The YES Network, SUNY Cortland and Ithaca College have announced that the 2026 Cortaca Jug football rivalry game - taking place on Sat., Nov. 14 at 1 p.m. at Yankee Stadium - will be broadcast by the YES Network, the most-watched regional sports network in the United States.

The game, presented by Visions Federal Credit Union, will be available to all YES Network subscribers. Non-subscribers will be able to view a free live stream of the game via the DAZN platform, which the YES Network recently partnered with.

The YES Network's Chris Shearn will handle play-by-play duties for the telecast and will be joined in the booth by Cortland broadcaster Nevan Kearney, with Cortland student Brad Erceg serving as a sideline reporter and Cortland Director of Athletics Broadcasting Liam Sample with a halftime report. Ithaca College students also will serve in color commentary and sideline reporting roles.

Tickets for the game are also still available for purchase at www.cortland.edu/cortaca-tickets or ticketmaster.com (search for Cortaca).

The YES Network previously broadcast the first time the Cortaca Jug game was held at Yankee Stadium in 2022. That game drew 40,232 fans, the second-largest attendance in Division III football history behind only the 45,161 crowd at the 2019 Cortaca Jug game at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Since 2010, only eight of 25 football games at Yankee Stadium have drawn more than 40,000 fans — four involving Notre Dame, two with Penn State, the Division I Lafayette-Lehigh rivalry game, and the 2022 Cortaca Jug game.

"We're very excited for this year's Cortaca Jug game to return to the YES Network, offering a unique opportunity to showcase Red Dragon pride on an even larger stage," said SUNY Cortland President Erik J. Bitterbaum. "Of course, we hope to see a historic showing of Cortland fans at Yankee Stadium on gameday. But this broadcast will bring the biggest little game to one of the biggest regional sports networks in the U.S., highlighting SUNY Cortland in a truly extraordinary way."

The YES Network, America's preeminent regional sports network, owns the exclusive regional media rights to the 27-time World Champion New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Nets. In addition to live Yankees and Nets games and related pregame and postgame coverage, YES televises numerous Yankees-and Nets-themed original programs such as its Homegrown series, The Stadium, Yankees Magazine and Nets Magazine. The network also airs Yankees minor league games, original biography, interview and magazine programs, college sports and AC Milan soccer. YES has earned 161 Emmy Awards since its 2002 launch.

Once referred to by Sports Illustrated as "the biggest little game in the nation," the Cortaca Jug was first introduced to the Cortland-Ithaca football rivalry in 1959, when Cortland football captain Tom Decker '61 stopped at a yard sale and purchased a $2 jug from a local farmer, thinking it could be used as a trophy for the annual game between the two teams. After meeting up with friend and Ithaca football captain Dick Carmean, the two painted the jug blue, gold, red and white in honor of both schools' colors.

The teams currently have a combined 13-1 record this season. Cortland, ranked 11th nationally by both the American Football Coaches Association and D3football.com, is 7-0 overall and leads the Empire 8 with a 5-0 record. Ithaca has won six straight games since losing its season opener, and the Bombers lead the Liberty League with a 5-0 record.