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MOORHEAD, Minn. – Minnesota State University Moorhead and WDAY announced today that they will partner together to carry all 2014-15 home football and basketball conference games as well as 11 DragonsLIVE coaches shows on the newly branded WDAY'Z EXTRA channel.
 
The 28-game and 11 coaches show partnership is part of WDAY's objective of creating a home for more local sports programming on its 6-3 channel which has been newly rebranded as WDAY'Z XTRA.  After reaching a broadcasting rights deal with the North Dakota High School Activities Association last year, the Dragons have been welcomed as a great fit into the mix of programming options for viewers.
 
"It's huge for us to have live and local football and basketball games," said President, CEO and Publisher of Forum Communications Bill Marcil Jr.  "MSUM, there's something in there air here.  There's something going on.  It was an opportunity that we saw that we knew we wanted to go with the Dragons."
 
Dragon athletics broadcasts will consist of a student-only crew.  Many of these crew members are pursuing careers in sports broadcasting, cinema arts and journalism.  MSUM staff has designed this experience to align with their curriculum to provide a professional level internship opportunity to practice what they're learning in the classroom.  
 
"These broadcasts will benefit our student-athletes and the University by bringing more visibility and exposure to our athletics programs," said MSUM President Anne Blackhurst.  "We are equally exciting for our students preparing for careers in broadcasting, who will benefit immensely from the real-world experience."
 
MSUM and WDAY have a long-standing partnership to help provide resources and opportunities geared toward increasing opportunities and resources for MSUM students.  The most recent example is the donation of the old WDAY set to MSUM's Campus News show, which will also be used for the DragonsLIVE shows as well.
 
"Forum Communications Company has a long history of working with MSUM,going back I think almost 100 years," said Marcil.  "We've taken lots of employees from MSUM over the years, and here is our chance to give back to the community."
 
The Dragons have already produced a live broadcast on WDAY'Z EXTRA at the Go Pink With the Dragons event last February.  Athletic director Doug Peters sees this partnership as an opportunity to further carve out the Dragons' spot as a leader in broadcasting.
 
"The primary goal behind everything we do is to create a premier student-athlete experience, being on TV makes the field of competition a bigger stage to showcase the incredible things our student-athletes are capable of, the high level of competition within the NSIC, and provide a better gameday experience for our fans and supporters," said MSUM Athletics Director Doug Peters.  "We've been looked at as the leader in online streaming in our league, now we're excited to take it to an even higher level.  We've got the cutting-edge technology and programs here at MSUM that have worked well together to helped MSUM grow, and we're excited to see how far we can take it."

"I'd like to congratulate MSUM Dragon Athletics with their partnership with WDAY," said NSIC Commissioner Erin Lind. "This partnership exemplifies the integration of academics and athletics.  We are fired up to follow you this season."
 
Excitement of the television announcement quickly spread among the MSUM coaches, students and student-athletes.
 
"It's a great way to show the progress of our program," said MSUM head football coach Steve Laqua.  "We're proud of our guys and the growth they've made both on and off the field, now we get to share our team's growth with their families and friends back home and Dragon fans across the region."
 
 "It's fun to know that you'll be playing for more than just the people in the stands," said Dragons junior Meghan Roehrich.  "We're playing for the fans and family watching from home too and that's exciting."
 
All Dragons games will feature an audio-only stream through the new Dragons GameCentral portal.  The bottom line is that there are more ways than ever to follow the Dragons this year:
-Over the air antenna on WDAY'Z XTRA channel 6-3 (HD)
-Midcontinent channel 596 (SD)
-CableOne channel 29 (SD) & 1029 (HD)
-WDAY.com (HD)
-New Dragons GameCentral (HD)
-DRAGONS Mobile App (HD)
 
The first Dragons broadcast will be the monthly DragonsLIVE show on the last Wednesday of every month, including August 27^th at 6:30 P.M. on WDAY'Z XTRA. The first game broadcast will be Dragon football versus Minnesota State Mankato on Saturday, Sept. 13^th starting at 12:45 p.m.
 
All DragonsLIVE shows and full game productions will be accessible after their original air-date through the Dragons GameCentral on demand option.
 
For more information, visit MSUMDragons.com/TV or MSUMDragons.com/DragonsLIVE