Feb. 11, 2009
CHICAGO -
The Big Ten Network will televise seven 2009 Big Ten Championships during a five-week span from March 1 through April 4. The championships schedule includes men's and women's gymnastics, men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's indoor track and field and wrestling. All of these events will be produced in stunning high definition and both men's track & field and wrestling will showcase events being held on Penn State's campus.
"These events are the crowning moments for hundreds of dedicated Big Ten student-athletes and we're proud to put their achievements on a national stage for everyone to see," network president Mark Silverman said.
The coverage begins at noon ET on Saturday, February 28, at 8 p.m. with the Big Ten Women's Swimming and Diving Championships from the campus of the University of Michigan. The Big Ten Men's Swimming and Diving Championships will appear at 11 a.m. ET on Saturday, March 7, from West Lafayette, Ind.
Sunday, March 8, will be Championship Sunday on the Big Ten Network beginning with a live, three-hour presentation of the Big Ten Wrestling Championships beginning at 2 p.m. ET from University Park, Pa. At 7 p.m. ET, some of the nation's best athletes will be featured at the Big Ten Men's Indoor Track and Field Championships, hosted by Penn State. Coverage continues at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday, March 11, with the Big Ten Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships from Indiana University.
The Big Ten Network will televise the Big Ten Women's Gymnastics Championships live at 3 p.m. ET on Saturday, March 21, from the campus of the University of Illinois. The network will have live coverage of the Big Ten Men's Gymnastics Championships on back-to-back nights at 7 p.m. ET on Friday, April 3, and Saturday, April 4, from Ann Arbor, Mich.
Entering last weekend's action, the Big Ten had 37 teams ranked in the top-25 nationally in Olympic sports programs for the winter season, including top-10 teams in men's gymnastics (No. 2 Penn State, No. 3 Illinois, No. 5 Minnesota, No. 6 Michigan, No. 9 Ohio State and No. 10 Iowa), men's swimming and diving (No. 3 Michigan, No. 7 Indiana and No. 9 Ohio State), women's swimming and diving (No. 10 Minnesota), women's track and field (No. 3 Michigan and No. 10 Penn State), and wrestling (No. 1 Iowa, No. 6 Ohio State, No. 8 Minnesota and No. 9 Illinois).
The complete television schedule for the 2009 Big Ten Men's and Women's Gymnastics, Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving, Men's and Women's Indoor Track and Field and Wrestling Championships appears below, including information on whether the events will be televised live or on a delayed basis. For more information on the Big Ten Championships, go to www.bigten.org or www.BigTenNetwork.com.
Big Ten Network Winter Championships Schedule
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| Sport | Days | Dates | Site | Air Date and Time (ET) | Defending Champion |
| (W) Swimming & Diving | Thurs.-Sat. | Feb. 19-21 | Michigan | Saturday, 2/28 - 8 p.m. | Minnesota |
| (M) Swimming & Diving | Thurs.-Sat. | Feb. 26-28 | Purdue | Saturday, 3/7 - 11:00 a.m. | Michigan |
| Wrestling | Sat.-Sun. | March 7-8 | Penn State | Sunday, 3/8 - LIVE - 2:00 p.m. | Iowa |
| (M) Indoor Track & Field | Sat.-Sun. | Feb. 28-March 1 | Penn State | Sunday, 3/8 - 7:00 p.m. | Wisconsin |
| (W) Indoor Track & Field | Sat.-Sun. | Feb. 28-March 1 | Indiana | Wednesday, 3/11 - 8:00 p.m. | Minnesota |
| (W) Gymnastics | Sat. | March 21 | Illinois | LIVE - 3:00 p.m. | Michigan |
| (M) Gymnastics | Friday | April 3 | Michigan | LIVE - 7:00 p.m. | Penn State |
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Sat. | April 4 | Michigan | LIVE - 7:00 p.m. | |
About the Big Ten Conference:
The Big Ten Conference is an association of 11 world-class universities whose member institutions share a common mission of research, graduate, professional and undergraduate teaching and public service. Founded in 1896, the Big Ten has sustained a comprehensive set of shared practices and policies that enforce the priority of academics in student-athletes' lives and emphasize the values of integrity, fairness and competitiveness. Big Ten universities provide in excess of $100 million in athletic scholarship aid to more than 8,500 men and women student-athletes who compete for 25 championships, 12 for men and 13 for women. Conference institutions sponsor broad-based athletic programs with more than 270 teams. For more information, visit www.bigten.org.
About the Big Ten Network:
The Big Ten Network is the first nationally distributed network dedicated to covering one of the premier collegiate conferences in the country. With approximately 400 live events, and nearly all of them in HD, the network is the ultimate destination for Big Ten fans and alumni across the country, allowing them to see their favorite teams, regardless of where they live. The network operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with an annual schedule of approximately 400 live events, and nearly all of them in HD. The network showcases a wide array of classic-to-current sports and televises more Olympic sporting events and women's sports than has ever been aired on any other network. Original programming highlights activities and accomplishments of some of the nation's finest universities. Each year, the network offers approximately 35 football games, 105 regular season men's basketball games; 55 women's basketball games; dozens of Big Ten Championship events; Big Ten Tonight, a nightly studio show; coaches' shows; and classic games. Available to all cable and satellite providers nationwide, the network currently has agreements with more than 250 affiliates, including AT&T U-Verse, Charter, Comcast, Cox (Cleveland), DirecTV, DISH Network, Insight, Mediacom, Time Warner Cable and Verizon FiOS. For updated information on the Big Ten Network, go to www.BigTenNetwork.com.
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