Fox Sports to Air 35 Women's Volleyball Matches, 8 on Fox

Fox Sports announced Monday that it will broadcast 35 women's college volleyball matches this season, including eight on the Fox broadcast network — the most ever aired by a single broadcast network in one season.

The remaining 27 matches will air on FS1 and FS2.

The schedule kicks off Saturday at 4 p.m. Eastern with Louisville facing Wisconsin in the Jeep AVCA First Serve. It will be highlighted by a matchup between top-ranked Nebraska and No. 2 Texas in the inaugural Players Era Volleyball Showcase in Las Vegas on August 30.

Fox will also air a Big Ten/SEC Volleyball Challenge Week primetime doubleheader from Wrigley Field on September 6, featuring No. 3 Kentucky against No. 10 Penn State at 7 p.m., followed by Missouri against No. 1 Nebraska at 9 p.m. The network will broadcast the first Big Ten Volleyball Championship on November 25.

"I think when you look across women's sports, to me, volleyball is the next basketball," said Mike Mulvihill, Fox Sports president for insight and analytics. "I think the same patterns that we saw in basketball five years ago are what we're now seeing in volleyball. We want to lean in to this year the same way that we leaned into basketball five years ago."

Mulvihill said the breakthrough in women's basketball, driven in part by stars like Iowa's Caitlin Clark, is largely complete, and volleyball could be the next sport to see explosive growth. While volleyball lacks a comparable mainstream star, he pointed to the popularity of programs at Nebraska, Wisconsin and Texas, along with recent success at Pitt and Louisville, as evidence of growing national interest.

ESPN and ESPN2 aired 26 women's volleyball matches last season, with two on ABC, including the Division I NCAA championship for the third consecutive year.