CSNbbs

Release from the MAC:

The Sept. 5 Friday night ESPN televised game between Ball State and Navy was viewed in nearly 1.2 million homes, making it the best regular-season national television rating for a MAC home game since 2005.

The 1.2 rating translated into 1,164,083 homes for the telecast from Shuemann Stadium in Muncie. The 1.2 rating was the best since the Sept. 9, 2005 Ohio upset of Pitt, which drew a 1.6 rating and was viewed by 1.4 million households.

The MAC’s September ESPN Family of Networks television schedule includes Fresno State at Toledo (Sept. 20 ESPNU), and Akron at Army (Sept. 20 ESPN Classic). The MAC’s ESPN Plus September syndicated package will feature Temple at Buffalo on Sept. 13, and Sept. 27 doubleheader - Kent State at Ball State and Northern Illinois at Eastern Michigan. The MAC/ESPN Plus package reaches a potential viewing audience in excess of 20 million homes.

Excellent news.

Don't forget that MIA and Ohio got nice TV bumps playing very strong games against two teams (UofM and OSU) which draw very, very well on the tube.

Should be interesting to see how TU / UB do on TV Saturday, esp. in the Philly and Buffalo markets.

I'm guessing that 2005 game was us against Pitt.

Great news for the MAC. The MAC needs to leverage its ratings going into the next round of TV negotiations.

I don't understand why the MAC doesn't have a game every saturday on ESPN Classic. I would be for dropping to ESPN Classic and ESPNU if it would give us Saturday 2pm time slots. That would be much better than random mid week action.

Airport KC Wrote:Great news for the MAC. The MAC needs to leverage its ratings going into the next round of TV negotiations.

I agree with KC on this. Need some strong teams with marque players to get some nice ratings ala BSU's game.

Maybe Dave can find out when the TV negotiations will begin (probably silently).

I assume that a new deal will be negotiated a year BEFORE the current contract will expire.

I believe that is very common in sports.

Plus it was a showcase game for the Cardinals...sold out stadium and a nice win over a well regarded program in Navy.

exCincy Kid Wrote:Plus it was a showcase game for the Cardinals...sold out stadium and a nice win over a well regarded program in Navy.

Agree.

I watched the game on a large HD TV and it showed beautifully.

It was as picture perfect MAC show as one will find.

I could NOT find one thing which wasn't perfect for TV.

All of the students in red, students in the end zone, beautiful shots of the new triple deck press box (I believe two levels of expensive sets),, etc.

and, of course, the game didn't have to compete with dozens of other TV games.

That game last Friday night was like no other game ever played at Ball State. It was a thrill just to be there. What a stroke of good fortune for Ball State and the MAC to have this game shown live on ESPN.