NEW YORK -- ABC reached agreement on a two-year exclusive contract with the College Football Association Wednesday, allowing the network to televise a minimum of 21 games during each of the 1985 and 1986 seasons.
The announcement was made jointly by Jim Spence, senior vice president of ABC sports, and CFA Executive Director Chuck Neinas.
No financial details of the package were disclosed. However, it was learned that ABC will pay close to $31 million over two years. ABC paid the CFA $13 million in 1984 -- the first year the CFA was allowed to negotiate its own television deal.
'We are pleased to have renewed our association with the CFA,' Spence said. 'We felt that last year the CFA provided the highest quality of college football available in the market place and their telecasts proved to be the most watched college football on television.'
'We are delighted that ABC sports will present for the next two years what promises to be the most exciting schedule of college football available,' Neinas said.
During the next two years, ABC will televise up to 14 dates of CFA football each season. CFA games will be televised over ABC from 3:00-7 p.m. Eastern time each Saturday. ESPN cable network has a primetime agreement with the CFA.
ABC's agreement includes 52 of the 63 CFA schools. The eight Atlantic Coast Conference schools plus Miami, Army and Navy signed a separate deal with CBS.
Covered in the ABC agreement are the Big Eight, the Southeastern Conference, the Southwest Conference, the Western Athletic Conference and independents that include Notre Dame, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Boston College, South Carolina and Florida State.
ABC will have the right to televise each CFA team three times in both the 1985 and 1986 seasons. Additionally, the network can televise two 'wildcard' schools four times in a single season.
ABC sports will determine the mix of national and regional telecasts. Under terms of the agreement, ABC will guarantee two appearances to each of the CFA's six constituent groups -- the four conferences, northern independents and southern independents.
The agreement is subject to approval by the Board of Directors of the American Broadcasting Companies' Inc. and the CFA membership.
