Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Announce Partnership With ESPN Regional
August 03, 2000 | Football
Aug. 3, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Bowling Green State University Director of Athletics Paul Krebs has announced an agreement between BGSU athletics and ESPN Regional television, resulting in three additional Falcon football games hitting the airwaves this fall. The addition of the three games - Pittsburgh (Sept. 9), Temple (Sept. 16) and Marshall (Nov. 4) - brings the total of televised Falcon football games to five. The Falcons' season opener at Michigan (Sept. 2) and the regular-season final‚ at Toledo (Nov. 22) already have been scheduled for television broadcast.
The Pittsburgh game will be televised on a regional network of stations, including TV-5 (WB) in Toledo, and will be the ESPN Regional Television BIG EAST Conference Game of the Week. The lengthy list of stations planning to air the Pittsburgh-at-BGSU contest also includes:
* WABC (New York) * WPVI (Philadelphia) * WCVB (Boston) * WHOT (Atlanta - independent) * WFTS (Tampa/St. Petersburg) *WPLG (Miami/Ft. Lauderdale) * WTAE (Pittsburgh) * WAV (Indianapolis - independent) * WTXX (Hartford/New Haven - UPN) * WPBF (West Palm Beach/Fort Pierce) * WNGS (Buffalo - UPN) * WSWB (Wilkes Barre/Scranton - WB) * WJXX (Jacksonville/Brunswick) * WWRD (Dayton - independent) * WCHS (Charleston/Huntington) * WRIC (Richmond/Petersburg) * WNYS (Syracuse - UPN) * Time Warner Cable (Rochester) * WMTW (Portland/Auburn) * WBVT (Burlington/Plattsburgh - WB) * WOAY (Bluefield/Beckley/Oak Hill) * WIVT (Binghamton) * WBGR (Bangor - WB) * WBOY (Clarksburg/Weston - NBC) * WCJB (Gainesville) * WPNY (Utica - UPN) * WENY (Elmira) * WWT (Watertown) * WPMG (Harrisonburg - independent) * WBOY (Parkersburg - NBC) * WPXQ (Providence/New Bedford - PAX) * WJPR/WFXR (Roanoke/Lynchburg - FOX) * Time Warner Cable (Albany/Schenectady/Troy) * WXIV (Greensboro/High Point/Winston Salem - independent) * ESPN GamePlan (all are ABC affiliates unless noted)
The Pittsburgh game, originally slated for 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time, has been moved to noon.
BGSU's games at Temple and against Marshall both are slated for broadcast by WUPW-TV 36 (FOX) in Toledo, in addition to affiliates in Philadelphia and Virginia for the Temple game and in Virginia and West Virginia for the Marshall contest. The starting times for those games - 6:00 p.m. ET at Temple and 1:30 p.m. ET for the Marshall game at Doyt Perry Stadium - remain the same. The Michigan, Pittsburgh, Temple and Marshall contests will all be distributed under the ESPN Plus brand.
"This is an excellent opportunity to be involved with Bowling Green State University and the greater Toledo market," said Dan Shoemaker, General Manager of ESPN Regional Television's Creative Productions Division. We are excited about this opportunity. We believe Bowling Green is one of the up-and-coming schools in the Mid-American Conference."
The Falcons of 10th-year head coach Gary Blackney will open the season by facing Michigan in an ESPN Plus regionally televised game. Among the many stations airing that contest will be WTVG-TV 13 (ABC) in Toledo and ESPN GamePlan. (ESPN GamePlan is available nationally on selected cable systems and satellite services including DirectTV. Alumni and fans living outside the greater Toledo area should contact their local cable or satellite television provider.)
BGSU will close the regular season with a nationally-televised game at UT on Wednesday, Nov. 22. That game, which will air on ESPN2, will begin at 7:00 p.m.
The agreement between BGSU and ESPN Regional is an outgrowth of the Mid-American Conference's deal with ESPN/ESPN Regional. Earlier this summer, the MAC signed a three-year production/programming deal with ESPN. Starting this fall, the MAC, under the leadership of Commissioner Rick Chryst, is guaranteed more than 30 national appearances in football and men's basketball over the next three years. The deal includes the MAC Championship games in both football and men's basketball. The MAC Championship football game (Dec. 2) will air live on ABC-TV, as the first third of ABC's College Football Championship Saturday. The MAC Championship game will be followed by, in order, the SEC Championship and Big 12 Championship games.
The complete 2000 Falcon football schedule follows:
SEPTEMBER 2 at Michigan ESPN Plus (WTVG) Noon 9 PITTSBURGH ESPN Plus (TV-5 WB) + Noon 16 at Temple ESPN Plus (Fox 36) 6:00 23 at Buffalo 7:00 30 at Kent 6:00OCTOBER 7 AKRON 1:30 14 at Miami 2:00 21 EASTERN MICHIGAN 7:00
NOVEMBER 4 MARSHALL ESPN Plus (Fox 36) 1:30 11 OHIO 1:30 22 at Toledo ESPN2 7:00
+ BIG EAST Game of the Week all times local and p.m. home games in CAPS
