Blacked out

University alumni once again are up in arms about how the athletics
department is scheduling football games.

And they have every right to be.

Tonight’s football game against Western Michigan was booked at the
beginning of the season to possibly air on either ESPN Classic or ESPNU.

The key word there is possibly.

ESPN never promised the game would air to a national audience.

However, acting on a hunch, both universities, as well as the
Mid-American Conference, decided to schedule the game on a Friday night.

Big rivalry, national audience — what  could be better for CMU,
right?

Wrong.

As the season progressed, ESPN realized it couldn’t televise the
game on any of its networks — the only option was ESPN 360, ESPN’s
Internet service.

Once CMU AD Dave Heeke, Western AD Kathy Beauregard and Mid-American
Conference Commissioner Rick Chryst found this out last week, they
scrambled to come up with a contingency plan.

One of those plans was to move the game to Saturday — so as to
garner a larger Kelly/Shorts Stadium audience. But it was too late;
game preparations already were in place.

Beauregard even said in a Wednesday Central Michigan Life story she
knew the risks associated with taking the chance and booking the game
on a Friday night.

Well, unfortunately for Beauregard, Heeke and Chryst, their hunch
backfired.

They were willing to sacrifice a sellout at Kelly/Shorts for some
national exposure — which makes sense. Everyone knows coach Brian Kelly
and Heeke want as much national exposure as possible.

But to risk it without knowing for sure the game would be on the
ESPN family is irresponsible — for CMU, WMU and the MAC.

And both universities assuredly are hearing the dull roar from
out-of-state alumni who can no longer watch the game because Comcast
Local is just that — local.

Tonight’s matchup against Western Michigan will be the biggest
football game in the storied rivalry since the Chippewas beat the
Broncos 22-10 in 1980 in Kalamazoo.

Tonight’s winner will all but assure itself a place in the
Mid-American Conference Championship game Nov. 30 in Detroit.

But having the game tonight most likely means Kelly/Shorts will have
some empty seats — seats that would have been filled had the game been
played at the usual 1 p.m. Saturday time.

CMU ran into this problem — only much worse — on Oct. 19, when just
11,262 fans showed up at Kelly/Shorts.

While many more than 11,000 fans will show tonight, a sell-out won’t.

The game should have been scheduled for Saturday to begin with.
Missing out on a marginal national audience is a small price to pay for
a sell-out crowd.

Any alumnus or alumna will agree.