Atlantic Coast Conference Football and Basketball Coming to The CW Network this Fall

July 13, 2023 (Burbank, CA) – The CW Network announced it has secured exclusive broadcast rights to 50 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) college football and basketball games each season through 2026-27. The first ACC football game will air on The CW on Saturday, September 9 with a matchup between the Pitt Panthers and non-conference opponent Cincinnati Bearcats, with games airing every Saturday throughout the season in the afternoon and in primetime. In addition to 13 football games, The CW will broadcast 28 men’s basketball games and nine women’s basketball games. These games will be featured in December, January and February with men’s basketball doubleheaders taking place every Saturday afternoon and women’s basketball games on Sunday afternoons. Raycom Sports will produce all games for The CW.

“We are thrilled to be adding The CW to our weekly television lineup for ACC football and basketball games,” said ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, Ph.D. “The CW’s national distribution will directly benefit our student-athletes, teams, alumni and fans. We appreciate ESPN and Raycom working together and look forward to the partnership with The CW.”

“We are committed to making The CW a destination for live, appointment-viewing sporting events,” said Dennis Miller, President, The CW Network. “The ACC is home to some of the most decorated college football and basketball teams in the country and we look forward to welcoming these avid sports fans to the network as we continue to broaden our audience.”

“The CW is going to be a terrific partner for the legendary ACC,” said Hunter Nickell, CEO of Raycom Sports. “The longest-running television relationship in college sports belongs to the ACC and Raycom Sports. Now The CW brings national broadcast network coverage to the great fans of these 15 famous schools.”

The ACC and its 15 member institutions have enjoyed incredible success including:

• No other conference has won more NCAA national championships in the last two years than the ACC. The league has won 16 national titles in the last two academic years, including a league-record nine in 2022-23.
• The ACC has won seven national championships in football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and baseball since 2015. The ACC is the only conference to win each of those four titles over that stretch.
• The ACC has had a team in either the College Football Playoff or the BCS National Championship Game in eight of the last 10 years, including two teams in 2020. The ACC has placed the second-most teams in the CFP since its inception.
• The ACC placed nine teams in football postseason games in 2021. That marked the 22nd consecutive season in which the ACC earned at least six bowl bids. Not including the pandemic-affected 2020 season, the ACC has sent at least nine teams to a bowl every year since 2016. Since 2013, the ACC is second among all conferences with 100 postseason appearances.
• ACC men’s basketball teams have combined to win three of the last eight NCAA National Championships and eight of the last 22 NCAA Titles, and both are the most of any league. ACC teams have combined for the most NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament wins in history and five different programs have advanced to the Final Four since 2015, the most of any league. Over the last two seasons, the ACC holds a 21-10 record, the best of any major conference.
• ACC women’s basketball programs have made 23 trips to the Final Four, which includes nine different institutions and has had five Final Four appearances in the last five years. The ACC has 21-straight Elite Eight appearances and the most NCAA Tournament wins since 2014. The league’s eight bids in 2023 were the most of any conference.

The CW acquired the rights to these live ACC football and basketball games from Raycom Sports who sublicenses the rights from ESPN.

About The CW Network

The CW Network, LLC is one of America’s major broadcast networks and reaches 100% of US television households. The CW delivers 14 hours of primetime programming per week in addition to sports and other entertainment programming and is the exclusive broadcast home to LIV Golf. The fully ad-supported CW App, with more than 96 million downloads to date, is available for free to consumers on all major platforms and is home to the latest episodes and seasons of The CW’s primetime programming, live streaming of its sports content, and a library of entertaining film and television content for on-demand viewing. The CW is 75%-owned by Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: NXST), a leading diversified media company and largest CW affiliate group with 37 CW and CW Plus affiliates, covering 32% of the population. For more information about The CW, please visit www.cwtv.com.   

About the ACC

The Atlantic Coast Conference, now in its 71st year of competition and 15 members strong, has long enjoyed the reputation as one of the strongest and most competitive intercollegiate conferences in the nation. ACC members Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Notre Dame, Pitt, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest continue to build upon the cornerstones on which the league was founded in 1953 with a consistent balance of academics, athletics and integrity. The ACC currently sponsors 28 NCAA sports – 15 for women and 13 for men – with member institutions located in 10 states. In August 2019, ESPN and the ACC partnered to launch ACC Network (ACCN), a 24/7 national network dedicated to ACC sports and league-wide original programming. For more information, visit theACC.com and follow @accsports on Instagram and @theACC on Twitter and on Facebook (facebook.com/theACC).

About Raycom Sports

Raycom Sports, based in Charlotte, N.C., is a national leader in video content production, distribution, sales and marketing and event management with over 40 years of experience and a reputation as a trusted partner. Founded in 1979, the company has produced thousands of live events from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and other top collegiate athletic conferences. In addition, Raycom Sports has produced pre-season games and specials for multiple NFL teams, highlighted by the company’s relationship with the Carolina Panthers. Raycom Sports is a founding partner of Family Entertainment Live, the family entertainment company that owns Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live tour, the Magic of Lights holiday lights attractions and the soon-to-launch Monster High Live tour. The Raycom Sports digital media team builds and manages the ACC official digital platforms and has launched two 24/7 FAST channel brands; the ACC Digital Network and Origin Sports.

Raycom Sports is owned by Gray Media Group, which is the largest owner of top-rated local television stations and digital assets in the United States. Gray serves 113 television markets that collectively reach 36 percent of US television households.