CIAA Strikes Media Rights Deal With Urban Edge Network

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association has a new media rights partner and a different economic model for distributing some of its athletic content.

The CIAA, Urban Edge Network and Van Wagner announced a strategic media rights partnership that will send four regular-season football games, three regular-season basketball games and select conference championship events to UEN’s digital platforms.

The CIAA Basketball Tournament, the conference’s signature event, will not be included in the 2027 package.

“Not this year, but that is definitely the ultimate goal,” Hardy L. Pelt, founding member and chief revenue officer of Urban Edge Network, told HBCU Legends when asked whether the tournament could eventually join the package. “Once we show them what we believe will be a successful partnership, eventually those opportunities will come to the platform as well.”

CIAA Football Games Included In The UEN Agreement

Sept. 19: Fayetteville State at Johnson C. Smith, TBA
Oct. 3: Elizabeth City State at Virginia Union, 1 p.m. ET
Oct. 31: Virginia State at Johnson C. Smith, 1 p.m. ET
Nov. 7: Johnson C. Smith at Livingstone, 2 p.m. ET

Broadcast details for three regular-season basketball games will be announced later.

Bluefield State Holds Off Virginia State 71–66 to Reach CIAA Championship | CIAA

Additional Projected Broadcasts

Pelt said additional projected broadcasts include:

CIAA Basketball Media Day
CIAA Football Championship Weekend, Nov. 13-14
CIAA Volleyball Championship
CIAA Indoor Track & Field Championship
CIAA Golf Championship
CIAA Tennis Championship
CIAA Softball Championship
CIAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship

The financial structure also distinguishes the arrangement.

Pelt told HBCU Legends that UEN is paying the CIAA for media rights while also sharing advertising revenue with the conference and its member institutions.

“We don’t really talk about the numbers, but we will be sharing a significant portion of our revenue from the advertising back to the conference and the member institutions,” Pelt said.

The agreement comes at a pivotal point in the CIAA’s media strategy.

The conference’s previous agreement with HBCU GO expired June 30, leaving the Division II league without what Commissioner Jacqie McWilliams Parker described in July as a “sustained media partner.” The CIAA, however, retained its own digital network and signaled its intent to maintain greater control over its media inventory.

The Urban Edge Network agreement provides another distribution outlet without requiring the conference to surrender all of those rights.

CIAA Commissioner, Jacqie McWilliams Parker | Credit: CIAA

What Is Included In The CIAA-UEN Deal?

The announcement describes an initial one-year strategic period with an option to extend the partnership for an additional three years.

Pelt characterized the agreement to HBCU Legends as running “up to three years.”

Those descriptions leave some uncertainty about the potential maximum term of the agreement. Neither the CIAA nor Van Wagner has publicly clarified the discrepancy.

Pelt said the structure was designed to leave the conference room to maneuver as existing media commitments expire.

The CIAA has commitments involving other networks, he said, and some conference championships remain under contract elsewhere. That is one reason the agreement contains no exclusivity language and why the full championship inventory available to UEN has not yet been finalized.

“We wanted to give the conference as much freedom as possible to really do comparison, if you will, so that ultimately the conference is the winner,” Pelt said.

The initial package of seven regular-season games represents a relatively small portion of the inventory available from a 12-member conference.

Pelt said availability played a significant role in determining the size of the opening slate. The agreement also contains an option to expand the package.

CIAA-UEN PARTNERSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT

How The Money Works

Neither the public announcement nor Pelt disclosed the financial value of the agreement.

Pelt did, however, provide HBCU Legends with additional details about its structure.

UEN is paying the CIAA for the rights to the games and will share advertising revenue with the conference and its member institutions.

Production responsibilities also will be divided.

The CIAA will produce some broadcasts, while UEN will produce others and cover its production expenses.

Van Wagner, the CIAA’s multimedia rights and sponsorship partner, controls rights to most of the games headed to UEN and will serve as a co-producing partner on those broadcasts.

Pelt said UEN’s revenue-sharing obligation runs to the CIAA and its member institutions. He declined to characterize Van Wagner’s separate financial arrangement with the conference.

“I’m not sure what their contractual specifics are for the conference,” Pelt said. “They’d have to speak to that.”

Content control also will be shared between UEN and its partners.

“We always give our partners equal rights on their content,” Pelt said.

UEN’s Advertising Technology Is Central To The Strategy

The strategic case Pelt makes for UEN rests not only on distribution but also on advertising technology and audience measurement.

