Aug. 4, 2009

CHICAGO - Comcast SportsNet Chicago will air at least three Northern Illinois football games in 2009 as part of a new three-year agreement between the regional sports network and ISP Sports, the new multi-media rights holder for Huskie Athletics, NIU Associate Vice President and Director of Athletics Jeff Compher announced Monday on behalf of ISP and Northern Illinois.

Northern Illinois' first three 2009 home games - Sept. 12 versus Western Illinois at 6:30 p.m. (CT), Sept. 26 versus Idaho at 2:30 p.m. and Oct. 3 versus Western Michigan at 2:30 p.m. - will air live on CSN Chicago as the network continues a long tradition of bringing Northern Illinois football contests to its coverage area, which includes millions of homes in Illinois, Iowa, northwestern Indiana and southern Wisconsin.

In addition to live Huskie football games from 2009-2011, CSN Chicago will carry "Inside Huskie Sports," marking the fifth consecutive season that the 30-minute Northern Illinois sports highlight show has been available to viewers across the CSN coverage area.

"We are very pleased that Comcast SportsNet Chicago will be the place to see Huskie football this fall and for years to come," Compher said. "The exposure that our entire university receives from these game broadcasts cannot be measured. CSN Chicago has been a great partner for Northern Illinois Athletics for many years with excellent year-around coverage of Huskie football. I know that our fans appreciate and enjoy seeing our games on Comcast."

Thanks to the agreement with CSN Chicago and its string of on-the-field success this decade, Northern Illinois has become the most televised program in the Mid-American Conference. Since the beginning of 2004, every Northern Illinois home game has been televised. Overall, the Huskies have had 53 games broadcast in the last five seasons with a school-record 13 broadcast in 2006 and 11 last year.

Dave Kaplan, host of Chicago Tribune Live on Comcast SportsNet Chicago, as well as the "Sports Central" radio show on WGN-AM radio, returns to DeKalb to call the play-by-play for this year's Huskie football games. He will be joined for the second straight season by former high school and college coach Bob Chmiel, who will provide color analysis.

In addition to NIU and a complete line-up of college sports, Comcast SportsNet Chicago carries Chicago Cubs, White Sox, Bulls, Blackhawks and Fire games as well as original programming like "SportsNite", "Monsters in the Morning" and "Chicago Tribune Live".

-- NIU --

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