Whats everyones take?
Two straight weeks of embarassing announcers and "ads" for UM and OSU...should Chryst tell ESPN to shove it, or should we keep on with the way its going?
The phone interviews with BCS players and coaches, while the game is being played, are embarassing also.
Under the current format, I say "shove it". The MAC is only reinforcing the public perception of a lesser league when the air time is used to shill for the BCS big boys.
During MAC broadcasts, the announcers giggle like schoolgirls, talk about any matter that comes to mind, and do bare minimum to keep viewers involved with the game. On a BCS broadcast the announcers treat everything with reverence and disect the most minute details. Clearly they do not put the effort into MAC games.
Final result is that the MAC has decimated the stadium attendance in order to become an infomercial for BCS games. I vote to go back to Saturday games as the rule, with maybe one or two key MAC games per year with ESPN2-8.
I know it hurts your pride to hear OSU/Mich all night and the other crap but that game was on ESPN2 all over the country and Toledo/Ball St. could not ask for a better visibility for their schools/programs. Recruits all over were channel surfing and saw that. Even the announcers were at least people we have heard of.
Unfortunately, it appears to be a double edged sword...... week day games (if shown of ESPN - see CMU VS WMU) certainly make MAC schools more recognizable nationally and that is probably good for
recruiting.
I would be willing to bet that just about every MAC school now has players on their roster they might not have gotten 10 yrs ago because of the increased awareness of the MAC.
The downside is worse attendance numbers for a conference that has had its share of negative publicity for attendance issues. Let's face it - Saturday games are attended better than week day games unless the mid week game is for a conference title or such.
I think the MAC is really prostituting itself too much if they go to having all November games during the week & allowing ESPN to choose those they wish to televise.
Unless your team is in the "hunt" for a MAC title or bowl, late season weeknight games are absolutely attendance-killers, and the obvious lack of interest (by the announcers) in the game at hand is embarassing.
I don't mind the occasional weeknight games, but there have to be limits on this kind of thing......that Sunday night game we (Miami) played against NIU (vs. Saturday afternoon) was a huge attendance downer. Even with our disappointing season, we would have likely had a crowd of 20K on hand to see Wolfe and NIU on a Saturday, given that it was HC and all.....but a Sunday night with a team that had only won once all season adds up to the 12 or 13K we ended up with. Same thing for Toledo's crowd (announced as 16K I heard) last night.
I like being able to see MAC teams on national T.V. even if it means being on on a Tuesday or Sunday, etc. I was also glad to see that they has Spielman up in the booth this week. He at least has some understanding of the MAC and treats the games the same way he does the games he does on Saturday. The guys that they had on two weeks ago during the "fog bowl" were an embarrassment to themselves and the job of announcing.
Agree about Spielman. But my overall impression of the crews that are working these games is that they treat MAC games as (a) an extended promo for the BCS - a.k.a. tOSU vs UM (b) a giggle fest comedy routine
They need to dump Craig James. I'm not all that crazy about Flukie, either and sure didn't miss him last night. Keep Spielman. He was the most professional and attempted to actually treat it as an important game.
No matter what we think, Chryst is committed to this and we are under contract until 2010, I believe. Hopefully, from the comments in the interview with Dave on MRO, it sounds like next year there will be more flexibility in which games get shown. Unfortunately, with the league a bit topsy turvy this year, the games getting national attention on ESPN2 are not those of the MAC's top teams this year.
I know for a fact that the television exposure Toledo has been getting the last few years has brought in some players to Toledo that wouldn't have been here otherwise. RB DaJuane Collins, SS Barry Church, and FS Tyrrell Herbert are just a couple of guys that I know have personally told me that seeing Toledo on ESPN was a major reason they had original interest in Toledo at the beginning of the recruiting process.
rocketman49 Wrote:Whats everyones take?
Two straight weeks of embarassing announcers and "ads" for UM and OSU...should Chryst tell ESPN to shove it, or should we keep on with the way its going?
Shove it. This is a joke.
The sh$t bowl is currently on ESPN 2.
I think it's clear the MAC has angered the football gods by pimping itself out to ESPN. In the past week or so, we have had a Monsoon Game(CMU/WMU), the Fog Bowl (Toledo/NIU), and now the Crappy Mud and Rain contest (BUGS/Miami), all afflicting games played on weeknights. Time to sacrifice middling ESPN exposure to win the football gods' favor back. Not to mention the fans!
Time for BG to invest in Fieldturf......what a mess!
Just another mid week MAC football game on one of the ESPN channels in an empty or nearly empty stadium with the announcers spending much of their time talking abouty something other than the game being broadcast. And if you add the lousy weather we have had for these games over the past few weeks the MAC-ESPN relationship has not produced much that's positive for the conference this year. The conference leadership has to take a long hard look at these week day games and make some adjustments for next year. This isn't working.
exCincy Kid1 Wrote:Time for BG to invest in Fieldturf......what a mess!
Exactly my first thought when I tuned in. Time to join the rest of us and ditch the grass, ...er, mud.
Kind of reminded me of Carnival on Ice at times, only muddier. If it weren't for the helmets, couldn't tell who was who out there.
I do have to wonder what this season's TV games have said to the recruits - especially the kids from Florida. Cold, rain, wind, fog. Looks appealing.
I think the MAC should schedule Kent State, BGSU, Temple, EMU and Buffalo games during mid week next few years. I think the MAC should save its better drawing school those Saturday games. If ESPN is just gonna use the time slot as a infomercial on OSU/Mich then give them a diet of ES-EMU. Just like NBC and Notre Dame.....EMU would be the official wednesday nite team. whoever plays EMU is playing on Wednesday on ESPN2. Make Buffalo the official Tuesday nite team. If EMU and Buffalo play each other then just show it on tuesday....then have espn replay it on wednesday. If ESPNU complains about to many EMU games then tell them to Move Michigan to Wednesday nites so EMU can play on Saturday.
my personal stance on this is that I like the television exposure that Toledo and the MAC is getting, but I don't like it when they talk more about a game coming up when calling a game that night. It just seems like ESPN is using the MAC as ESPN2 filler cause they don't have enough shows on.
I hope Chryst takes notice about how bad the commentary crew and takes is personally. I'm so happy when my UM/OSU fans come up saying that UT is in a crappy conference. [sarcasm] If this is all the MAC is getting out of weekday games....then start investing in basketball!
Or switch broadcast outlets to Versus which would likely schedule more MAC games on weekends.