The pay-per-view industry will help kick off the upcoming college basketball season with an October 28 charity game between top-ranked teams Gonzaga and Tennessee.

PPV content aggregator In Demand and its digital service PPV.com will exclusively distribute the inaugural Legends of Basketball Classic exhibition game pitting the No. 2 Bulldogs against the No. 11 Volunteers in a charity event, with the proceeds benefiting the McLendon Foundation, according to the company. The event will retail at a suggested PPV price of $9.99.

While the PPV event category has historically featured ring sports including boxing, mixed martial arts and pro wrestling, In Demand senior VP of programming and marketing Mark Boccardi said the college basketball game helps expand the breadth of programming offered via the PPV platform.

"This is a tremendous tip-off to the unofficial start of this year's college basketball season," Boccardi said. "Having this game on PPV gives fans a unique opportunity to see a fantastic pre-season exhibition game between two of the highest-ranked teams in college basketball. It’s got a March Madness feel and we’re only in October."

Basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla will serve as play-by-play announcer for the game along with Gonzaga college basketball broadcaster Tom Hudson and Tennessee alum and college basketball analyst Dane Bradshaw. Fans purchasing the event on PPV.com will be able to participate in an interactive live chat during the game with reporter Andy Katz, said the company.

“We’re really excited for a new fan base of college basketball fans to watch on our platform,” Boccardi added.

Also on PPV this weekend is Showtime’s October 29 boxing card headlined by a bout between YouTube star Jake Paul and former UFC mixed martial arts champion Anderson Silva. ■

With pro football games off the schedule this weekend (ahead of Super Bowl LV on CBS on Feb. 7), college basketball takes center court, with many of the sport's top-ranked teams in play on Saturday and Sunday. 

On Saturday, No. 1 Gonzaga will battle Pepperdine on ESPN2, while second-ranked Baylor will host Auburn on ESPN and third-ranked Villanova will travel to face Seton Hall on Fox. Eighth-ranked Virginia will meet 20th-ranked Virginia Tech on ACC Network, ninth-ranked Alabama will meet 24th-ranked Oklahoma on ESPN and tenth-ranked Texas Tech will go to battle LSU on ESPN2. On Sunday, sixth-ranked Houston will host SMU on ESPN. 

The NBA will tip off a Saturday primetime NBA matchup between the champion Los Angeles Lakers at the Boston Celtics on ABC, while NBA TV will air a doubleheader on Sunday featuring the Utah Jazz vs Denver Nuggets and the Brooklyn Nets and Washington Wizards. 

CBS and Golf Channel will split afternoon coverage of the PGA Farmers Insurance Open on both Saturday and Sunday, while NBC and NBCSN will offer three Premier League Soccer games on Saturday (Everton vs. Newcastle United, Manchester City vs. Sheffield United and Arsenal vs. Manchester United). 

Fox will step into the boxing ring for a primetime Saturday night fight card telecast, led by the Caleb Plant-Caleb Truax super middleweight championship fight.

The TV sports lineup for the first weekend of December will feature some of the top ranked college football and basketball teams as well as a major pay-per-view boxing event. 

College football will enter the final leg of its regular season with several key matchups, including a primetime matchup between top-ranked Alabama and LSU (CBS) and afternoon games featuring fifth-ranked Texas A&M at Auburn (ESPN), fourth-ranked Ohio State (pictured) at Michigan State (ABC), and third-ranked Clemson at Virginia Tech (ABC).

Boxing will once again take center stage in the pay-per-view combat sports ring with Fox Sports’ Errol Spence-Danny Garcia welterweight championship fight. The fight, which will retail at $74.95, will pit two of the top welterweight fighters in the sport.

The NFL will look to complete its week 13 Sunday schedule without any major COVID-19-related postponements outside of moving its Baltimore Ravens-Dallas Cowboys Dec. 3 Thursday Night Football game to Tuesday (Dec. 8) and Sunday's Washington Team-Pittsburgh Steelers games to Monday (Dec. 7.)  NBC’s primetime Sunday Night Football game features an AFC West matchup between the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs.

College basketball will feature an early matchup of top-ranked teams as number one Gonzaga plays second-ranked Baylor Saturday afternoon (CBS), while 12th-ranked Villanova travels to play 17th-ranked Texas (ESPN). 

NBC and NBCSN will continue its coverage of Premier League soccer games on Saturday and Sunday, while ESPN on Sunday will televise the Sakhir Grand Prix Formula One auto racing event.

CBS’ Monday night coverage of the North Carolina-Gonzaga NCAA college basketball tournament finals drew neatly 9 million social media interactions, Nielsen reported Tuesday. 

The game, won by the Tar Heels, drew 8.6 million Facebook and Twitter interactions from more than 3.4 million unique social media accounts, according to Nielsen.

On the entertainment Tv front, the USA Network’s WWE Monday Night Raw was the most social show on April 3, generating 858,000 social media interactions from 411,000 unique accounts, according to Nielsen. VH1’s Love And Hip Hop: Atlanta, ABC’s Dancing With The Stars, NBC’s The Voice, and Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor rounded out the top five most social TV shows for the day, according to Nielsen.