UEN’s platform uses programmatic video advertising, dynamic ad insertion and audience segmentation. Those capabilities allow advertisers to target more narrowly defined audiences and measure delivery rather than purchasing advertising solely against a broad viewership base.

Pelt said standard advertising inventory on the platform runs at approximately an $18 CPM, or cost per 1,000 impressions. Segmented advertising buys can command approximately $30 CPM, he said.

The potential benefit for the CIAA, according to Pelt, is the ability to connect traditional corporate sponsorships with measurable digital advertising campaigns.

A corporate partner could purchase a sponsorship from the conference while also directing advertising dollars toward specific audiences consuming CIAA content.

That could allow the conference and its partners to reach separate sponsorship and media-buying budgets within the same company.

The arrangement is also designed as a simulcast rather than an outright transfer of the CIAA’s content to UEN.

CIAA games included in the package will continue to appear on the conference’s own network alongside UEN’s platforms, according to Pelt, with UEN’s advertising technology operating across both.

Pelt also told HBCU Legends that UEN plans to expand into free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) this fall. He expects that expansion to increase the potential reach of CIAA programming.

The FAST expansion was not included in the partnership announcement.

Fayetteville State Wins The 2025 CIAA Women's Basketball Tournament Championship | Credit: CIAA

A Different Media Strategy From The SWAC And MEAC

The CIAA’s approach differs from the direction taken this summer by two of the major Division I HBCU conferences.

ESPN announced multiyear media rights extensions with the Southwestern Athletic Conference and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in July. Both agreements run through the 2030-31 academic year and provide regular-season and championship inventory across ESPN’s linear and digital networks.

Both conferences also maintain their own digital platforms.

Pelt argues that UEN’s economic model differs from conventional streaming arrangements.

Under some streaming models, he said, conferences and schools pay recurring fees for hosting and distribution while relying on the platform provider to monetize advertising inventory.

UEN does not charge member institutions to appear on its platform, according to Pelt.

He cited NAIA institutions that he said eliminated recurring platform expenses after moving to UEN.

HBCU Legends could not independently verify those figures, and neither the SWAC nor MEAC has commented on Pelt’s comparison.

Urban Edge Network Expands Its College Sports Portfolio

The CIAA is not UEN’s first move into college athletics.

The company has an existing relationship with the HBCU Athletic Conference. It has expanded into the NAIA through agreements involving the Sooner Athletic Conference, American Midwest Conference and Heart of America Athletic Conference.

UEN also consolidated its HBCU Plus and UEN applications earlier this year.

The CIAA agreement gives the company another recognizable HBCU sports property as it attempts to expand its streaming and advertising model.

What The CIAA Says About The Partnership

“The CIAA has been intentional about building a media strategy that allows us to expand the visibility of our institutions and student-athletes while also recognizing the value of the content we own,” McWilliams Parker said in the announcement.

“By bringing together the CIAA, Urban Edge Network and Van Wagner, we are creating additional pathways for our fans to experience CIAA athletics, for our institutions to receive greater exposure and for our conference to build sustainable value around our brand.”

Julius Grant III, senior vice president at Van Wagner, said in the announcement that the agency structured the agreement to protect the value of the CIAA’s assets while expanding the conference’s reach.

Van Wagner has served as the CIAA’s multimedia rights partner.

Pelt told HBCU Legends that Van Wagner approached UEN about the potential partnership.

Questions Remain About The CIAA-UEN Agreement

Several important details remain unresolved.

The complete championship inventory also remains unsettled. Pelt identified several projected championship broadcasts, including Football Championship Weekend, but the final lineup has not been publicly detailed.

It also remains unclear how advertising revenue generated through the agreement will ultimately be distributed among the CIAA’s 12 member institutions, including whether revenue will be divided equally or tied to individual appearances.

And the relationship could become considerably more consequential if UEN eventually acquires rights to the CIAA Basketball Tournament.

For now, Pelt is tempering expectations about the new partnership.

“I am quietly optimistic,” he said. “I don’t want to jump out in front of the crowd just yet with pumping my fist, because we got some work to do.”

Founded in 1912, the CIAA is the nation’s oldest historically Black athletic conference.

Its 12 members are Bluefield State, Bowie State, Claflin, Elizabeth City State, Fayetteville State, Johnson C. Smith, Lincoln (Pa.), Livingstone, Shaw, Virginia State, Virginia Union and Winston-Salem State.

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