The bids are in. Now the waiting begins.

Maine Broadcasting System and Bangor stations WABI (Channel 5) and WVII (Channel 7) have submitted bids to the NCAA for television rights to the University of Maine-University of Connecticut NCAA women’s basketball game Thursday night at Storrs, Conn., officials said Monday.

Maine Broadcasting is WCSH (Channel 6) in Portland and WLBZ (Channel 2) in Bangor.

Originally, the NCAA was expected to pick a bid by late Monday afternoon, but a delay in deciding which Connecticut station got production rights pushed back the decision.

According to the Hartford Courant, the NCAA awarded production rights to Connecticut Public Television late Monday afternoon. Then the bids came faxing in.

“We talked to them around 3:45 p.m., and they still hadn’t picked the station,” said Mike Marshall, general manager of WCSH. “We never heard back, but faxed in a bid just to be safe.”

“I expect to have an answer first thing tomorrow morning,” said Mike Young, WABI’s general manager.

“I’m encouraged because I was told they’re evaluating bids solely on a market-by-market basis – meaning they’ll take the best offer in each market,” Young added. “So we’re competing against WLBZ and WVII, not Maine Broadcasting and WVII.”

Even after its bid is selected, the winning station will still have to negotiate a contract with CPTV.

Marshall and Young indicated their preference, should their bids be accepted, would be to send their announcers to call the game – plus maybe an extra camera crew.

“That’s one of the options we’re considering,” said Marshall.

“We would take (CPTV’s) feed, but also send one of our own announcers down to do color commentary,” said Bernard Chase, WVII’s vice president and general manager.

Whichever station the NCAA picks will be a big winner because this is an exclusive TV contract. That means the winning station is the only one allowed to film live game action. Other stations cannot even air a 30-second spot during a game.

Bangor radio station WABI (910 AM) will air the game live.

TV rights to the women’s NCAA regional finals are held by ESPN. CBS has rights to the women’s Final Four.