Brooklyn DeLeye and UK volleyball will be on national TV 10 times this season. (Vicky Graff Photo)
As the SEC Network celebrates its 10-year anniversary, no one is more appreciative of the opportunities that it has presented than Peter Burns.
He’s a SEC Network host and national radio host for ESPN. He travels across the SEC to various events in different sports each year — tonight at 7 p.m. he be part of a 60-minute SEC volleyball preview with former Louisville All-American Katie George and Missy Whittemore on the Network.
Not bad for a guy who was working in the oil and gas industry in 2003 when he won a contest to host a FoxSports Show that led to him hosting a show on FoxSports Radio for five years starting in 2008 and also hosted a radio show in Denver.
“I had a different route from others. I was basically a sports radio fan who thought he would like to give it a try and that led me to the SEC Network,” Burns said on WPBK-FM Thursday.
Burns obviously likes covering SEC football and basketball but he also enjoys the chances the SEC Network gives him and others to promote other sports, especially women’s sports.
“The SEC Network has obviously helped football but it also helped Nick Mingione and Kentucky baseball,” Burns said. “He can recruit across the country now and tell parents every game will be on TV.
“It has helped volleyball with all these matches on television now. Katie George is really fired up to talk about SEC volleyball. That’s why volleyball, gymnastics, soccer, baseball and other sports have benefited even more from the SEC Network exposure than football and men’s basketball.”
On Thursday it was announced three UK women’s soccer matches will be on national television. Cats take on No. 11 ranked UCLA (Sept. 8) on ESPNU and have their SEC matchups against Vanderbilt (Oct. 13) and Tennessee (Oct. 27) on the SEC Network. All remaining home and SEC games throughout the season can be seen on SECN+, ESPN+, and the ESPN App.
It was also announced that Kentucky volleyball will have 10 national TV matches, including three on ESPN and one on ESPNU. The home match with rival Louisville Sept. 18 kicks off the ESPN schedule and UK’s match with two-time defending national champion Texas Oct. 13 at 1 p.m. in Memorial Coliseum.
2024 Kentucky Volleyball Television Schedule
August 27 – vs. Nebraska (ESPN2, 7pm ET)
Sept. 6 – vs. Penn State (SEC Network, 7pm ET)
Sept. 18 – vs. Louisville (ESPN, 7pm ET)
Sept. 27 – at Auburn (SEC Network, 9pm ET)
Sept. 29 – at Florida (ESPN, 1pm ET)
Oct. 2 – vs. Oklahoma (SEC Network, 8pm ET)
Oct. 6 – vs. Missouri (SEC Network, 1pm ET)
Oct. 13 – vs. Texas (ESPN, 1pm ET)
Nov. 10 – vs. LSU (SEC Network, 4:30pm ET)
Nov. 24 – vs. Arkansas (SEC Network, 4pm ET)
