Women's Athletics Coming to your TV this Fall -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball, Soccer, Field Hockey to be Featured on ACCN

The ACC Network has started announcing programming for its first fall on television, and the coverage choices may come as a surprise to some. If you are like me, and cut the cord, you probably watch a lot of your sports through sports apps on a SmartTV or computer or phone, so this won't affect you as much. Most people expected that the ACC Network would focus on the primary money making ratings sports--football, men's and women's basketball, soccer to an extent, baseball--and some associated programming to go along with these sports. This idea was supported when it was announced that Louisville would receive and "all-access" football show, similar to the NFL's "Hard Knocks", on the ACC Network this season. It would seem that these sports aren't all the ACC has in mind, though.

As the programming announcements have come out, three women's sports in particular stand to gain quite a bit from the new channel. The ACC Network has announced the airing of 20 volleyball matches (three of which will feature the Louisville Cardinals) as well as announcing that Wednesday nights will be dedicated to ACC volleyball during the season. Thursday nights will be devoted to women's soccer, with some Sunday games being aired as well, and both the field hockey and women's soccer ACC tournaments will be aired to some extent on the channel.

As I mentioned earlier, this won't have a major impact on me. The ACC Network will be an ESPN channel and will be available on cable, but I will probably choose to watch most of my events on the ESPN App if available due to the longer delays I get from my cable streaming service. That said, the exposure that this will bring to women's athletics will be very big for the league. The more people that the ACC can get interested in these sports that sometimes fly a bit under the radar, the better it will be for everyone. Increased interest usually turns into increased attendance, which increases profits league-wide, which is good for the players, coaches, and universities alike. 

These announcements are exciting for the fall women's sports, but also for the winter and spring sports. As often as men's ACC basketball games are covered by other networks, the ACCN should be open to quite a bit of women's basketball this winter. Additionally, lacrosse, softball, and baseball should all see their airtime increase.

After hearing the announcement that the ACCN was coming, most Louisville fans were excited that there would be fewer Louisville football and basketball games on internet only viewing options. That may still be the case for a lot of fans, but this one in particular (and if I had to guess, most people writing for and reading this site), this news is very well received. I'm looking forward to the fall already.

I'll toss the question out there. How will you and how have you watched the Cards when you're not in attendance at events? Have you "cut the cord"? Are you excited about the ACC Network and how will you view events that Louisville women's sports are involved in? Feel free to reply in our comments section.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

We'll have a full house again this week, this time without Jared having to hit the road mid-show. Hopefully we can avoid catastrophic microphone incidents this time around.

We'll catch up on anything we've missed throughout the week, get started into the true heart of the summer slump, and see if Jeff and I can do any better than our embarrassing showing on last week's quiz. Tune in to WCHQ at 11 a.m. to catch the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. You can find the show at 100.9 FM, the WCHQ App, online at wchqfm.com, or watch us on Facebook Live.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-