It began in 1986 with 27 games, not all of which were live. Championship Week coverage included cut-ins 45 games. The franchise was greatly expanded with the creation of
ESPN2. Due to the popularity of the expanded coverage of the college basketball tournaments aired on
ESPN, it was later coined
Championship Week. In 1999, the two ESPN networks at the time aired 51 games, 25 of which were conference title games. In 2000, ESPN and ESPN2 aired 58 total games (men's and women's) over 8 days including 31 conference title games. Both networks aired all the games from the
Big East tournament. In 2001, there were 57 games in nine days (25 of the 31 automatic berths). This also marked a turning point for the women's game, as their championship games were aired for the first time. In 2003, ESPN and ESPN2 showed 61 games. ESPN2 added the Big 12 semifinals that year. In 2007, ESPN and its sister stations aired 89 games in 11 days. The networks had parts of 25 tournaments, including 24 championship games. In 2008, Championship Week lasted 10 days and featured 81 total games (63 men's games and 18 women's games). They televised 24 D-I men's title games and a D-II conference title game. Also, 18 women's games were televised highlighted by 11 Division I and one Division II title contests. Also,
Bobby Knight debuted as an ESPN commentator. In 2009,
ESPN Radio broadcast Championship Week for the first time with the
Big 12 tournament, carrying coverage of the semifinals and championship games. The ESPN family of networks televised 20 women's games including 13 title games. On the men's side, the ESPN networks televised 63 games, from 27 D-I conferences including 24 title games and a D-II conference title game. In 2013, ESPN aired its final broadcast of the
Big East men's basketball tournament after 18 years, dating back to 1996. The tournament moved to
FS1 and
Fox the following year. In 2015, ESPN aired the
ACC men's basketball tournament championship game live on Saturday night for the first time. Prior to 2015, the championship game was traditionally played on Sunday afternoons. The ACC men's basketball tournament has aired exclusively on the ESPN family of networks starting in 2021.
Raycom Sports had aired its own coverage simultaneously until its syndication rights ended in
2019. As previously mentioned, beginning in 2016, ESPN's coverage of Championship Week was rebranded as
Champ Week. ==References==