Different cable outlets combine to cover 14 men's basketball games. If the men's basketball team beats a couple more top ten teams, then maybe, just maybe, its future games will be televised on ESPN and CBS. But until that day, local alumni can still catch some Quakers games without even leaving home. This season, fourteen of the Quakers' games will be televised, mostly on local cable systems. Comcast Network, CN8, will televise seven of those games -- including both the home and away matchups against perennial conference rival Princeton. The channel is separate from Comcast SportsNet, a network carried by Wade Cable, the company that serves off-campus students in University City. Comcast SportsNet televises Phillies, Flyers and 76ers games and will broadcast the ECAC Festival -- a tournament involving Penn, Georgia Tech, Iona and Hofstra -- which will be played on December 26 and 27 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Although CN8 serves most Philadelphia area residents, it is not picked up in University City or Center City -- two of the Quakers' largest fan bases. "It's ridiculous that only CN8 covers the Big Five, and it's not available in Center City," said Lyle Goldberg, a 1980 College graduate who currently lives in Center City. "The Athletic Department needs to apply pressure to Greater Media Cable to pick up CN8." But, according to Decker Uhlhorn, the Penn Athletic Department's director of development and public affairs, getting extensive coverage from a prime-time network is extremely difficult. An NBC-owned affiliate will not, for example, "drop Friends to carry the Penn-St. Joseph's game," Uhlhorn said. Three of the men's games -- including the March 2 game at Princeton -- will be shown on Direct TV, a channel that is exclusively available to those who purchase a small satellite dish as well as an NCAA basketball package. ESPN also televised locally Penn's November 17 thriller against Kansas and will also show the December 12 date with Penn State. All of the Quakers' home games and selected away games will be broadcast on UTV -- a channel available to all students living on campus. WXPN, the University's public radio station, will be broadcasting six women's basketball games and 18 men's basketball games throughout the season. The station's broad range extends as far south as Maryland and as far north as central New Jersey. "[The Athletic Department] feels like it is important to have consistent, reliable coverage of basketball, and we provide that," said Vince Curren, general manager of WXPN -- located at 88.5 on the FM dial. WXPN will broadcast all but three of the Quakers' games. The only matchups that fans won't be able to catch on the station is a February 23 game against local rival Villanova, as well as two home contests against Dartmouth and Harvard on February 5 and 6, respectively. The Athletic Department has not yet determined who will cover those games. "What's happened this year, with the radio and TV, we're pretty pleased. We've gotten some very good coverage -- much more than we've had in the past," Uhlhorn explained.
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