Xavier announced earlier this week that they've inked a three-year deal with Fox Sports Ohio for telecasts of at least eight Muskies' games per season. XU AD Mike Bobinski stated that the deal gives Xavier national coverage on par with just about any major program in the nation. While that might be a little bit of a stretch, the exposure certainly doesn't hurt the Musketeers. UD's last deal with FSN Ohio was for a meager five games per year. If I were given to saying "suck it" to an entire basketball program, this would be a situation in which I would.
This is especially good news for Xavier fans, given that the new A-10 deal with ESPN features a cut in guaranteed games, from 56 per season over the past couple of years to "at least 32" games appearing on the ESPN family of networks for the next two years. While this is an obvious step down for the conference in terms of exposure, the network committed to a live broadcast of the women's championship games for both years, so there is that.
In other news, Xavier Coach Chris Mack is one of four local coaches who recently committed to a Coaches versus Cancer Tip-off Breakfast on November 2. The breakfast is from 8-10 in the morning at the Hyatt Regency in Cincinnati; ticket information will be released in October. Coach Mack said at the press conference that he feels like the breakfast will be a big step up from wearing sneaks on the sideline during one conference game. Archie Miller, whose brother is a schmuck, described himself as humbled.
Speaking of Archie Miller, he spoke up about his vision for the UD program at a recent unofficial kick-off dinner August 31. "We will win championships," he said, adding that he knew it would take some time but was pretty sure that UD had the guys in position to lay the foundation for that success. The Flyers joined the conference in 1995 and have not exactly bathed themselves in glory since.