CHICAGO — For the fifth straight year, Dave Revsine, Gerry DiNardo and Howard Griffith will zigzag across Big Ten country to bring fans a 30-minute, on-site preview show from every Big Ten campus on the Big Ten Network’s Big Ten Football Preview Tour, presented by Culligan. The BTN crew will travel over 3,000 miles, adding a new stop in Lincoln, Neb., during the 15-day stretch.
The first preview show will air at 8 p.m. ET on Aug. 14 from Wisconsin, launching 12 consecutive nights of Big Ten previews. Penn State’s preview show will air at 8 p.m. ET on Aug. 21 following a visit by the BTN crew to Happy Valley.
Additional football preview content from the tour will be available at BTN.com, Facebook and YouTube. Fans can also virtually jump on the bus via Twitter by following @BigTenNetwork, @BTNDaveRevsine and @gerrydinardo from the road.
"Our preview shows are a great way to give fans an early glimpse of their favorite teams and rivals and see how the divisions might shape up," BTN President Mark Silverman said. "We’re excited to add a new stop in Lincoln this year."
Preview shows will include interviews with head coaches and selected returning players as the BTN analysts measure each team’s progress for the rapidly approaching 2011 regular season.
Revsine, DiNardo, Griffith and the BTN production crew will travel across the conference’s nine states in a customized, chartered bus. The bus will be branded with new logos for BTN.com and BTN2Go, a live 24/7 multi-platform extension of BTN, launching this fall, that gives fans the ability to watch the network live wherever they are via the internet, mobile phone or tablet. BTN’s preseason football coverage continues the following week with two, hour-long Big Ten Football Preview shows. The first show will highlight the Leaders Division on Tuesday, Aug. 23, followed by the Legends Division Preview Show on Wednesday, Aug. 24. Both shows will air at 7 p.m. ET with a second chance each night to watch at 10 p.m. ET.
The Big Ten Network is available to more than 80 million homes through agreements with more than 300 cable, satellite and telco providers in all 50 states and Canada. Among the 25 Pennsylvania cable providers who carry BTN are: Atlantic Broadband, Beaver Valley Cable, Cablevision, CATV Service, Comcast, Consolidated Communications, Kuhn Communications, Nittany Media, RCN, Service Electric Broadband, Service Electric Cable TV & Communications, Service Electric Cablevision, Shen-Heights TV, Time-Warner Cable and Windstream.
Armstrong, Blue Ridge, MetroCast and Adams Cable, though, do not carry the Big Ten Network in Pennsylvania and the Youngstown and Media, Ohio areas. More than 35,000 Penn State alumni live in the communities served by the four cable providers in Pennsylvania and the Medina and Youngstown areas, in addition to thousands more fans and current Penn State students.
Armstrong, Blue Ridge, MetroCast and Adams Cable customers missed 115 Penn State events on BTN during the 2010-11 academic year, in addition to coverage from 15 conference championships.
BTN will carry multiple Penn State football games in 2011, including the Sept. 3 season opener vs. Indiana State and the Oct. 22 primetime game at Northwestern.
The television schedule for the Big Ten Football Preview Tour:
Big Ten Football Previews (Shows air at 8 p.m. ET)
| Aug. 14: | Wisconsin |
| Aug. 20: | Ohio State |
| Aug. 15: | Minnesota |
| Aug 21: | Penn State |
| Aug. 16: | Nebraska |
| Aug. 22: | Michigan |
| Aug. 17: | Iowa |
| Aug. 23: | Michigan State |
| Aug. 18: | Illinois |
| Aug. 24: | Purdue |
| Aug. 19: | Indiana |
| Aug. 25: | Northwestern |
About BTN: A joint venture between the Big Ten Conference and Fox Networks, BTN is the first internationally distributed network dedicated to covering one of the premier collegiate conferences in the country. With more than 800 events, all in HD, the 24/7 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. Events include football, men’s and women’s basketball games; dozens of Big Ten Championship events; studio shows; coaches’ shows; and classic games. The network televises and streams 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. The groundbreaking Student U initiative provides real-world experience for students interested in careers in sports television. The network is available to more than 80 million homes across the United States and Canada, and currently has agreements with more than 300 affiliates, including AT&T U-Verse, Atlantic Broadband, Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV, DISH Network, Insight, Mediacom, Rogers Cable (Canada), Shaw Cable and Shaw Direct (Canada), Time Warner Cable and Verizon FiOS. For updated information on BTN, go to BTN.com
