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Full Version: Daily Chronicle Continues the Comeback (Moving Games Online)
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Moving online intriguing, but not yet realistic, for G5 conferences <-- Daily Chronicle

Quote:If the revenue and ratings are comparable, then obviously that’s a better deal. Goodbye, 8 p.m. Tuesday games, hello midafternoon on a Saturday.

8 pm on a weekday? You mean 6 pm when it's inconvenient for Chicago area fans to get there. Not to mention these game times do nothing for DeKalb business.


Quote:Five minutes isn’t going to make a difference for mid-week games. The easiest solution for conference is to name it’s own start time and move online. We’re not there yet, but it’s probably just a matter of time.

It can't happen soon enough when the MAC or at least NIU dictates start times. I realize some weekday games are here to stay, but ESPN has all but killed NIU MAC play with 6 pm starts and 5 pm away game starts. They turned the MAC into a DVR league.

#TakeBackTheMAC
Any chance of getting our games back on Saturdays is encouraging.
Honestly, with ESPN looking to cut expenses, the MAC should offer to take a cut in pay so we can dictate our schedules again. ESPN3 could televise all the Saturday games. Or once the conference figures out how to televise their own games online offer ESPN to drop the contract completely and both sides agree to part ways with no penalty. I doubt ESPN cares if they lost MAC football games.
(08-03-2017 12:22 PM)epasnoopy Wrote: [ -> ]Honestly, with ESPN looking to cut expenses, the MAC should offer to take a cut in pay so we can dictate our schedules again. ESPN3 could televise all the Saturday games. Or once the conference figures out how to televise their own games online offer ESPN to drop the contract completely and both sides agree to part ways with no penalty. I doubt ESPN cares if they lost MAC football games.

I was thinking the same thing but then thought that was unlikely because MAC football is probably inexpensive programming that gets them halfway decent ratings.
(08-03-2017 12:22 PM)epasnoopy Wrote: [ -> ]Honestly, with ESPN looking to cut expenses, the MAC should offer to take a cut in pay so we can dictate our schedules again. ESPN3 could televise all the Saturday games. Or once the conference figures out how to televise their own games online offer ESPN to drop the contract completely and both sides agree to part ways with no penalty. I doubt ESPN cares if they lost MAC football games.

If you look back to the 2000s before the ESPN deal ramped up to its current state, half of the MAC couldn't even draw a decent crowd on Saturday. Schools like Ball State, EMU, Akron, Kent, and Buffalo have always had attendance issues regardless of what day they play. Based on that, I doubt you could muster enough support across the league to get out of the deal. This deal was sought at the direction of the schools and I would guess many of them are just fine with it.
(08-03-2017 05:38 PM)HuskieTap22 Wrote: [ -> ]
(08-03-2017 12:22 PM)epasnoopy Wrote: [ -> ]Honestly, with ESPN looking to cut expenses, the MAC should offer to take a cut in pay so we can dictate our schedules again. ESPN3 could televise all the Saturday games. Or once the conference figures out how to televise their own games online offer ESPN to drop the contract completely and both sides agree to part ways with no penalty. I doubt ESPN cares if they lost MAC football games.

If you look back to the 2000s before the ESPN deal ramped up to its current state, half of the MAC couldn't even draw a decent crowd on Saturday. Schools like Ball State, EMU, Akron, Kent, and Buffalo have always had attendance issues regardless of what day they play. Based on that, I doubt you could muster enough support across the league to get out of the deal. This deal was sought at the direction of the schools and I would guess many of them are just fine with it.

I think a huge thing is that for big conference games, fans showed up on the weekend. You obviously can't say that anymore. So glad to see ESPN might be on the way out and that MAC fanbases might be able to grow again.
Let's remember it's not just fans in the seats, but the donations that go with the seats, etc. It will take a long time to rebuild this.
(08-03-2017 06:05 PM)HUSKIEFOOTBALLFAN Wrote: [ -> ]It will take a long time to rebuild this.

+1 and an excellent point. This decimation of MAC fanbases has been going on sine 2007 or 2008 and it won't be cured overnight. We lost a generation of fans from it and it has been in place long enough that it is going to take a very long time to recover from.
(08-03-2017 05:38 PM)HuskieTap22 Wrote: [ -> ]
(08-03-2017 12:22 PM)epasnoopy Wrote: [ -> ]Honestly, with ESPN looking to cut expenses, the MAC should offer to take a cut in pay so we can dictate our schedules again. ESPN3 could televise all the Saturday games. Or once the conference figures out how to televise their own games online offer ESPN to drop the contract completely and both sides agree to part ways with no penalty. I doubt ESPN cares if they lost MAC football games.

If you look back to the 2000s before the ESPN deal ramped up to its current state, half of the MAC couldn't even draw a decent crowd on Saturday. Schools like Ball State, EMU, Akron, Kent, and Buffalo have always had attendance issues regardless of what day they play. Based on that, I doubt you could muster enough support across the league to get out of the deal. This deal was sought at the direction of the schools and I would guess many of them are just fine with it.

