- The United Football League released its inaugural schedule on Thursday. The first game in league history will take place on Thursday, October 8 on Versus, featuring San Francisco against Las Vegas. The 13-game schedule will feature 8 games on Versus — including the championship game on Friday, November 27 — and 5 games on HDNet.
- In a blast to the past, ESPN has acquired the rights to Australian Rules Football. ESPN2 will air “select AFL matches,” including the AFL Grand Final, while ESPN360.com will stream matches live. As part of the deal, Canadian networks TSN and TSN2 “will televise at least one live or delayed match per week.” ESPN previously aired Australian Rules Football in the 1980s, with its last AFL telecast coming in 1997.
- MLB Network continues to add to its live game schedule. On Thursday, the net began a series of Thursday afternoon day games with a Rockies/Phillies tilt that began at 1 PM ET. MLB Network will continue airing Thursday day games through August, bringing its live game total to three games per week (Thursday afternoons, Thursday nights and Saturday nights). Originally, MLB Network was supposed to air only one game per week.
News: March Madness expansion, Russell Wilson, Nexstar and more
The NCAA basketball tournaments are officially expanding to 76 teams; Russell Wilson is mulling between playing football and starting...
