ESPN Events

The company traces its history to Creative Sports, Inc., a North Carolina-based sports syndicator owned and founded by Bray Cary. ESPN, LLC purchased Creative Sports, Inc. and OCC Sports, Inc. in the mid-1990s. On July 22, 1994, ESPN Regional Television was incorporated in Delaware. ESPN Regional Television was formed in 1996, through ESPN Inc.'s combination of Creative Sports and OCC Sports, under the direction of Chuck Gerber and Loren Matthews. In August 2008, ESPN reached a 15-year, $2.25 billion broadcast rights agreement with the SEC. As part of the deal, ESPN also assumed the syndicated package of games previously held by Raycom Sports; beginning in 2009, ERT syndicated SEC football and basketball under the SEC Network brand. The original business of ESPN Regional Television began to grow obsolete with the launch of dedicated networks dedicated to specific conferences, including the Big Ten Network, Pac-12 Network, and the ESPN-operated SEC Network, since they largely assumed rights to the game packages that ESPN had previously syndicated. As such, the division pivoted to focusing solely on organizing events, particularly within college football and basketball. and the division is led by vice president Clint Overby. ==Broadcast rights==

Former rights ESPN Plus used to hold the rights to Conference USA football and basketball, Mountain West Conference football and basketball, Big Ten Conference football and basketball, and various other collegiate conferences, but has lost them as detailed below: • American Athletic Conference men's college basketball (starting with the 2008 football season, under the old Big East contract; games were branded as Big East Network, later the American Athletic Network, with SportsNet New York as the flagship station). As of the 2019 football season, the AAC entered into a 12-year media rights agreement with ESPN. • Big 12 Conference basketball (telecasts from the conference became branded under the Big 12 Network name beginning in the 2008–09 season) All Big 12 basketball games moved to ESPN linear channels after the 2013–2014 season. • Conference USA – Broadcast rights were for regular-season football games. American Sports Network (a unit of Sinclair Broadcast Group that initially operated under a very similar model to ERT) began to syndicate other C-USA games with the 2014 season. Currently, its rights are held by CBS Sports Network, ASN's successor Stadium, ESPN, and NFL Network. • Mid-American Conference basketball – Broadcast rights were assumed by SportsTime Ohio in 2010; Sportstime Ohio lost the rights to American Sports Network in 2015. • Mountain West Conference – Broadcast rights to MW football and basketball games are now held by CBS Sports Network and Fox Sports (conference rights were previously held by the now-defunct MountainWest Sports Network). • Big Ten Conference – Big Ten Network assumed the packages held by ESPN Regional Television upon its launch in August 2007. • Southeastern Conference (SEC) – Broadcast rights to SEC football and basketball games not selected to air on ESPN or CBS were assumed by the SEC Network beginning in the 2014–15 academic season. The conference rights were previously held by Raycom Sports, and before that Lincoln Financial Sports (formerly Jefferson Pilot Sports from 1987 to 2009); from the beginning of ESPN's SEC contract in the 2009–10 season, ERT produced syndicated broadcasts branded as SEC Network (later rebranded as SEC TV in 2013 as not to be confused with the incoming cable network) as a successor to the Raycom Sports SEC package. • Sun Belt Conference football and men's basketball (telecasts from the conference are branded under the Sun Belt Network name). The Sun Belt Network ceased operations in 2014. • Western Athletic Conference – ESPN Plus broadcast WAC men's and women's basketball until 2014, when American Sports Network won those syndication rights, beginning with the 2014–15 season. ==On-air staff==

College football • Cara Capuano – Southeastern Conference sideline reporter (2009–2012) • Paul Carcaterra – Big East Conference sideline reporter (2012) • Doug Chapman – Mid-America Conference color commentator (2009–2012; alternating from 2010 onward) • John Congemi – Big East Conference color commentator (2009–2011) • David Diaz-Infante – Big East Conference color commentator (2012) • Doug Graber – Mid-America Conference color commentator (2010–2012; alternating) • Mike Gleason – Big East Conference play-by-play (2009–2011) • Quint Kessenich – Big East Conference sideline reporter (2009) • Eamon McAnaney – Big East Conference sideline reporter (2010–2011), play-by-play (2012) • Dave Neal – Southeastern Conference play-by-play (2009–2012) • Michael Reghi – Mid-America Conference play-by-play (2009–2012) • Andre Ware – Southeastern Conference color commentator (2009–2012) College basketball • Dave Armstrong – Big 12 Conference play-by-play (2010–2013) • Dave Baker – Southeastern Conference play-by-play (2012–2013) • Carter Blackburn – Southeastern Conference play-by-play (2010–2012) • Barry Booker – Southeastern Conference sideline reporter (2012–2013) • Joe Dean Jr. – Southeastern Conference sideline reporter (2010–2013) • Reid Gettys – Big 12 Conference color commentator (2010–2013) • Mark Gottfried – Southeastern Conference sideline reporter (2010–2011) • Mike Gleason – Big East Conference play-by-play (2010–2012) • Mitch Holthus – Big 12 Conference play-by-play (2010–2013) • Stephen Howard – Big 12 Conference color commentator (2010–2013) • Kara Lawson – Southeastern Conference sideline reporter (2011–2013) • Dave LaMont – Southeastern Conference color commentator (2012–2013) • Kyle Macy – Southeastern Conference sideline reporter (2012–2013) • Bryndon Manzer – Big 12 Conference color commentator (2010–2013) • Clay Matvick – Southeastern Conference color commentator (2010–2013) • Dave Neal – Southeastern Conference color commentator (2012–2013) • Chris Piper – Big 12 Conference sideline reporter (2012–2013) • Brad Sham – Big 12 Conference play-by-play (2010–2013) • Anish Shroff – Big East Conference play-by-play (2012–2013) • Jon Sundvold – Big 12 Conference color commentator (2010–2012) • Bob Wenzel – Big East Conference color commentator (2010–2013) • Rich Zvosec – Big 12 Conference sideline reporter (2012–2013) ==Events==

ERT acquired its first bowl game in 2001, with its purchase of the Las Vegas Bowl from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The company moved into the area as it saw that some of their conference partners had teams that were bowl-eligible, but with no bowl available to take them. By 2013, ERT had founded two new bowl games and purchased four additional games. ESPN Events operates the following 17 bowl games, which ESPN televises: • Armed Forces Bowl • Birmingham Bowl • Bahamas Bowl • Boca Raton Bowl • Celebration Bowl (FCS) • Cure Bowl • Famous Idaho Potato Bowl • Fenway Bowl • First Responder Bowl • Frisco Bowl • Gasparilla Bowl • Hawaii Bowl • Las Vegas Bowl • Myrtle Beach Bowl • New Mexico Bowl • Salute to Veterans Bowl • Texas Bowl ESPN Events also organizes several opening weekend games, such as the Camping World Kickoff, Advocare Texas Kickoff, and FCS Kickoff. ==College marketing division==

The company's success with college tournament operation and broadcasting led ESPN Regional Television to form a college marketing division, which provides colleges all-in-one services for selling sponsorships, local media rights and other marketing campaigns. The University of South Florida, the University of Kansas and the University of Oregon are some of the clients that the division began representing in 2000. ==References==