June 8, 2005

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ----- The University of Alabama at Birmingham and ISP Sports have reached an agreement that provides the company, the national leader in collegiate sports marketing, with exclusive multi-media rights to UAB Athletics for the next five years.

With the partnership, the university is guaranteed an annual rights fee and will share in additional revenues as well. In consideration, ISP Sports receives the rights to all sales and marketing opportunities associated with Blazer sports, including the UAB radio network for all sports, print advertising in various athletic department publications, and all signage in university athletic facilities.

"We are very excited about our new partnership with ISP Sports and look forward to working with the ISP staff in the years to come," UAB Director of Athletics Watson Brown says. "ISP has had an extremely strong presence in college athletics nationally, regionally and within our own state with its associations with Auburn and Alabama."

UAB is the 25th major NCAA athletic program to align itself with ISP Sports, joining fellow-Conference USA members Houston, Marshall, Southern Miss, Tulane and UCF as a partner with the Winston-Salem, N.C.-based company. The list of ISP schools includes other prominent NCAA Division I institutions such as Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, UCLA, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.

Additionally, ISP is a joint venture partner with Learfield Communications of Jefferson City, Mo., as the multimedia rightsholder for Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Miami and South Carolina.

"We are delighted to be associated with a program that is rapidly earning a position of prominence not just in the Southeast but across the country," ISP Sports president and CEO Ben Sutton says.

"ISP Sports has very solid and productive existing associations within Conference USA, one of the premier conferences in America. We are excited about establishing a new relationship in that family and developing a true corporate partner program in the Birmingham market and nationally as well on behalf of UAB Athletics."