March Madness has nearly arrived, and for UConn fans that means the Big East Conference tournaments will soon be here with both UConn teams contenders for the annual tournament titles.
The women are already locked in as the No. 1 seed for their tournament March 6-9 at Mohegan Sun. The Husky men, meanwhile, are locked in a battle with St. John’s to secure that prized position for their event March 11-14 at Madison Square Garden.
But attention UConn fans, as well as followers of the Big East, here’s a reminder that if you want to watch all the games on TV, it’s going to cost you.
UConn fans have been dealing with “pay-per-view” all season, but those who have refused to pay up to this point may find continued resistance to grab that credit card that much tougher as the madness inches closer.
Thanks to the new six-year media deal that began this year, and has already affected a number of Husky men’s and women’s regular-season broadcasts, the entire Big East women’s tournament, from Friday’s first-round games to Monday’s championship, is behind the NBC Peacock streaming service paywall.
On the men’s side, all three first-round games on March 11 as well as the first two quarterfinal games on March 12 are behind the same paywall. Should the UConn men land that coveted No. 1 seed, their quarterfinal game would be noon on March 12 and exclusively behind the Peacock paywall.
The cost of a Peacock subscription is $7.99 per month and $79.99 annually. There’s always the chance that some games may also be placed on the NBC Sports Network, but that’s a channel not available on all systems, and has yet to be announced.