Mars Hill at Catawba Football Game Selected For National TV Broadcast

SALISBURY, NC -- Catawba College has announced that its football game with Mars Hill, originally scheduled for Saturday, September 29, has been moved to Thursday night, September 27 for television purposes. The game will be carried to a national audience, live on College Sports Television (CSTV) and on FSN South. Kickoff for the game will be 8:05 pm.

"We are excited about hosting a nationally televised event -- to my knowledge, the first in school history," said athletic director Dennis Davidson. "It will be a special night to be able to show millions across the nation the great college football atmosphere at Shuford Stadium."

Mars Hill Athletic Director David Riggins stated, "A live national football broadcast is a coup for Mars Hill College and for the South Atlantic Conference. We have an opportunity to get into markets which may not know a great deal about our institution and we are always happy to have the opportunity to broaden our reach. In addition, it is a great opportunity to exhibit the quality of football played in the SAC. I am happy that our players and coaches will have the opportunity to represent, in such a meaningful way, our institution, our conference, and NCAA DII football."

CSTV is widely available on cable systems across the country, including Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, Cablevision, Charter, Insight, Bright House Networks, Mediacom, Insight, RCN, Advanced Cable and Bresnan. It currently reaches 22 million households and is also available on DIRECTV and DISH Network. FSN South reaches 12.2 million households throughout the southeast in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky. The game will also be streamed over the internet at NCAAsports.com/dii.

"This is a tremendous opportunity to showcase not only two of the top football programs in the league, but the entire South Atlantic Conference," said Commissioner Doug Echols.

Mars Hill head coach Tim Clifton stated," This is a great opportunity for our football program, Mars Hill College, the South Atlantic Conference and our student-athletes. Our kids dream of playing in front of a national audience as they grow up playing football and we have the chance to make this happen. This is unbelievable exposure for our program and we are very grateful to be given this opportunity."

Catawba has played on live TV several times away from Shuford Stadium in the past. In 2005, Catawba played at Carson-Newman on Comcast, which was a regionally televised game on cable systems in the Southeast. Catawba played on live television (LBN) during the 1995 season when it traveled to Liberty University. The Indians and Carson-Newman also played several live TV games on the ACTS Network in the late 80s.

In each of the past two seasons, Catawba has hosted games broadcast on a tape delay basis by Time Warner Cable. In 2005, Catawba faced Tusculum and played Presbyterian last season.

The game with Mars Hill is one of four NCAA Division II live broadcasts by CSTV. The other games feature Texas A&M-Commerce at Pittsburg State (Aug. 25), Chadron State at Nebraska-Kearney (Oct. 18) and South Dakota at Nebraska-Omaha (Nov. 1).