The National Lacrosse League today announced a seventeen-game schedule of telecasts on Versus during the 2007 season, including the All Star Game and the NLL Championship Game.

The television deal with Versus, formerly known as OLN, is the league's first weekly American cable television deal since a one-year run on the now-defunct CNN/SI in 2002.

Unlike with that deal, all games on Versus will air at the same time -- Saturday nights at 10:00 PM Eastern (alas, tape delay in almost all cases).

The Versus schedule kicks off Saturday, 30 December in Denver, where the Colorado Mammoth will begin defense of its 2006 NLL championship against the Rochester Knighthawks.

In January, Versus will cover the home debuts of the expansion Chicago Shamrox (6 January) and New York Titans (20 January).

After a heavy dose of Toronto and Phildelphia from late January to early March, Versus heads west to Portland for the All Star Game, on 10 March.

Versus' coverage will not include the division playoffs, but the network is slated to televise the NLL Championship Game, on Saturday, 12 May.

The hot destinations for Versus appear to be Philadelphia (four home games), Chicago (three) and Colorado (three), with the Wings drawing the most appearances of any team (six total).

Versus will televise games from eight of the thirteen NLL cities, and will cover every team at least once, except for Arizona and Edmonton.

The 2007 Versus television schedule is as follows:

Sat 30 Dec             Rochester @ Colorado    
Sat  6 Jan              New York @ Chicago     
Sat 13 Jan               Buffalo @ Colorado    
Sat 20 Jan               Chicago @ New York    
Sat 27 Jan               Toronto @ Philadelphia
Sat  3 Feb               Buffalo @ Toronto     
Sat 10 Feb          Philadelphia @ Calgary     
Sat 17 Feb               Buffalo @ Philadelphia
Sat 24 Feb              Portland @ Colorado    
Sat  3 Mar             Rochester @ Philadelphia
Sat 10 Mar         All Star Game @ Portland    
Sat 17 Mar             Rochester @ Chicago     
Sat 24 Mar              San Jose @ Portland    
Sat 31 Mar              Colorado @ Minnesota   
Sat  7 Apr              New York @ Philadelphia
Sat 14 Apr          Philadelphia @ Chicago