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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Ask The AD -- June 20, 2007
June 20, 2007 | General
June 20, 2007
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - Each week, Bowling Green State University Assistant Vice President/Director of Athletics Greg Christopher answers questions that have been submitted to BGSUFalcons.com. Here is the latest installment...
Q: Bowling Green cut four varsity sports a few years back and basically let go of a lot of alumni and fans that supported those sports. Do you see any future where we can bring some of those sports back and regain the trust of some of those fans and alumni?
Kate in Ann Arbor
Unfortunately, I don't see any way BGSU can add a varsity sport in the next five years. Our overall budget is so tight and many of our 18 teams operate with significant funding disadvantages when compared to others in the MAC/CCHA. Our first priority is getting our revenue base strong enough so that each of our sports can compete for championships on a regular basis. Long-term, it's difficult to predict the landscape of college athletics and sport sponsorship.
Q: I, for one, am happy to see that we don't have the Tuesday or Wednesday night football games this season. I see that all of our home games, except for the one with Toledo, are evening games. Is this the direction that we are going with regard to our home games, and if so, what are the reasons for the evening starts?
Roger in Sylvania
There are a handful of points imbedded in your question...
• If there were no external factors - TV, Ohio State and Michigan kickoff times, etc. - I would still prefer 6 p.m. kickoffs for our September and October games. In a relatively small market, the evening kickoffs seem to help minimize conflicts and thus boost attendance.
• The MAC's contract with ESPN allows for the network to place a number of games on its different platforms (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN-U and ESPN 360). MAC games have been played on virtually every night of the week except Monday and I would expect this to continue through the life of the agreement. The fact that we are not playing on Tuesday or Wednesday this year is ESPN's decision based on the games the network selected for its ESPN/ESPN2 time slots.
• The Bowling Green/Toledo game is a rivalry game that ESPN likes having in its inventory. This year, the game has been moved to ESPN-U. Unless something changes in the near future, I expect the annual BG/UT game will make it onto TV somehow.
• This fall, the MAC is adding ESPN Regional (ERT) to its television options. This is the over-the-air syndicated network that carried Big Ten games in the past (those games are now shifting to the Big Ten Network). In September and October, a MAC game-of-the-week will take the 12-noon time slot - it appears our Temple game will be picked up and moved to the earlier kickoff time.
• Looking toward 2008 and beyond, the MAC will likely follow most of the other Division I football conferences and not announce kickoff times until sometime in the summer. This will allow the television picture to sort itself out and prevent kickoff times from shifting once they are published.