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 Mike HlasHi, I'm Gazette/TheGazette.com sports columnist Mike Hlas. This is the Hlog. We will meet here, discuss things, and then go [...] |
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Iowa’s first football game this season: Not guaranteed to be televised
Last year's Wisconsin-Northern Illinois game was Internet-only
When this has a definitive answer, I’ll give it to you the moment I get it. But for now, there is no traditional telecast scheduled for the Sept. 1 football game between Iowa and Northern Illinois at Chicago’s Soldier Field.
Now, don’t panic. There’s time, and necessity is the mother of invention, and a rolling stone gathers no moss. But Northern Illinois played Wisconsin at Soldier last Sept. 17, and … no television. The only way to watch the game live was via ESPN3.com on the World Wide Web.
Iowa beat NIU 16-3 at Soldier in 2007 (AP photo)
Who do you know who has a 50-inch laptop screen? I know some people watch the Internet on their TVs, but the world in general isn’t wired that way just yet.
Northern Illinois is the home team for Iowa-NIU, so the Mid-American Conference has the television rights. ESPN Regional TV retains the “local and regional” syndication telecast rights. So maybe the game will be made available to Iowa stations via syndication.
But the Wisconsin-NIU game last year wasn’t.
About two weeks ago, I e-mailed NIU Associate Athletic Director for Communications Donna Stewart to ask what the TV scenario for Iowa-NIU was. Her reply:
Sorry, MAC has not released its TV schedule yet. Probably some time in June.
Last week, I asked Big Ten Senior Associate Commissioner Mark Rudner about the possibilities. He said the situation could — could — turn out to be the same as Wisconsin-NIU last year. He said the chances of the game somehow ending up on the Big Ten Network were nil.
When the Hawkeyes and Huskies played in Chicago in 2007 (Iowa won, 16-3. Charles Godfrey, pictured, had two interceptions.), the game was televised by ESPNU. That would seem to be a possibility this go-round. So cling to that, I guess.
But if this is an ESPN3.com-only deal, the solution is simple. Just fire up your PC or laptop or smart phone and watch the game on that. And you can watch another game or two or three on cable/dish at the same time. Like Northern Iowa-Wisconsin in Madison. That will be televised for sure, since it’s a Big Ten team’s home game.
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There is no reason that a BCS school should EVER have to play a ROAD game at a MAC school and not be televised. I vote to never play a game like this again if we cannot watch it on a television through a normal broadcast – even it’s the ultra-cruddy ESPNU channel. The game is in the city of the headquarters of the Big Ten Network, correct? Why, in heaven’s name, should a MAC team EVER be a home team against the B1G, especially if it keeps the game from being broadcast?
There are good reasons Iowa agreed to this game (and the one in 2007). I believe they had to pay NIU next to nothing when Huskies came to Iowa City, and in return Iowa gets to play an “away” game in Chicago. Lots of alums and Iowa fans there, Iowa gets to play in a non-conference game away from Iowa City but still on favorable footing.
As far as the TV, we can complain but that’s just how the system works. The home team controls the TV broadcasts. Iowa will never play a true road game at a MAC school (last time they did was at Miami-Ohio in 2002, but it’s one of the tradeoffs you get for agreeing to a neutral site game. As it is, I believe Iowa will clear north of $1 million for playing in this game, so it’s a good deal for the school and for a lot of Iowa fans who otherwise don’t get to go to games.
It’s a great question, Mike. Just don’t expect even an adequate answer. Every time we give up one of these games that would have been played t home (DeKalb? Really? Never happen), we cut into our revenue and our exposure. There was nothing magic about the Soldier Field game against NIU in 2007, and there is nothing magic about it now. Who gains from this? Soldier Field? Maybe, but just no one else that I know of. Play these things in Kinnick, issue the annual MAC whuppin’ and let it go at that.
I disagree that Iowa doesn’t gain. This game probably isn’t replacing a game in Dekalb. Since Iowa isn’t having 4 non-conf home games, it’s probably replacing a game at another BCS school. That’s what has usually happened lately the years that ISU is at Kinnick. So instead of going to Pitt, for example, Iowa gets to play at a sold out pro stadium with probably 2/3 Iowa fans. They get to “give back” to one of Iowa’s largest alumni bases and likely have lower travel costs. And they’re being paid a million dollars to do it. Seems like a pretty good gain for Iowa. The TV issue is pretty bad, but the rest of the deal is pretty good.
Rupert:
Great points, and I agree with all of them save one: the “pretty bad” TV issue weighs more heavily than you may think. Soldier Field holds what – 67,000 people – and that’s all that can really watch the game live. The ESPN3.com thing isn’t very good – and I’ve got a fast connection too. The million is nice – but not worth as much to MOST fans as seeing the game itself live. Just my opinion….then again, as Mike said, it still may be broadcast somewhere – even one of those junk ESPN “regionial” digital affiliates. As long as Mike is working on this for Hawk Fans, I’m sure it will be a positive outcome.
Rupert, I mentioned DeKalb only because this is a “home game” for NIU, and it takes any coverage from the Big Ten network off the table. And to what purpose? If we are not allowed to have more than seven home games, how about a game someon could have some interest in? Like NOTRE DAME! How many years have we gone without playing them? Beat NIU in Chicago? Yawn! Beat the Irish in South Bend? A little different. We have too many cupcakes on the slate as it is. I see no reason to play them in a game no one will see outside the stadium.