Big East Signs Deal With ESPN
As with politics, college sports sometimes makes strange bedfellows, as per Tuesday's announcement by the Big East Conference of a six year multimedia rights deal with ESPN across multiple sports, including men's basketball, beginning this season.
"This deal, which is... done directly with the conference, will see 25 non-conference men's basketball games stream on ESPN+ starting with the 2025-26 school year," writes Sports Business Journal. "The tonnage within the pact, which was previously with FloSports over the last three school years (under the Big East Digital Network banner), is a minimum of 75 women's basketball games and 200 Olympic sports events. Sources close to the situation said that a rights fee is involved, and the Big East will produce all streamed games."The games will only be seen on ESPN's streaming services, either through ESPN+ or its direct to consumer streaming app.
"This exciting partnership with ESPN reinforces our commitment to placing Big East teams front and center on the leading digital sports platform," said commissioner Val Ackerman in a news release. "Streaming on ESPN+ gives all 22 of our sports, especially women's basketball and Olympic sports, the visibility they've earned and the access our fans expect. We look forward to delivering elevated coverage and a streamlined viewing experience to fans and family members who want to follow Big East action across our wide array of sports offerings."
"We're pleased to welcome the Big East back to ESPN," said ESPN SVP Nick Dawson. "This agreement returns one of the country's premier conferences and its tradition of excellence to ESPN platforms. We look forward to this new chapter in our relationship with the Big East."
Headquartered in Bristol, CT, the network was a partner of the Big East almost from its start in 1979, and served as its media rights partner from 1979 through 2013. Following the decision by Big East university presidents in 2011 to open its media rights package to other bidders, evidence leaked that ESPN worked to destabilize the Big East to reduce the rights fee to take advantage of its right of first refusal, including steering many of the conference's football programs to the Atlantic Coast Conference instead. This effort was confirmed when Boston College athletic director Gene DeFillipo told the Boston Globe that "ESPN is the one who told us what to do" regarding expansion. (DeFillipo apologized two days later, claiming these were "personal feelings" and that he was not speaking for the ACC.)
ESPN's right of first refusal clause was masterfully avoided when seven Big East schools withdrew from the previous corporate structure based in Providence in December 2012, reincorporated in New York, and bought the Big East name and intellectual property from what is now the American Athletic Conference in early 2013. As ESPN's prior agreement was with the Rhode Island entity, the new Big East signed with Fox Sports without ESPN exercising a right of first refusal. (ESPN continues to be a media rights partner of the American Athletic Conference, which has only one school remaining from the 2013 Big East split: South Florida.)
Entering the 2025-26 season, Georgetown men's basketball games will now be seen on a variety of networks: Fox Broadcast, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2, NBC, Peacock (streaming only), TNT, TruTV, TBS, MAX (streaming only) and now ESPN (streaming only). The agreements are coterminous through the 2030-31 season.
Peavy Signs NBA Contract
The New Orleans Pelicans have come to contract terms with former Georgetown forward Micah Peavy, per the New Orleans Times-Picayune and various NBA writes on social media.
The 23 year old Peavy signed a four year, $8.7 million contract with the Pelicans, with two of the four years guaranteed. It's a strong contract for a second round selection and a show of support for what Peavy will provide the team."Micah is a really good defender," said New Orleans summer league coach Corey Brewer. "You can tell that he loves to play defense and he plays hard. For us around here, that's a breath of fresh air and we are happy to have him."
Kenner League On The Move Again
Following an abbreviated schedule at Bowie State University last summer, the Kenner League will relocate to Catholic University in mid-July, per a social media post.
Founded in 1982 and held at McDonough Gymnasium through 2023, the summer league could not secure an agreement with Georgetown last summer over the use of the gymnasium. Similar efforts to play at Burr Gymnasium (Howard) and the UDC athletic center fell though, leading the league to move to Bowie State for an amended four weekend slate in 2024."Based on conversation with multiple sources, blame touches upon money primarily, as in charged and paid, along with frayed relationships and possibly unreasonable expectations," wrote Ron Bailey at Hoya Report last summer.
Amid separate reports that Nike is no longer a presenting sponsor of the event, Kenner director Van Johnson posted the following message on Tuesday, as well as a new logo:
Wanted to announce the Kenner League will be held at Catholic University this summer. The league begins play on July 19th. Look for more info in the coming weeks. Appreciate all of the support the DMV has showed to the Kenner League over the Last 38 years. Thanks again. pic.twitter.com/DisrUPTs
— Van Johnson, Jr. (@johnson05) July 1, 2025
In an related development, the Kenner League web site went off line on Tuesday, with a message that "This account has expired."
As with last season, prospects are dim that any Georgetown players will participate in the league at this point. In its formative years, Kenner was seen as a means to provide supervised competitive opportunities to freshmen and other college newcomers in a period where formal practices under direct coaching supervision were not allowed by the NCAA. Subsequent changes to those rules and the presence of a full-time practice facility at Georgetown reduces the need of players to stay in shape over the summer and compete in events such as these.
In addition, as more players across schools stay on their respective campuses and do not return home for the summer, fewer Division I players are likely to compete. Further, the occasional appearances of pro players to compete in Kenner has been largely militated by NBA Summer League commitments and liability issues which restrict outside activity by NBA and G-League talent.
Absent the Kenner League or a public scrimmage, Georgetown fans may not be seeing the 2025-26 team in any competitive setting until its October 18 exhibition at George Washington.
