CBS Sports to air 2019 DI basketball, football title games

Charlotte, NC - CBS Sports Network and the NJCAA have announced a yearlong agreement that will feature the NJCAA Division I Men's and Women's Basketball National Championship games and the NJCAA Football National Championship game in 2019. The agreement makes CBS Sports Network the national television partner of the association.

CBS Sports Network will air the basketball national championship games on March 23, 2019 with the Division I Women's Basketball Championship game at 12:00 p.m. ET and the Division I Men's Basketball Championship game at 2:00 p.m. ET. The Football National Championship is slated for December 5, 2019 on CBS Sports Network with a 6:00 p.m. ET kickoff.

"After a great experience and response to our 2018 Football Championship game being televised on CBS Sports Network, we are excited to continue the partnership for 2019 and include our men's and women's basketball championships," stated NJCAA President & CEO Dr. Christopher Parker. "Having national television exposure for our student-athletes and the NJCAA is an extraordinary benefit and these championships have a lot to offer to sport fans everywhere."

The NJCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament, hosted by Visit Lubbock in Lubbock, Texas since 2016, is played at the Rip Griffin Center on the campus of Lubbock Christian University. The 24-team single elimination tournament begins on March 18. Student-athletes in the 2018 women's basketball tournament transferred to NCAA Division I schools such as North Carolina, Maryland, Alabama, Florida and LSU, among others.

Since 1949, the NJCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament has been held in Hutchinson, Kansas at the Hutchinson Sports Arena. The 24-team single elimination tournament is also scheduled to begin on March 18 and is hosted by the American Legion Lysle Rishel Post #68 and Visit Hutch. The men's basketball tournament was awarded the 2018 SportsTravel Award for the Best Single-Sport Event in the Collegiate division at the annual national TEAMS Conference, winning over other nominated events such as the Big Ten Football Championship in Indianapolis and the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA.

After becoming the first nationally televised NJCAA championship game on CBS Sports Network in 2018, the NJCAA Football National Championship game will return to the channel in 2019. The 2018 game featured #1 East Mississippi and #2 Garden City (KS) in a defensive slugfest, with the Lions defeating Garden City 10-9. The 2019 championship game will be the second of a three-year agreement with the Crawford County Convention & Visitors Bureau and will be played at Carnie Smith Stadium on the campus of Pittsburg State in Pittsburg, KS.

"This partnership continues to elevate the story of the NJCAA and the 60,000 student-athletes the association serves each year," said NJCAA Chief External Affairs Officer Brian Luckett. "We are very appreciative of CBS Sports Network for their support of junior college athletics and our media rights advisors at Collegiate Sports Management Group for helping to make this a reality."

CBS Sports Network, the 24-hour home of CBS Sports, is widely available through all major cable, satellite and telco distributors as well as via OTT streaming service providers YouTube TV, fuboTV, PlayStation Vue, DirecTV and Hulu. For more information, including a full programming schedule and how to get CBS Sports Network, go to www.cbssportsnetwork.com.

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