Colonial Athletic Association signs new media rights deal with FloSports and CBS Sports

By: Jake Shindel, Sports Editor

The Colonial Athletic Association announced that it has signed new media rights deals with both FloSports and CBS Sports. The deal with FloSports is in the eight-figure range, according to the news release

CBS Sports will now stream 20 regular-season games for Men’s Basketball, with the possibility for more. The semifinals and championship of the CAA Men’s Basketball Tournament will be shown on CBS Sports, while the championship game for the CAA Women’s Basketball Tournament will also be shown on the platform. 

CAA Commissioner Joe D’Antonio said that while CBS Sports will be used for basketball, football will still be primarily on FloSports, with the potential for locally televised deals that will be up to the individual institutions’ discretion. 

“All of our football content will air on FloSports as well as local linear opportunities that some of our schools may have,” D’Antonio said during a press conference on Thursday. 

D’Antonio said that the conference has considered deals with CBS Sports for football in the past, but that it would not make sense for the CAA to do that. 

“We have, at various times in the history of the conference, explored scenarios associated with football having some linear options,” D’Antonio said. “Unfortunately, through our relationship with CBS windows that they have, and our commitment from our member institutions, to continue for the well-being of our student-athletes to want to play football on Saturdays, it’s just really not something that fits strategically into what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Towson has utilized the opportunity for local deals with a couple sports teams. During the 2022 football season, the game between Towson and Morgan State was streamed on Maryland Public Television, while the university also has a contract with NBC Sports Washington to stream a select number of Men’s Basketball games. 

Towson Athletic Director Steve Eigenbrot expressed his excitement in the announcement of the new media rights deal. 

“This is an exciting day for the CAA,” Eigenbrot said in a news release. “The process to get to here has been extremely thorough and inclusive. As the landscape of the CAA has changed over the past year, it brought in a variety of new perspectives to the decision-making table, which was very helpful and really informed the decision-making process.”

While D’Antonio was unable to go into the specifics of how the conference would be using the money from the new deal with FloSports, he did mention that part of the agreement was that the broadcasts would be better than they currently are. One option on the table is that the conference could distribute money to individual institutions that can help improve the broadcasts, but that those decisions will be made by the conference’s Board of Directors on a yearly basis. 

“One thing that has been included within our new agreement are additional parameters regarding production standards for each of those games,” D’Antonio said. “One of the things that our athletic directors were very intent on as we negotiated our expanded agreement with FloSports was to making sure that each individual institution was committed to a higher level of production.”

The conference’s deal with FloSports, a partnership in place since 2019, now goes through 2026-2027. The CAA has had a deal with CBS for the last four years, and the new deal extends the partnership for another four years. 

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