Fairleigh Dickinson capitalized on last season’s March Madness, hosted by sign a deal for eight hoops games on YES Network this season (six men, two women), but perhaps the most striking part of the The agreement is that no money will change hands.
“Everyone in this region and beyond — that’s the important thing — knew about FDU during March Madness,” YES programming director Marc LaPlace told SBJ. “It was nice to have the Cinderella of the most recent March Madness come our way, that we could allow them to continue the buzz and, at the same time, give us a quality college basketball program for a team that is truly in our backyard.”
The FDU men became just the second No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 seed when they toppled Purdue in last season’s NCAA tournament. YES Net will build on that Cinderella theme for the package’s marquee game on Nov. 15, when FDU takes on 2022 Elite Eight participant St. Peter’s.
The agreement between OUI and FDU dates back to the spring. FDU Director of Sports Media Relations Jordan Sarnoff and Senior Associate AD/COO Jason Young discussed the purchase of the FDU-St. Peter’s game on a drive from the campus in Teaneck, New Jersey to the 2023 NEC baseball tournament in Wappingers Falls, New York.
Sarnoff, a senior at FDU and head of YES negotiations, then connected with LaPlace through broadcaster Ian Eagle, who has known Sarnoff since he was a middle school student attending Eagle’s broadcast camp in the New Jersey. Discussions began on June 1 and progressed from there. “(Young) and I do a lot of work in the car,” Sarnoff said. “We call it the ‘Magical Car Ride’ because as soon as we get in the car, we solve all the world’s problems.”
The NEC’s current media agreements with ESPN, CBS, SNY and MASN allow the conference to choose which games it broadcasts on those respective networks. Unselected games are then delegated to schools, who are free to purchase them as they wish, provided they also appear on NEC Front Row, an online digital network providing multi-platform access to all league sports.
This led to a mutually beneficial agreement in which FDU would occupy time slots that the network had not previously scheduled, while the school would be able to gain national exposure. “Jordan and the FDU,” LaPlace recounted, “showed up at the YES door at the perfect time. FDU AD Brad Hurlbut added, “It’s just a great way for us to continue to tell the FDU story.”
The eight-game lineup on YES will have a unique look compared to previous FDU broadcasts. Sarnoff and Hurlbut joked that the idea was for the games to function as a two-hour-plus infomercial for the school, while the basketball team serves as the focal point. FDU will employ two color commentators – including longtime WFAN Giants reporter Paul Dottino – instead of a traditional play-by-play broadcast setup in an effort to be more narrative in the broadcast.
The school is also finalizing details for the purchase of a portion of the games’ advertising inventory. “Our university’s slogan is ‘Seize the moment and change your world,’” Sarnoff said. “We would be doing ourselves a disservice if we didn’t seize (this) moment.”
Game programming on YES will have a unique look compared to previous FDU broadcasts
