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.
Why it matters
Alumni are upset the biggest rivalry game in years will not be televised nationally
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.
