The Big East Conference has signed a new, six-year digital media rights agreement with ESPN, conference officials announced Tuesday.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Under the agreement, ESPN will add hundreds of live Big East events, including “a minimum of 75 women’s basketball and 200 Olympic sports events,” which will stream on ESPN+ annually beginning in the 2025-26 academic season.

The extra events will also include a minimum of 25 non-conference games annually for Big East men’s basketball.

The deal comes as ESPN plans to offer its flagship programming on an as-yet unnamed direct-to-consumer digital streaming platform, which it expects to launch this fall. The new platform will be separate from but include its current ESPN+ digital offering, which shows some sports and non-live sports content.

The deal reunites the Big East Conference with ESPN, which held the broadcast rights to the conference from 1980 to 2013. It fills a gap for the sports and entertainment network that was left after it lost the media rights to the Big Ten conference to CBS, Fox and NBC in 2022.

“This exciting partnership with ESPN reinforces our commitment to placing Big East teams front and center on the leading digital sports platform,” Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman said. “Streaming on ESPN+ gives all 22 of our sports — especially women’s basketball and Olympic sports — the visibility they’ve earned and the access our fans expect.”

“We’re pleased to welcome the Big East back to ESPN,” said Nick Dawson, ESPN senior vice president, programming and acquisitions. “This agreement returns one of the country’s premier conferences and its tradition of excellence to ESPN platforms.”

The deal with ESPN comes just over a year after the 11-team conference announced a new six-year TV deal that begins with the 2025-26 season. That deal was estimated at $480 million, with annual rights payments to each school in the range of $75 million to $80 million per year.

That new contract includes coverage on Fox Sports (Fox, FS1, FS2), as well as on NBC Sports (NBC, Peacock) and TNT Sports (TNT, TBS, truTV and Max).

RICHMOND, Va. – Six University of Richmond student-athletes were named to the 2024-25 Virginia Sports Information Directors (VaSID) Academic All-State Team. To qualify, student-athletes must be sophomores in academic standing with a minimum 3.25 cumulative grade point average. The VaSID All-State Team recognized 216 student-athletes representing 36 institutions across the Commonwealth of Virginia.
 
Richmond’s honorees include women’s basketball’s Addie Budnik, swimming and diving’s Katie Chignell, women’s cross country and track and field’s Laurel Kurtz and Morgan Lyons, baseball’s Brady O’Brien and men’s lacrosse’s Joe Sheridan.
 
Budnik earned her fourth straight VaSID Academic All-State honor. A master of business administration major, she led the Spiders to a historic season. Budnik helped Richmond win back-to-back Atlantic 10 regular season titles and earned the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament win, a dominant 74-49 victory over Georgia Tech in Los Angeles. She was named to the A-10 All-Conference Second Team and All-Academic Team, the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team and was honored as the VaSID Defensive Player of the Year. Budnik closed her career ranked third on Richmond’s all-time scoring list with 1,897 points.
 
Chignell earned her first All-State laurel after helping the Spiders to a runner-up finish at the Atlantic 10 Championships. The health studies major won gold in the 400 free relay, setting a new program record with a time of 3:19.32, and placed fifth in the 800 free relay. She also contributed with several top-15 finishes in the finals.
 

Kurtz, a leadership and rhetoric & communication major, earned A-10 All-Conference First Team honors for the second straight year in cross country. During the indoor season, she helped Richmond finish second at the Atlantic 10 Championships with a seventh-place finish in the 5,000 meters. At the outdoor A-10 Championships, she placed seventh in the 10,000 meters. She capped her career with a gold medal in the 10K at the Outdoor IC4A/ECAC Championships.
 
Lyons, a health studies major, helped the Spiders to a runner-up finish at the Indoor A-10 Championships, contributing to medals in two relay races. She helped Richmond win silver in the distance medley relay with a time of 11:38.63 and gold in the 4×800 relay with a time of 9:03.23. At the Outdoor A-10 Championships, she again earned gold in the 4×800 with a time of 8:47.46. In her final collegiate race, she helped Richmond win gold in the 4×800 at the Outdoor IC4A/ECAC Championships.
 
O’Brien, a data analytics major, finished the regular season ranked ninth in the nation with a .777 slugging percentage and 11th in both home runs (20) and RBIs (72). A 2025 Dick Howser Trophy semifinalist, he ended the season with a 22-game on-base streak, 25 multi-hit games and 19 multi-RBI games. He was named to the A-10 All-Academic Team in May and also earned CSC Academic All-District and ABCA/Rawlings NCAA Division I All-Atlantic Region Second Team honors.
 
