ODU's fans helped attract Fox TV to Foreman Field

When he’s relaxing in his den, Old Dominion athletic director Wood Selig likes to channel surf as much as anyone. And what he's looking for when he's watching college football is probably the same as any other fan.

“There’s nothing worse from a viewer’s perspective than to be flipping sports channels and landing on a football game where there’s no one in the stands,” Selig said.

“You’ll flip off of that game quicker than anything regardless of the teams. If no one cares enough to go to that game, why should I sit there and watch it at home?”

Which is precisely, Selig said, why ODU landed three home games on the Fox Sports college football schedule released Thursday afternoon by Conference USA.

ODU has sold out all 35 home games it has played in five seasons. Yes, with 20,118 seats, Foreman Field is under-sized by Football Championship Subdivision standards. But the seats are full and the crowds generally loud.

“Our TV partners know that they’re pretty much guaranteed that any ODU game will be made for TV viewing, Selig said. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing or when, it's going to look good on TV.”

ODU’s first Conference USA game ever at Rice on Oct. 20 will be televised either nationally on Fox Sports 1 or on Fox’s regional networks. That will be followed by back to back televised home games with Middle Tennessee State on Friday, Sept. 26, and Marshall on Oct. 4.

Middle Tennessee will be broadcast by Fox Sports 1. Marshall will be televised by either Fox Sports 1 or the Fox regional networks.

If Rice and Marshall are picked up by Fox Sports 1, it would give ODU national TV exposure three weekends in a row.

ODU’s final home game against Louisiana Tech on Nov. 22 will be televised by Fox College Sports. Road games on Sept. 6 at North Carolina State (ESPN3) and Nov. 1 at Vanderbilt (network to be announced) will also be televised.

ODU is negotiating with Cox Communications to broadcast two more home games locally, and that seems virtually certain to occur. In addition, road games at Texas-El Paso on Oct. 11 and Western Kentucky on Oct. 25 may be broadcast by those schools. If so, the broadcasts are likely to be picked up in Hampton Roads.

At a minimum, ODU will have eight of its 12 games televised, and that number could grow to ten. ODU was on TV six times last season, the most in the school’s five-year history.

“That’s one of the major reasons we moved up to FBS and Conference USA,” Selig said. “We’re so far ahead of where we were with television exposure than we were when we were in FCS.”

Kickoff times for most ODU games haven’t yet been announced, but Middle Tennessee will start at 8 p.m. The late starting time was requested by ODU, Selig said, so the game would interfere as little as possible with afternoon classes.

“They accommodated our request,” Selig said of Fox Sports and C-USA. “We want to be fair to our students and our employees. We also wanted to give our fans as much pre-game tailgating time as possible. It worked out perfectly.

“This is our first Friday night game, and that’s generally a night when there’s a lot of activity on campus. Every constituency on campus has been outstanding to work with in that regard. Everyone is doing everything they can to make this work.”