I think you raise a good point. It is my opinion that NIU has taken a bigger hit than other MAC schools with the weekday games.

Also being in Central Time is taking a huge hit this year.
(08-03-2017 06:19 PM)HUSKIEFOOTBALLFAN Wrote: [ -> ]
(08-03-2017 05:38 PM)HuskieTap22 Wrote: [ -> ]
(08-03-2017 12:22 PM)epasnoopy Wrote: [ -> ]Honestly, with ESPN looking to cut expenses, the MAC should offer to take a cut in pay so we can dictate our schedules again. ESPN3 could televise all the Saturday games. Or once the conference figures out how to televise their own games online offer ESPN to drop the contract completely and both sides agree to part ways with no penalty. I doubt ESPN cares if they lost MAC football games.

If you look back to the 2000s before the ESPN deal ramped up to its current state, half of the MAC couldn't even draw a decent crowd on Saturday. Schools like Ball State, EMU, Akron, Kent, and Buffalo have always had attendance issues regardless of what day they play. Based on that, I doubt you could muster enough support across the league to get out of the deal. This deal was sought at the direction of the schools and I would guess many of them are just fine with it.

I think you raise a good point. It is my opinion that NIU has taken a bigger hit than other MAC schools with the weekday games.

Also being in Central Time is taking a huge hit this year.

Also, until the new trend of scheduling the whole conference to play during the week, NIU was disproportionately put in the weekday slots because they were one of the better teams and consistently drew the best ratings. Now, no one is playing on Saturday in November so it doesn't really matter.
I get so enraged when thinking about our terrible conference. They don't even have the balls to share the financials of their deal, what a joke.
"It’s important to mention a couple of big caveats here. First, the MAC’s current agreement with ESPN runs through 2027. So nothing is likely to change for a very, very long time."

Many of us on this board hope to be alive 10 years down the road. No chance of seeing this TV contract change in our lifetime. Sad.
Does anyone think any kid wants to be internet only? You would get more coverage/exposure in FCS post-season. Might as well go FCS.

Can't figure out how a deal can't be made in Chicago area to be televised. Seems stations have no problem showing a Kent/Akron or Wake/Syracuse game locally.

Weekdays kill the fanbase but at least it allows them to get exposure. You want Saturday internet drop down a class.
couple things....

Just because it's a long contract, doesn't mean ESPN won't sell rights. They did just that a few years ago with CBS Sports Network.

Every single tech giant has hired teams solely responsible for live sports streaming. There's a huge demand for it and a **** ton of money to be made. Wish the MAC would be smart enough to jump on it.
(08-03-2017 07:35 PM)randyfensfanclub1 Wrote: [ -> ]Does anyone think any kid wants to be internet only? You would get more coverage/exposure in FCS post-season. Might as well go FCS.

Can't figure out how a deal can't be made in Chicago area to be televised. Seems stations have no problem showing a Kent/Akron or Wake/Syracuse game locally.

Weekdays kill the fanbase but at least it allows them to get exposure. You want Saturday internet drop down a class.

The exposure argument holds no water In fact playing weekdays exposes you as sub FBS, a league of its own. Kids want to play in front of people, not aluminum
like or not cord cutting is the future. So whether kids like it or not they will be playing their games while fans stream them. People are already ditching cable every day, that's only going to continue. The MWC is getting ahead of it, the MAC is screwed by their terrible media deal. I would typically have trust that the league could work it out, but the MAC is run by people who accepted this deal, so i'm not too confident.
(08-04-2017 07:54 AM)DogPoundNorth Wrote: [ -> ]like or not cord cutting is the future. So whether kids like it or not they will be playing their games while fans stream them. People are already ditching cable every day, that's only going to continue. The MWC is getting ahead of it, the MAC is screwed by their terrible media deal. I would typically have trust that the league could work it out, but the MAC is run by people who accepted this deal, so i'm not too confident.

No worries. I'm sure Dr. Jon will be reaching out with a MAC Advisory Board soon. 02-13-banana
(08-04-2017 12:29 AM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote: [ -> ]
(08-03-2017 07:35 PM)randyfensfanclub1 Wrote: [ -> ]Does anyone think any kid wants to be internet only? You would get more coverage/exposure in FCS post-season. Might as well go FCS.

Can't figure out how a deal can't be made in Chicago area to be televised. Seems stations have no problem showing a Kent/Akron or Wake/Syracuse game locally.

Weekdays kill the fanbase but at least it allows them to get exposure. You want Saturday internet drop down a class.

The exposure argument holds no water In fact playing weekdays exposes you as sub FBS, a league of its own. Kids want to play in front of people, not aluminum

ESPN weekdays gives national exposure. You have kids watching you who might not even know who you are.

Is it better than being on Saturdays? No. Is it better than internet, yes. But Saturdays isn't an option, other than somehow being picked up locally if not on nationally. We aren't recruiting against P5 as much as people want to claim. But we are against schools like Wyoming who somehow are getting decent Chicago area 2nds and 3rds.
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