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Four Conference Champions to be Crowned on Sunday, March 9, on ESPN

ESPN’s 2014 Championship Week Presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods will feature a record 93 women’s college basketball games Friday, March 7, to Sunday, March 16, across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3 and ESPN FULL COURT. For the first time, ESPN will be the home to five conference title games – the ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC on Sunday, March 9, and the American Women’s Championship on Monday, March 10.

The networks will combine to exclusively offer game action of 50 women’s games, and will crown the champion from 17 Division I conferences. ESPN3 will have exclusive coverage of 29 conference tournament games, and will show another 43 contests available in local markets via syndication, for a total of 72 games. ESPNU will have 14 games, including eight live title games.

The entire Championship Week coverage will also be available via WatchESPN, which delivers live access to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes and ESPN Buzzer Beater/Goal Line on computers, smartphones, tablets, Xbox, Apple TV and Roku Xbox to fans who receive ESPN’s linear networks as part of their video subscription. The WatchESPN app is available free to download for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire devices in the App Store, Google Play Store and Amazon Appstore.

The Championship Week schedule includes a total of 143 men’s and women’s basketball games across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and exclusively on ESPN3 from 27 conferences.

Championship Week Highlights

• ESPN3 will carry the postgame trophy presentation live for all 17 women’s championship games on an ESPN platform.
• ESPN will be the home to four conference title games on Sunday, on ESPN:
  • In addition to the SEC title game at 3:30 p.m., the conference’s semifinal games air on Saturday, at noon and 2 p.m. on ESPNU.
  • The ACC championship game will be shown at 7 p.m. – also on ESPN Radio – with the semifinals airing on Saturday at 5 and 7 p.m. on ESPNU.
  • The Big Ten title game airs at 1 p.m. and the nightcap at 9 p.m. features the Pac-12 semifinal winners.
• The American Women’s Conference Championship can be seen exclusively on ESPN platforms – the first round and quarterfinal games will be on ESPN3 on Friday, March 7, and  Saturday, March 8, respectively, with the semifinals airing Sunday on ESPNU and the title game on Monday on ESPN.
• Additional championship games on ESPNU: America East, Atlantic 10, Horizon League, MAAC, Northeast Conference, Summit League, Western Athletic Conference and West Coast Conference.

Studio Assignments

• Host Kevin Negandhi, along with Kara Lawson and Rebecca Lobo, will be in ESPN’s Bristol, Conn., studio on Sunday, March 9, for ESPN’s airing of the ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC title games.
• Negandhi and Lawson will also be in studio for Monday’s American Women’s Conference championship game.

espnW Coverage

Top espnW writers – Mechelle Voepel, Graham Hays, Michelle Smith and Kate Fagan – will report from key conference tournaments, while Charlie Creme will provide Bracketology updates as upsets occur and conference tournament champions are decided. Throughout Championship Week, espnW will also provide game results and brackets for each of the 31 league tournaments.

NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship
ESPN will present the exclusive live announcement of the 64-team NCAA Championship field as part of Selection Monday on March 17 at 7 p.m., with ESPNU offering a bonus hour of coverage on the NCAA Women’s’ Basketball Selection Special Extended Coverage at 8 p.m.

All 63 games of the 2014 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship will air on ESPN networks for the ninth consecutive year. ESPN and ESPN2 will present regionalized telecasts with home market protection through the first two rounds. ESPN3 and ESPN FULL COURT, the pay-per-view package, will offer first- and second-round games in their entirety as a supplement to ESPN and ESPN2’s coverage. The final 15 games, beginning with the Regional Semifinals, will have national telecast windows on ESPN or ESPN2. The complete schedule will be announced at a later date.

$ – Tape delay on ESPNU at midnight on Sunday, March 16
^ – Tape delay on ESPNU at 11 a.m. on Sunday, March 16
* – Tape delay on ESPNU at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 16

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