NCAA Announces Playoff Schedule, PPV Package

The NCAA announced Wednesday (Feb. 4) the television schedule for the 1998 Division I men’s ice hockey championship, which will be only the second ever to feature televised coverage of all games.

As well as over-the-air network and cable distribution, regional games for the first time will be available nationally on pay-per-view. NCAA Productions will coordinate with ESPN Enterprises to distribute all eight regional games to the DirecTV and Echostar direct broadcast satellite services.

The PPV plan also will be available on selected cable television systems. Viewers should call their local cable or satellite dish provider for details. All games will be shown live and be available at a suggested pay-per-view retail price of $29.95 for the entire eight-game package, to be broadcast March 27-29.

The semifinals and championship game will be played April 2 and 4 at the FleetCenter in Boston, and televised by ESPN2 and ESPN, respectively.