ESPN and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) have announced an extension to their exclusive agreement through 2026-27 which will now feature several new elements designed to bring added value to ESPN and ACC fans, including more title sponsorship rights, more men’s regular-season and conference tournament basketball games, more conference football games, and dozens more Olympic sports competitions. The deal will provide premier content to numerous ESPN multimedia platforms, including ESPN, ESPN on ABC, ESPN2, WatchESPN.com, ESPNU, ESPN3, ESPN 3D, ESPN Mobile TV, ESPN GamePlan, ESPN FULL COURT, ESPN Buzzer Beater/Goal Line, ESPN International, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Classic and ESPN.com.

Increased Inventory

The conference’s planned increase to an 18-game conference men’s basketball schedule and the additions of Pittsburgh and Syracuse will bring an increase of 30 conference men’s basketball games per year and two more conference tournament games. In football, 14 more conference-controlled games will be televised each year. Per the extension, ESPN has the right to televise three Friday ACC football contests annually which will include a standing commitment from Boston College and Syracuse to each host one game as well as an afternoon or evening game on Thanksgiving Friday. Also, more women’s basketball and dozens more Olympic sports competitions will be covered on ESPN platforms representing the conference’s 25, soon to be 26, sponsored sports.

Sponsorship and Enhancements

For the first time, ESPN has acquired title sponsorship rights, subject to conference approval, beyond football to all other conference championships including the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. The ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament, televised in its entirety on ESPN networks and its syndication partner Raycom, has never been sponsored in its 59-year history.

John Skipper, president, ESPN and co-chair, Disney Media Networks, said, “This expansion and extension of our exclusive agreement brings tremendous value to our company and to ACC fans everywhere. We look forward to showcasing this premier conference across all platforms through 2027.”

“We are excited to have further enhanced our partnership with ESPN through the extension of our multimedia contract,” said ACC Commissioner John Swofford. “We are proud that ESPN has invested so deeply in the ACC both from a resource and exposure standpoint. As we look to the future, this relationship will be tremendous for our schools, fans, coaches and student-athletes.”

ACC on ESPN

ESPN has been televising ACC content since 1979 and has exclusive rights to every conference-controlled football and men’s basketball game, plus women’s basketball and Olympic sports matchups, and all ACC championship events. ACC content is distributed on the widest array of multi-media platforms in the sports industry. ACC on ESPN highlights:

· Football on national TV: Extensive regular-season action on Saturday afternoon and nights, primetime Thursdays, three Fridays including Thanksgiving Friday, Labor Day Monday and the ACC Football Championship Game;

· Men’s basketball on national TV: The most comprehensive coverage of regular-season games and the entire conference tournament produced and distributed via ESPN; regular-season matchups of the storied Duke-North Carolina rivalry each year; full national telecasts on all games televised on an ESPN platform; a weekly ACC Sunday Night Basketball franchise on ESPNU;

· Women’s basketball: Numerous women’s regular-season basketball games and the entire conference tournament;

· Olympic sports: An extensive commitment to the league’s soon to be 23-sponsored Olympic sports with regular-season and championship telecasts, highlighted by baseball, softball, lacrosse, and men’s and women’s soccer;

· Digital media: Exclusive ACC football, men’s and women’s basketball, and Olympic sports games as well as simulcasts on ESPN3. Live ACC games, including football and basketball, on ESPN Mobile TV;

· ESPN 3D: Select live ACC action on ESPN 3D;

· Additional outlets: Select ACC action on ESPN International, ESPN GamePlan, ESPN FULL COURT, ESPN Classic and ESPN Deportes; and extensive content rights for ESPN.com.

The Raleigh Women’s Challenger returns to Raleigh, May 6-13, for the fifth consecutive year and eighth overall. It is offering $25,000 in prize money for the first time since 2008 after offering $50,000 the last three years; it is the final clay-court USTA Pro Circuit women’s event prior to the 2012 French Open and the last clay-court USTA Pro Circuit women’s event until mid-June. It is also the only USTA Pro Circuit event for either men or women held in the state of North Carolina.

Those players entered in the main draw this week include: Grace Min, the 2011 US Open girls’ singles champion, who trains full-time at the USTA Training Center Headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla., and who won the first women’s USTA Pro Circuit title of 2012 in Innisbrook, Fla., and reached the final at the $25,000 event in Clearwater, Fla., in March; Julia Cohen, the highest ranked U.S. player in the field, who earned All-American honors at both the universities of Florida and Miami and who reached the semifinals of two of the last three $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit women’s events; and former US Open girls’ runner-up Alexa Glatch, who qualified for the main draw at Wimbledon in 2011, and ho propelled the U.S. to the 2009 Fed Cup final by winning two of the U.S.’s three points in its semifinal victory against the Czech Republic.

