Canada’s own March Madness trying to beat the clock to find a TV partner

NCAA basketball is a great source of content for Canadian sports networks — but at this writing it's unsettled which broadcaster will carry the country's own modestly scaled version of March Madness next month.

On Friday, the organizing committee for the CIS Final 8 men's basketball championship will hold a joint press conference in Halifax and Toronto to promote the tournament, which tips off one month from today in the Nova Scotia capital. Sources have indicated, though, that the TV rights are still at loose ends, with Sportsnet saying it was "unable to reach" an agreement to show the March 9-11 event. Last season, the Carleton Ravens' win over the Trinity Western Spartans in the championship game was actually shown on a tape delay on TSN2. One cannot imagine that's an experience anyone wishes to repeat.

"We're negotiating," Michel Bélanger, Canadian Interuniversity Sport's manager of communications and media relations, said Thursday. "We should have something finalized, I want to say, early next week. We thought we would be able to announce something this week.

"It's going to be on TV, but it's been long negotiations, let's say. We're working on both men's and women's basketball at the same time, so early next week we're going to have something to announce."

Basketball has a bigger following on many university campuses in Canada than hockey. Of course, what's appealing for alumni or students to watch live or over a laptop through a webcast and what broadcasters feel will draw a sizable audience are not one and the same. Sportsnet confirmed Thursday it will carry next month's CIS University Cup men's hockey championship from Fredericton, but not the hoops.

"Sportsnet will be airing the two semifinal and final games from the CIS men's hockey University Cup on March 24 and 25, including encore broadcasts," Sportsnet director of communications Jennifer Neziol wrote in an e-mail. "We were also in discussion with the CIS to broadcast the men's basketball championships, but were unable to reach an agreement due to several extenuating circumstances."

The Score will air both semifinals (the second on a tape delay) and the championship game of the OUA Final Four in Waterloo on Mar. 2-3.

It is worth pointing out nothing obligates a Canadian sports network, which is as much about ratings and advertising dollars as ESPN is in the United States, to carry an event solely because it's Canadian. The Final 8 does not match the scope and televised spectacle of the NCAA tournament. University basketball in Canada does not draw in casual sports fans as much as football.

However, the Final 8 has offered some chill-bump-raising moments, such as then-Carleton star Stu Turnbull's buzzer-beater in the 2009 semifinal that enabled the Ravens to win the sixth of their seven national titles. The athleticism has also grown markedly over the past decade. However, it has a dedicated audience which follows the sport season-long, often through webcasters such as Streaming Sports Network Canada, which for several years has carried Final 8 games when there is no conflict with national broadcast rights.

Evidently, figuring out how to reach and grow that audience is a challenge.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet (photo: The Canadian Press).