When will the NCAA's be televised?

330 Man: Both the NCAA meets will be on ESPN 2 the Friday after the championship. Women on 3-25-05 from 2:00 to 3:30 PM. Men on 4-01-05 from 1:30 to 3:00 PM.

Eastern time zones. ESPN 2 has been really good to swimming in the last year. They put part of the World Champs on live. Now, for ESPN 2 to really get respect of the swimming community, they need to televise US Nationals or Word Champ Trials.

What time zone are those times referring to?

Craigh: Are you sure that in 1964 swimming was on TV more than anyother sport? Perhaps the % of the sport compared to other sports on TV may have have been greater then because of the lack of cable. I do remember seeing the 1964 Olympics on TV and seeing Don Schollandar and Dona de Varona and they were truly the first media stars and were shown a lot on TV. I do not recall seeing the Olympic Trials or any of the AAU Nationals and if they were shown it was part of ABC Wide World of Sports. I will admit that College Football was not on as much today because of a lack of cable and a lack of all those flea bag bowls that are on now. I remember the 4 major bowls on New Years Day and maybe a couple of others. I know College Basketball was a lot smaller and they only showed the Regional finals and the Final Four. The size of the NCAA Tournament was half of what it is now. Also I know the NBA playoffs were not always on TV just the Finals on weekends were shown. Perhaps someone like Bill Mulliken or Rich Abrahams would remember since both swimmers were very active back then. I do know that I read somwhere last year that swimming was shown on TV more hours than before and I mentioned this on another thread "Amazing Swims". I should also direct you to the Long Beach Olympic Trials thread. Emmett Hines made some very excellent points about swimming on TV and whats expected of the coverage. We, as swim fans want to see everything and he gave very pointers as to why we have what we have.

Also, when I liosten to commentators during swimmign programs, I'm left very unimpressed. Sometimes how they explain what is going on is mind-boggling or even wrong. I heard this one commentator at the SCM World Champs and he was a Nascar commentator. I am sure that Melvin Stewart or Dara Torres would have commentated with Rowdy Gaines. He seems to commentate every big meet. But hey, he is the best expert and the man does his research and chats with everyone. But please, the man is too big to commentate on the EISL championships. I would have loved to see a time when swimming was on more than football and basketball. But, swimming coverage is starting to improve and Amanda Beard and Phelps are gradually getting bigger celebrity profiles. 12 years ago, a Olympic champion's DUI wouldn't have been the top story on the Today show or GMA. Plus, Melvin Stewart or Mike Barrowman wouldn't have been asked to be a judge on the Miss USA pageant. SummeR saunders wouldn't be considered the hottest athlete on an ESPN poll.

I think it is trerrible tht swimming gets only a few hours of taped delay on ESPN. Once in a class on sport promotion, we looked at the change in coverage of sports. In the 1960's swimmign was one of the most widely covered college sports. I believe in 1964, swimmign was on tv than any other college sport. College football was exceptionally limited to such as the Army/Navy and some Notre Dame . I think that there are many reasons. One thing I think is very important is that football & basketball have been so well marketed and have so many "commentators". It is amazing how many peole there are on tv talkingabout the NCAA basketball finals. You would think that it was the most important thing happening right now. Also, when I liosten to commentators during swimmign programs, I'm left very unimpressed. Sometimes how they explain what is going on is mind-boggling or even wrong.

Hi Wayne: The Women will be on this Friday, 3-25 on ESPN 2 from 2:00 to 3:30 PM Eastern time so for you it would be 11:00 to 12:30 PM and the Men are on a week later 4-1, on ESPN 2 from 1:30 to 3:00 PM Eastern time, so for you it would be 10:30 to 12:00 AM. I did a search on ESPN2 of other times they might show both meets and I could not fine any, so I think its only going to be shown once during these times.

Frank, When will the Womens events be on, this Friday?

Frank, I was the only swimmer in the class. Everyone else was in football or baseball. They were all schocked to find out that swimming was the most likely sport (it might have been only college sport but I don't exactly remember)to be on TV. I think the highest rated sports event was the Army/Navy football game. Also, ice skating was really high onthe list. I remember as a child watching a natinal meet on Wide World of Sports, also, watching an Indiana University swim meet. I remember in 1986, living in DC, we were unable to get the NCAA men's basketball championships because the city only had cable in parts of Goergetwon and the far north east. Also, the contract was with a small suburban station that didn't have enough power to transmit into the district. CBS has only recently been the only network to cover the NCAA men's. It would be great if some insightful NCAA person got minor sports bundled with basketball. This year's wrestling championship was on FSN. However, since FSN is more likely to have local schedulers interupt the national feed, it isn't very consistent. We had the Big 12 swimming championships on our local FSN. I thought that for the first time, the commentators weren't that bad. During the Olympics, Rowdy Gaines kept saying that swimmers were coming up long. What he was pointing out, I always thought was being short. I've also looked on ESPN's offical schedule, I could find no mention of the nationals anywhere in the sight. It included ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN+, and other ESPN stations. Sometimes, I think ESPN thinks it is too good to promote itself!