around the conference.

Big 12 Basketball on ESPN: Big 12 women’s basketball is slated for more than 15 linear appearances and more than 250 streaming on the ESPN App. The conference tips off the season in Paris with Oui-Play on Nov. 3, featuring No. 16 Baylor (noon ET). The Bears will make eight more appearances across ESPN linear networks during the ’25-26 campaign, with fellow top-25 Big 12 teams No. 14 Iowa State (5), No. 17 TCU (4) and No. 22 Oklahoma State (1) combining for 10 linear games.

ESPN+: More than 3,000 games are slated exclusively for ESPN+, including 700 this month alone. All the games will be available on the ESPN App. Full ESPN+ schedule.

Parading to Phoenix: ESPN returns as the exclusive home to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship presented by Capital One. From the first whistle to the final cut of the net, ESPN platforms will present all the action. Live from PHX Arena in Phoenix, the NCAA Women’s Final Four presented by AT&T is set for ESPN on April 3 at 7 p.m. ET and 9:30 p.m., with the NCAA Championship game at 3:30 p.m. on April 5 on ABC.

Jason Dachman contributed to this story.