Sheridan, a biochemistry and molecular biology major, helped lead the Spiders to a regular season and Atlantic 10 Championship title. He also contributed to Richmond’s first NCAA Tournament win, a 13-10 victory over North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Sheridan earned USILA All-America Honorable Mention, Inside Lacrosse All-America Honorable Mention, First Team All-Atlantic 10, A-10 All-Academic honors and was named the A-10 Tournament Most Outstanding Performer. 
 

MOSCOW, Idaho – Summer is in session, the Vandals are coming back to town, and the schedule has been released. Live volleyball is closer than we think. 

As summer training rolls on, Vandal fans get the opportunity to meet the newcomers taking the court for Idaho Volleyball in time for the 2025 season. Since the end of last year, ten newcomers have arrived in Moscow from the transfer portal and high school levels. Three of which enrolled in time for the spring, which leaves seven to make their Idaho introduction. 

First up among the new members of the Vandal family is Koen Makaula.

MEET KOEN

A rising junior middle blocker originally from Kailua, Hawaii, Koen becomes the second Vandal on the 2025 roster to hail from the Aloha State. Finishing her prep career at Punahou School in 2023, she committed to the University of Nevada.

As a freshman with the wolfpack, Koen played in 32 total sets, earning an ATK% of .417 alongside six kills and four blocks against Boise State that November, all season highs. She finished her first college season with totals of 25 kills, 22 total blocks, 11 digs, and 36.5 total points, according to Nevada Athletics.

In her sophomore campaign, Makaula took it up a notch from ’23, appearing in 48 sets and helping the Wolfpack on offense and defense. She recorded a season-high three total blocks vs. Oregon State early in the year, followed by a career-high eight kills and nine points the next day vs. Cal State Bakersfield. She would end her second season in Reno with 31 kills, 19 blocks, and eight digs in 48 sets played.

Now a rising junior entering her first season in black and gold, Koen provides valuable Mountain West experience and looks to bring success to Moscow, a task she is excited for.

“I feel very grateful and excited to rep the Vandals, and I am so ready to be a part of this culture and make the most of this opportunity that [head] coach Romana [Redondo Kriskova] has blessed me with,” said Makaula. 

A culture is building among Vandal Volleyball, and the newest members of the family are taking notice. 

“I was drawn to Idaho because of the sense of belonging I felt after having many conversationgs with the coaches and girls on the team. Coach Ro got to know me on a personal level first, which I really appreciated.”

FOLLOW THE VANDALS

To stay up to date with Vandal Volleyball, follow the team on Instagram (vandalvolleyball), X (IdahoVolleyball) and visit govandals.com

 

HONOLULU — Four members of the University of Hawai’i women’s water polo program are slated to compete for their countries at the World Aquatics Championship in Singapore.
 
Ema Vernoux and Camille Radosavljevic were named to France’s roster for the world championship and Agatha Weston and Gabrielle Doyle will play for New Zealand.
 
The women’s water polo competition begins on July 10 and runs through July 23. New Zealand will compete in Group A with Australia, Italy and host Singapore. France will be in Group D with Spain, Great Britain and South Africa.
 
Vernoux and Radosavljevic will again compete for France after representing their home country at the Paris Olympics last summer. Vernoux made history by scoring France’s first goal in the nation’s Olympic debut, then began her collegiate career by leading the Rainbow Wahine with 78 goals on her way to earning Big West Freshman of the Year and ACWPC honorable mention All-America honors.
 
Radosavljevic was a starter for much of her junior season and contributed 17 goals, 13 assists, 19 steals and 14 field blocks. Along with playing in the Olympics, she also competed for France in the last two World Aquatics Championships in 2023 in Fukuoka, Japan and 2024 in Doha, Qatar.
 
Doyle also played in last year’s world championship in Doha before earning a place on the Big West All-Freshman team in her first season at UH. She posted 15 goals and 10 assists and finished second among UH’s field players with 34 steals.
 
Weston was a member of the Big West All-Freshman team in 2024 after posting 19 goals, 14 assists and 29 steals. She redshirted this past season while recovering from an injury.
 
Doyle and Weston will be joined on New Zealand’s roster by former ‘Bows Bridget Layburn and Elizabeth Gault.

The schedule and results for the world championship can be found at worldaquatics.com.

 

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