ISU finalizes Comcast television schedule

With the most extensive television schedule in the history of the Illinois State men’s basketball program, Redbird alumni throughout the state of Illinois will have plenty of opportunities to view the 2009-10 squad, as the Athletics department finalized its Comcast Spotlight television slate last week.

The 11-game package with Comcast Spotlight features five home games and six away games.  With Illinois State’s local television package, the Missouri Valley Conference package and other television games, the Redbirds will have 19 games available on regional or national television this season.  There is also the potential to have the BracketBusters game, Valley Wildcard Weekend game and the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament games  televised as well.

Illinois State’s local television package with Comcast Spotlight is available to approximately 1.5 million Comcast cable subscribers in Illinois, including the entire Chicagoland area, Bloomington-Normal, Peoria, Rockford and LaSalle-Peru. In addition, the potential to add the Springfield market to the distribution area is also being assessed.

“This is great news to us and for the entire Redbird program,” head coach Tim Jankovich said.  “It’s a great reward for a lot of tremendous effort by our players over the past couple of years, and it is exciting to be afforded this kind of exposure.

The Comcast Spotlight package will begin with back-to-back home games against Central Michigan (Dec. 5) and Niagara (Dec. 13).  After three-straight road games (Ohio [Dec. 16], Missouri State [Jan. 1] and Evansville [Jan. 6]), the home date against Evansville (Jan. 13) will also be part of the schedule.

The final five games on the schedule include: at Southern Illinois (Jan. 23), at Indiana State (Feb. 3), Drake (Feb. 6), at Creighton (Feb. 13) and Indiana State (Feb. 24).

As in previous seasons, the Redbird telecasts will be available on channel 74 in both the Bloomington-Normal and Peoria markets. The Chicago market will be able to see the Redbird games on the channel grouping of 101,102 or 110 while the Rockford audience will be able to view the games on channel 17.  In Sterling-Rock Falls and LaSalle-Peru, the games will be on channel 27.  These channels are available to all Comcast customers in those areas as part of the “Classic” level of service.

WMBD sports director Kurt Pegler will serve as the play-by-play voice for all Redbird telecasts, while former ISU assistant men’s basketball coach Bob Morris will provide color analysis.