The University of Hawaii said it has been told its Sept. 29 game at BYU will be picked up by ESPN, meaning at least five of the Warriors’ football games in 2012 will be available outside any pay-per-view package.
The Mountain West Conference previously announced that four UH games — Nevada, San Diego State, Boise State and Air Force — would be spread across its partners, ESPN, CBS Sports Network and the NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus).
Under terms of its contract, UH must deliver at least seven of its 12 football games to local partner Oceanic Time Warner to receive the $2.3 million minimum guarantee. With anything less, Oceanic can renegotiate a lesser rights fee.
Athletic director Jim Donovan said it could be another month or more before the Warriors know if they will have a pay-per-view package or how extensive it might be, "so I can’t really comment on our TV situation yet," Donovan said.
UH debuts in the MWC this year. In previous years as a Western Athletic Conference member, UH retained local rights to home games after ESPN made its selections.
Since the Sept. 29 game is at BYU, it falls under the Cougars’ contract with ESPN, which may choose up to four of its games.
Similarly, the rights to the Sept. 1 season opener at Southern California are owned by the Pac-12. A USC spokesman said the carrier for that game is likely to be announced in June. ABC, ESPN, Fox and the debuting Pac-12 network are possibilities.
Oceanic has been able to strike deals with Fox in the past to black out Hawaii, and has used UH games at Oregon State and Washington on a pay-per-view basis.
UH said it has been told by the MWC that it is assured of retaining rights to three games: Lamar, New Mexico and South Alabama. Rights to another three — UNLV, Fresno State and Colorado State — are up in the air until CBS Sports Network makes a determination.
