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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE --November 3, 2000
Contact: John Johnson or Andy Frushour-- 517.332.5046

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Nov. 3 - Coverage of Michigan High School Athletic Association championship events in 2000-01 include a new syndicator for its basketball radio network, and an expanded presence on the Internet with the addition of live video cybercasts.

For fall season championships, the package is highlighted by two weekends of live coverage of the MHSAA Football Playoff Finals and Girls Basketball Finals on Fox Sports Net. Fox Sports Net is covering both events for the third straight year in 2000, with the games reaching over 2.6 million homes. However, due to a conflict with Detroit Pistons games, the Division 4 football finale at 8 p.m. on Nov. 24, will be aired on alternate channels on many cable systems which carry Fox Sports Net. That game will have a same-day delay airing later that evening at 3:30. In addition, the Division 4 football game will also be shown at Noon on Nov. 26. Additional replays will be scheduled during the month of December.

In addition, the live Fox Sports Net telecasts of football and girls basketball will be available in real time on the Internet. A link will be available to the Fox Sports Net Detroit Web Site off the MHSAA Web Site.

On the radio side, the finals of the MHSAA Girls Basketball Tournament will be broadcast on a statewide network of stations, and the semifinal games will again be aired locally in the community in which those games are played.

Stations already committed to airing the Girls Basketball Finals on December 2 are: Flagship stations WMMI-AM, Mt. Pleasant and WQBX-FM, Alma; WABJ, Adrian; WCBY, Cheboygan; WDOW, Dowagiac; WION, Ionia; WQXO, Marquette and WIDG, St. Ignace. Additional stations will be announced as they are added to the network. WMMI will air the Class C and Class A semifinals the afternoons of Nov. 30 and Dec. 1; the Class B semifinals the evening of Dec. 1; and the daytime final games in Classes D and A on Dec. 2. WQBX will air the evening semifinal games in Class D on Nov. 30; and the evening final games in Classes C and B on Dec. 2.

The radio network will be coordinated by the new Michigan Talk Radio Network of Charlevoix. Mike Carey and Dennis Kuiper will team to call the Class C and A games; while Don Chiodo and Dan Simons will call the Class D and B action.

All of the basketball radio broadcasts, as well as audio cybercasts of the football finals, can be accessed through the MHSAA Web Site.

Looking forward to the winter sports season, the semifinals and finals of the boys basketball tournament will be broadcast on the MHSAA Championship Radio Network. Television coverage on Fox Sports Net includes lives broadcasts of the four boys basketball championship games on March 24, 2001; and highlights programs of the Lower Peninsula Individual Wrestling Finals and Girls Volleyball Finals. In addition, tape-delayed telecasts of the four Girls Volleyball Finals matches will be shown on WLLA-TV in Kalamazoo-Grand Rapids-Battle Creek, and WLUC-TV in Marquette.

Sponsors of the MHSAA Championship Network are Farm Bureau Insurance and Little Caesars Pizza.

The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by over 1,300 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments conducted in 12 sports for girls and 12 sports for boys which attract approximately 1.6 million spectators each year.

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Farm Bureau Insurance & Little Caesars Pizza are year-round MHSAA Corporate Partners