ESPNU Turns 20: Two Decades of Elevating College Sports
For the last 20 years, ESPNU has been at the heart of ESPN’s college sports strategy, providing a home for thousands of hours of college sports, NCAA Championships, original programming and more. Since its launch on March 4, 2005 (03/04/05), the network has provided unparalleled televised coverage of fans’ favorite teams and alma maters. It was the first network of its kind, boasting the tagline, “Never Graduate.”
ESPNU has grown into a proving ground for ESPN’s Olympic sports approach for both programming and production, helping the company move its college sports business forward while testing out its coverage of now-marquee collegiate properties such as softball, baseball, gymnastics, lacrosse and hockey to name a few.
“When creating the original 24/7/365 programming grid for ESPNU, I remember focusing on Spring Olympic sports, plus early round NCAA Championships, as a key differentiator for the network,” said ESPN senior vice president of Programming, Ilan Ben-Hanan. “We (Ben-Hanan, Dan Margulis, and then-GM of ESPNU, Burke Magnus) got quick buy-in from a lot of our existing partners, and then went out and did deals with some new partners as well.”
Over the years, the network has given viewers direct access to rising stars in college football and basketball while expanding the visibility of women’s and Olympic sports. Some of ESPNU’s first media rights agreements were with HBCU conferences. Leagues like the MEAC and SWAC were quick to buy in and recognize ESPNU’s value, relationships that continue decades later with both conferences.
According to Dan and now-vice president of SEC Network production Pete Watters, the early days of ESPNU were a lot like days on a college campus: making friends, learning something new and taking risks.
“I was producing SportsCenter when [then-production leads] John Vassallo and Shawn Murphy came to Bristol looking for people to help launch the network,” Watters shared. “I jumped at the chance to be a part of something new. I didn’t get into [Charlotte] until 30 days prior to network launch, and it was a whirlwind. If there was a show, Murph and I were in studio. There were some long hours and many friendships. Not a day goes by I don’t think back to those early days of ESPNU.”
“Launching ESPNU was some of the most fun I have had at ESPN,” said Margulis, now a Sr. Director of programming. “We had the flexibility to experiment quite a bit, sometimes with small budgets, but lots of studio support. My absolute favorite thing we did was the animated “U” for every school. Sitting in a conference room with ESPN creative services and seeing each design – so many tigers and birds – was work that wasn’t actually work.”
One of the network’s signature events was National Signing Day, which became must-see TV for college football fans. The first Wednesday in February delivered six-straight hours of programming, and “ESPNU leaned in hard,” said Ben-Hanan. “Until that point, no one was really covering it. It morphed into ESPNU’s version of the NFL Draft, with other networks utilizing our National Signing Day logo and branding. It was fantastic.”
ESPNU’s launch played a crucial role in strengthening ESPN’s position as the leader in college sports coverage. By serving as a dedicated platform for NCAA and conference championships, in-depth recruiting analysis and all Olympic sports, ESPNU helped lay the groundwork for the creation of our conference networks, including SEC Network (2014) and ACC Network (2019), both of which have redefined collegiate sports coverage on TV while borrowing from ESPNU’s blueprint.
“ESPNU was a true incubator and provided a vehicle for exposure to new commentators and more reps for us all,” Margulis noted. “Entering its third decade, it still serves that purpose.”
