Quote:Instead of midweek MACtion, what if the MAC played televised games at 9 or 10 ET on Saturday mornings. Saturday IS college football. Why not play on the holy day as the “undercard”? Three hours of “College GameDay” is about two hours too long. Give the fans a game, give the conference some national uncontested exposure. Thoughts? — Scott S.

I don’t hate the idea of a game like that every once in a while — like when a college football game takes place in Ireland — but it doesn’t make much sense for either party from a business standpoint. The television ratings won’t be as good on a Saturday morning as they are for a midweek primetime game. It’s just not as much exposure. It would also create a situation where ESPN is competing against itself by taking away or going up against its “GameDay” broadcast. I’m someone who enjoys watching English Premier League soccer on Saturdays before college football, but that works because of the time difference.

Now, would teams like it? Maybe. Midweek MACtion has its own issues with taking players out of classes, sometimes having short turnarounds for games and limiting the crowd by virtue of the time. We’ve seen the Pac-12 start playing 9 a.m. local times games, and it’s a lot to put on a team, with wake-ups around 4 or 5 a.m. But the purpose of that is for more exposure, by playing at noon ET. I’m not sure 9 a.m. ET MAC games would bring more attention than midweek primetime.

(01-27-2021 09:31 AM)UnknownScout Wrote:  I would argue that 3 hours of College Game Day is 3 hours too long, but 9am Eastern would be 8 Chicago time and that's way way too early for football. It would be 0 tailgating, since who's getting to the stadium at 5 AM for kegs and eggs.. no thanks.

(01-27-2021 09:31 AM)UnknownScout Wrote:  I would argue that 3 hours of College Game Day is 3 hours too long, but 9am Eastern would be 8 Chicago time and that's way way too early for football. It would be 0 tailgating, since who's getting to the stadium at 5 AM for kegs and eggs.. no thanks.

(01-27-2021 10:15 AM)HUSKIEFOOTBALLFAN Wrote:  ESPN wants weekday prime time programming, not early morning programing to compete with Ron Popiel.

(01-27-2021 10:30 AM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  I give the guy an A fit effort but it doesn’t work. Other bold ideas:

-We play the first half Saturday morning from 9:30-11. Take an 8 hour break and play the second half from 9:00-10:30.
-We play a 20 minute game at half time of the B1G game. Like peewee football would.
-We play at 10am Saturday but use a soccer style clock that doesn’t stop and the game is over by 11.

(01-27-2021 11:20 AM)Dog Fan Wrote:  

(01-27-2021 10:30 AM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  I give the guy an A fit effort but it doesn’t work. Other bold ideas:

-We play the first half Saturday morning from 9:30-11. Take an 8 hour break and play the second half from 9:00-10:30.
-We play a 20 minute game at half time of the B1G game. Like peewee football would.
-We play at 10am Saturday but use a soccer style clock that doesn’t stop and the game is over by 11.

Is this guy writing from a mental institution?

(01-27-2021 11:55 AM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  

(01-27-2021 11:20 AM)Dog Fan Wrote:  

(01-27-2021 10:30 AM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  I give the guy an A fit effort but it doesn’t work. Other bold ideas:

-We play the first half Saturday morning from 9:30-11. Take an 8 hour break and play the second half from 9:00-10:30.
-We play a 20 minute game at half time of the B1G game. Like peewee football would.
-We play at 10am Saturday but use a soccer style clock that doesn’t stop and the game is over by 11.

Is this guy writing from a mental institution?

If you took those seriously you should be in the padded cell next to mine.

(01-27-2021 12:01 PM)Dog Fan Wrote:  

(01-27-2021 11:55 AM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  

(01-27-2021 11:20 AM)Dog Fan Wrote:  

(01-27-2021 10:30 AM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  I give the guy an A fit effort but it doesn’t work. Other bold ideas:

-We play the first half Saturday morning from 9:30-11. Take an 8 hour break and play the second half from 9:00-10:30.
-We play a 20 minute game at half time of the B1G game. Like peewee football would.
-We play at 10am Saturday but use a soccer style clock that doesn’t stop and the game is over by 11.

Is this guy writing from a mental institution?

If you took those seriously you should be in the padded cell next to mine.

I like to live life on the edge. Forget the padding. That banging sound you hear is my head hitting the wall.

(01-27-2021 02:08 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  We should ditch ESPN at our earliest opportunity, start scheduling our conference football like the good lord intended on Saturday afternoons, and monetize/televise as best we can. If we lose some "exposure" and a few ESPN bucks so be it. We'll gain a bit back on ticket/parking revenue, and some intangible gains too I would guess (Alumni engagement etc). I know it's been said before...

What was our pre-ESPN TV package. Regional Fox with only some games airing?

I'd be OK moving forward as ESPN's scheduling b*tch if we got some extra hazard pay, but we don't.

How long before we see 20,642 in Huskie stadium at 2:30 pm on a Saturday to watch NIU cornhole Toledo?