While it’s quite unclear when we might see NCAA football again, it’s still notable to see a conference sign a long-term media rights deal. The latest one to do that is the Division II Gulf South Conference, which announced an agreement with streaming service FloSports Thursday that will cover all of their football games and conference championships in several other sports, plus a weekly live studio show. Here are more details from a release:
Today the Gulf South Conference, one of the country’s leading Division II conferences, and FloSports, an innovator in sports streaming and original content, announced a media rights partnership to provide live and on-demand coverage of the conference’s complete football programs and team sports championships to fans worldwide. The 4-year partnership extends through the 2023-24 season and includes streaming rights to the complete Gulf South Football and Conference Championships across the conference’s 18 official and associate member schools.
With the launch of this comprehensive partnership, Gulf South joins other innovative NCAA Division I and Division II conferences to distribute their entire football season and Conference Championships on a digital-only, OTT platform allowing fans to watch live and on-demand games and other sports-related content on any device, anywhere. Conference Championship events featured in the partnership include basketball, baseball, soccer, cross country, indoor/outdoor track and field, softball, women’s volleyball, and women’s lacrosse. In addition to complete coverage of conference games, Gulf South and FloSports will collaborate on a new weekly live studio show dedicated to news, interviews, and analysis of the conference’s football programs throughout each season. Details on the new show will be announced soon.
“This is an exciting time for the GSC and our constituents. To partner with an innovator like FloSports who holds our conference, institutions, and student-athletes in such high regard is a great decision by our membership,” GSC Commissioner Matt Wilson said. “We cannot wait to begin delivering terrific content through the platform.”
This continues FloSports’ push into NCAA content. They launched the FloBaseball platform earlier this year, and they’ve also signed on with other conferences, notably the Colonial Athletic Association (which became the first Division I conference to sign a primary rights deal with an all-digital service last year). The Gulf South Conference (featuring 13 full member schools across Alabama, Tennesee, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida) is a little more off the radar for many, but there’s still some value in picking up some football games and conference championships that alums and fans of the schools may be interested in. And signing with an all-digital service like FloSports makes some sense for a league like this, especially when the deal comes with a long-term commitment, some coverage for sports beyond football (even if it’s only conference championships), and a weekly studio show to bring some attention to their sports.
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.