The games, shown on public television, will be broadcast without commercials, and according to Harney, his group would make no attempt to influence the schedule or change the time of a game to suit the telecast Nor will any of the games be blacked out in the home team's viewing area.
The Eastern Educational Network is a consortium of 48 public television stations in the Northeast To date, five affiliates--those in Boston, Hartford, New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh--have committed themselves to showing the Ivy League Game of the Week, but Frank said he was confident all of the stations would sign on by the fall.
Frank added that his company was hoping to show the games on closed circuit television at Ivy League Clubs in cities not offering the telecasts.
Transworld International, which represented the Ivy League, is a recognized leader in the sports television industry. It represented the city of Calgary, Alberta in negotiations for rights to broadcast the 1968 Winter Olympics. The $309 million contract with ABC was the largest television sports contract ever signed. Transworld is currently representing Seoul, South Korea, which will host the 1968 Summer Olympics in similar negotiations.
Frank said that Trans world began working for the league about 18 months ago and considered a variety of network, local, cable, and pay-per-view options but chose the one which will show the games on public television "as the best for the interests of Ivy League football."
Since there are no commercials on public television the stations must secure corporate sponsors to air the telecasts. Project organizers say none have formally agreed to underwrite the telecasts, but said they expected to have the programs fully funded within a month.
The contract announced yesterday is for only one year but Frank said he hoped Ivy League games would continue to be televised indefinitely. "The idea was not to do it for one year and then pull out, that was never our intent," he said.
The Supreme Court ruling was on the appeal of a suit first filed in 1981 when the University of Georgia and University of Oklahoma sued the NCAA for the right to negotiate their own television agreements Lower courts had ruled in favor of the colleges twice but the NCAA had appeared the decision each time