ITHACA, N.Y. -- Seven Cornell athletic events covering six different sports will be televised by Time Warner Cable during the 2009-10 athletic season, starting with the football team's Homecoming matchup against 2007 Patriot League champion Fordham on Saturday, Oct. 17. Men's basketball will make two appearances on the channel, while women's basketball, men's ice hockey, wrestling and men's lacrosse will also have televised contests this season. All five of those teams have made at least one NCAA tournament appearance in the last two years.

"I am thrilled that Time Warner Cable Sports has decided to showcase a number of our successful teams during the 2009-10 academic year," said Andy Noel, the Meakem*Smith Director of Athletics and Physical Education. "Their generous support during such a challenging economic time will enhance our university and athletics department presence throughout the Upstate and Downstate markets, as well as a portion of the Midwest. Special thanks to Doug Logan and his staff."

"We are thrilled to be taking our partnership with Cornell Athletics to a new level," said Time Warner Cable Sports Director, Doug Logan. "Cornell University and Big Red athletics are champions in every way. We'll begin our coverage with a homecoming football game, then feature nationally ranked programs in wrestling, men's ice hockey and lacrosse, as well as recent Ivy League champions in men's and women's basketball. We are proud to provide this quality programming and further spread the word of this outstanding university to our two million subscribers throughout New York state."

In a rematch of the 2009 national championship game, the Big Red lacrosse team will play host to Syracuse on Tuesday, April 13 on Schoellkopf Field at 7 p.m. Cornell returns 16 letter winners from the 2009 squad that advanced to the national championship game for the first time since 1988. Although Cornell dropped a heartbreaking 10-9 decision in overtime to Syracuse, Cornell made its presence felt in the lacrosse community with its second final four appearance in three years. The Big Red finished the year with a 13-4 record overall and a mark of 5-1 in the conference, earning a share of its seventh straight Ivy League title, the longest stretch since Cornell won 10-straight championships between 1974 and 1983. Cornell's seven consecutive regular season Ivy titles is the longest current stretch by any men's lacrosse team in any conference.

The Big Red football team is off to a 2-0 start after knocking off Patriot League foe Bucknell and Ivy League rival Yale in its first two games thanks to a defense, spearheaded by head coach Jim Knowles '87, that ranks among the best in the nation in half a dozen categories. Last year's Homecoming contest against Colgate was played in front of nearly 10,000 people at historic Schoellkopf Field. Senior wide receiver Bryan Walters continues to climb up Ivy League and NCAA charts with every kick and punt return, already holding Cornell records in both categories as well as surpassing the 100-catch, 1,000-yard mark.

The two-time defending Ivy League champion men's basketball team, directed by head coach Steve Donahue, will have its season opener against Seton Hall on Nov. 20 and its Ivy League home opener vs. Columbia on Jan. 16 televised. The 2008-09 Big Red posted a 21-10 mark, claimed its second straight Ivy League title with an 11-3 record and became the first Ivy League school other than Penn or Princeton to earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament in consecutive years. Cornell set team records for points (2,281), 3-pointers (241) and blocked shots (121) this past season. The Big Red will return all five starters, including two-time first-team all-league selections Louis Dale and Ryan Wittman and reigning Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year Jeff Foote, as well as eight of the team's top nine scorers for the 2009-10 campaign. The Big Red will meet the Pirates with a 21-game home win streak on the line in front of the Newman Nation fans. That mark enters the 2009-10 campaign as the third-longest in the country. Cornell faces Columbia sporting a 15-game Ivy League home win streak.

After winning its first-ever Ivy League championship in the 2007-08 season, the Big Red women's basketball team finished 2008-09 with a fourth-place finish in the Ivy League after posting a 10-16 record overall and a mark of 6-8 in the conference. The Big Red returns a pair of All-Ivy selections in senior point guard Lauren Benson and sophomore forward Allison Abt, to go along with two of the most proficient 3-point shooters in Cornell history, Allie Fedorowicz and Virginia McMunigal. This season, Benson, who set the single-season assist record at Cornell during that title year, will look to take over the career record, needing just 97 more helpers to earn the top spot. The game against Columbia will be the program's first televised contest since meeting Connecticut in the first round of the 2008 NCAA tournament.

Two traditional hockey powerhouses, the Big Red and North Dakota will meet at Lynah Rink for the first time in history on Jan. 22, 2010. The two programs have met six times, including a pair of games last season in Grand Forks, N.D. The Fighting Sioux took the first game, 7-3, before Cornell claimed the second game of the series, 2-1 the following night. The two programs have met three times in the NCAA tournament, including a Cornell victory in 1967 in the national semifinals on the Big Red's way to its first national championship.

The wrestling team will face seven-time national champion Iowa State on Jan. 31 at Newman Arena. The contest will be a rematch of last year's semifinal at the 2009 Cliff Keen National Duals, where Cornell upset the Cyclones 22-15. The Big Red finished the 2008-09 season fifth at the NCAA tournament this season and capped off a fantastic dual season with a 12-2 record. With a 5-0 mark, Cornell won its seventh-straight Ivy League title. Returning this season will be defending NCAA champion Troy Nickerson at 125 pounds, as well as All-American Cam Simaz (197), Ivy League Wrestler of the Year Mack Lewnes (165) and NCAA qualifiers DJ Meagher (149), Mike Grey (133) and Justin Kerber (184). Iowa State placed third a season ago at the NCAA's.

Football, October 17th vs. Fordham (Homecoming)
Men's Basketball, November 20th vs. Seton Hall
Men's & Women's Basketball, January 16th vs. Columbia
Men's Ice Hockey, January 22nd vs. North Dakota
Wrestling, January 31st vs. Iowa State
Men's Lacrosse, April 13th vs. Syracuse