FloSports said it made a deal with the Gulf South Conference to stream college football and the conference championships in other team sports.
The deal runs through the 2023-24 season.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
The NCAA Division II conference and FloSports will also collaborate on a new weekly live studio show dedicated to news, interviews, and analysis of the conference’s football programs throughout each season.
“This is an exciting time for the GSC and our constituents. To partner with an innovator like FloSports who holds our conference, institutions, and student-athletes in such high regard is a great decision by our membership,” GSC commissioner Matt Wilson said. “We cannot wait to begin delivering terrific content through the platform.”
Gulf South becomes the ninth collegiate entity to enter into a multi-sport partnership with FloSports to grow their sports communities.
In addition to football, the deal includes conference championships in basketball, baseball, soccer, cross country, indoor/outdoor track and field, softball, women’s volleyball, and women’s lacrosse.
“We are proud to partner with Gulf South Conference to bring high-quality sports and content to their fans,” FloSports CEO & co-founder Mark Floreani said. “We believe it’s important to open up access to these Division II conference sports and teams to a wider audience and collaborate with partners like Gulf South to deepen their sports communities and strengthen the direct relationship with their fans.”
It was unclear what would happen if college sports were cancelled this year because of the Coronavirus situation, which has already cancelled the NCAA Division 1 men’s college basketball tournament and stopped play by the NBA, NHL and MLB and pushed the summer Olympic into 2021.
"We're hopeful that there will be a college football season of some kind this year. Regardless, we are committed to this partnership with Gulf South," said Phil Wendler, senior VP, global rights acquisition at FloSports. “Should there be a decision that would either curtail or cancel the 2020 season, we would first huddle up with the GSC commissioner and his team and determine how do we handle this. We can collaborate on solutions on how to adjust the relationship as needed.”
Wendler noted that the deal includes sports other than football. “So there would be no reason for a knee-jerk reaction to any cancellation of the football season,” he said. “We wanted to announce this now and start producing content for the conference's fans in anticipation of a football season. We're excited about this and following a very successful partnership with Colonial Athletic Association, we're confident about the prospects for GSC and FloSports."
Gulf South fans can access live and on-demand coverage of exclusive content and games by subscribing at FloSports.tv.
The agreement was negotiated by the Gulf South Conference and Lindsey Ross, director, rights acquisition at FloSports with assistance by Collegiate Sports Management Group.