Also in the main draw are: Ashley Weinhold, the 2007 USTA Girls’ 18s national champion, who won her second career professional title in 2011 at the $25,000 event in Rancho Mirage, Calif.; former Top 20 player Alexandra Stevenson, who reached the semifinals of Wimbledon as a qualifier in 1999; and Alexandra Mueller, who won the inaugural US Open National Playoffs in 2010 to earn a wild card into the 2010 US Open Qualifying Tournament.

Those players receiving main draw wild cards include: Alison Riske, who qualified for the 2012 Australian Open, and who, in 2011, reached the quarterfinals at the WTA event in Birmingham, England, and competed in the main draws at the US Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon; and current University of Pennsylvania standout Chieh-Yu (Connie) Hsu, who won three ITF Circuit titles in 2011 with victories in Taiwan and Turkey.

Americans competing in qualifying include: Asia Muhammad, who reached the quarterfinals of $50,000 events here and in Boston in 2011, and who learned tennis at the Andre Agassi Boys and Girls Club in Las Vegas; Alexandra Kiick, the daughter of former Miami Dolphin Jim Kiick, who won her first professional title in 2011 at the $10,000 event in Amelia Island, Fla., and who captured the prestigious International Spring Championships junior title last month; Beatrice Capra, a standout freshman at Duke University who reached the third round of the 2010 US Open after winning a USTA playoff to earn a wild card into the main draw; and Kyle McPhillips, who won her first professional title in 2011 at the $10,000 event in her hometown of Cleveland, and who will play collegiately at UCLA in the fall. Many current WTA and USTA Pro Circuit standouts have competed in Raleigh. 2009 singles champion Melanie Oudin used her victory in Raleigh as a springboard to her breakthrough summer that year, where she defeated former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic en route to the fourth round at Wimbledon and upset former US Open runnerup Elena Dementieva as well as three-time Grand Slam tournament singles champion Maria Sharapova en route to the quarterfinals of the US Open. Oudin also won the 2011 US Open Mixed Doubles title with fellow young American Jack Sock. 2008 Raleigh singles champion Chelsey Gullickson won the 2010 NCAA Division I singles title to become the University of Georgia’s first NCAA women’s singles champion since 1994. In turn, she received a wild card into the 2010 US Open, where she faced No. 1 seed Caroline Wozniacki in the first round. Kristie Ahn and Nicole Gibbs, the 2010 doubles champions, are now teammates and standout players at Stanford University.

Single-game tickets for the 2012 Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Championship, scheduled for May 23-27 at NewBridge Bank Park, are on sale now.

Adult passes for the full 13-game tournament may be purchased may also be purchased for $130. The round-robin, pool-play tournament will showcase the top eight ACC teams and will feature three games on May 23-26 (Wednesday through Saturday) with starting times set for at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. each day. The championship game between the two pool winners will be played on Sunday at noon.

Single-game ticket prices for the Wednesday through Saturday games are as follows:
Adults (13 and over) – $10 in the seating bowl; $8 on the lawn Children (5-12) – $5 in seating bowl; $4 on the lawn (Four years of age and younger admitted free)

Single-game tickets for Sunday’s Championship Game are as follows:
Adults (13 and over) – $15 in the seating bowl; $12 on the lawn Children (5-12) – $7 in the seating bowl; $6 on the lawn (Four years of age and younger admitted free)

Tournament seedings and pairings will be announced on Sunday, May 20.

The ACC Baseball Championship annually features many of the nation’s top-ranked teams. The ACC placed seven teams in the 2011 NCAA Tournament field, and a total of 14 ACC teams have reached the College World Series over the past six seasons.

Five ACC teams are currently ranked among the nation’s top 25, including top-ranked Florida State. Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina and NC State have also been ranked among the nation’s top 10 teams at some point during the 2012 season.

Located in downtown Greensboro and home to 2011 Class-A South Atlantic League champion Greensboro Grasshoppers, NewBridge Bank Park opened its gates to a crowd of 8,540 on April 3, 2005, with a Grasshoppers exhibition game against the Florida Marlins. The state-of-the-art facility features a 30′ wide, open-air concourse, 36 concession points of sale, the Go Triad GrandStand outdoor sports bar, a kid-safe play park and numerous amenities.

American Idol winner Scotty McCreery threw a complete game three hitter to lead Garner over Smithfield Selma and improve to 2-0 on the season. Despite racking up country music awards, McCreery is living his life as normally as possible. He plans to enroll at N.C. State in the fall.