Bowling Green State University Athletics
MAC Announces Regional Television Package
July 12, 2007 | Football
July 12, 2007
CELEBRATION, Fla. - ESPN Regional Television, Inc. (ERT) and the Mid-American Conference (MAC) have announced a six-week regionally syndicated football package that will air in 34 television markets, including Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Grand Rapids (Mich.) and Buffalo for the upcoming season. The package will consist of six consecutive weeks of MAC conference and non-conference matchups, beginning Saturday, Sept. 15. BGSU will host Temple in the MAC "Game of the Week" on Sept. 22 at Noon in week two of the six week package.
"This package is a great opportunity for MAC football," said Greg Christopher, Assistant V.P. for Student Affairs/Athletic Director. "The syndication footprint matches perfectly with our alumni and fan base, while the exposure for our teams is terrific."
The entire ESPN Regional Television package includes the following contests:
Saturday, Sept. 15
Eastern Michigan at Northern Illinois
Cincinnati at Miami
Saturday, Sept. 22
Temple at Bowling Green
Saturday, Sept. 29
Northern Illinois at Central Michigan
Saturday, Oct. 6
Central Michigan at Ball State
Saturday, Oct. 13
Eastern Michigan at Ohio
Saturday, Oct. 20
Miami at Temple
All games will begin at noon ET, with the telecast window extending to 3:30 p.m. ET. The games will be distributed nationally via the ESPN GamePlan pay-per-view package, which is available to fans via cable, DirecTV and Dish Network.
As a whole the Falcons will have a total of four games on national television, beginning with the contest with Temple on Sept. 22 (ESPN Regional). Other contests include at Miami on Oct. 13 (Fox Sports Net), and home versus Akron (Nov. 2) and Toledo (Nov. 23). The contest with the Zips and Rockets will be aired on ESPNU.
"It is great to get the BGSU program on television and get the national and regional exposure," said BGSU head coach Gregg Brandon. "Having 20 games on national TV the last five years has been a great benefit to the Falcon program and the opportunity to reach more recruits and increase our fan base is beneficial for BGSU."
MAC Football
The 2007 football campaign marks the 61st season of MAC football and will culminate with the Marathon MAC Championship Game at Ford Field in Detroit on Saturday, Dec. 1 on ESPN or ESPN2. With four MAC schools participating in bowl games last season, the league has produced bowl teams from nine conference schools in the past three years. In addition, the competitiveness of the league has resulted in six schools representing their respective divisions in the last three championship games.
The number of MAC players in the NFL continues to grow as 100 former student-athletes were on active NFL rosters as of June 2007. Among the athletes are offensive tackle Ryan Diem (Northern Illinois) of the Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts and Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (Miami-Ohio), who is the youngest professional signal caller to guide his team to the Lombardi Trophy.
The legacy of the MAC was heightened this year with the selection of Central Michigan head coach Herb Deromedi, No. 1 on the all-time wins list in the MAC, to the College Football Hall of Fame. Deromedi joins former great MAC head coaches Sid Gillman, Woody Hayes, Don James, Don Nehlen, Ara Parseghian, Doyt Perry and Bo Schembechler in the Hall of Fame.
With the 61,500-seat Soldier Field in Chicago already sold out for the Sept. 1 matchup between Northern Illinois and Iowa, MAC football continues to draw interest at new levels.
ESPN Regional Television - Event Ownership
The nation's largest syndicator of collegiate sports programming, ESPN Regional Television (ERT) produces more than 900 sporting events annually. Programming includes football, basketball, NCAA events, golf and NHRA events accounting for more than 2,200 live and/or original hours of programming. In addition to event ownership, ERT is the production headquarters for ESPNU, the 24-hour college sports network; syndication rights-holder and producer of national, regional and local shows for college conferences (e.g. - Big East, Big 12, Mid-American, Sun Belt, Western Athletic). ESPN Regional Television markets and/or owns several other sporting events, including the Bell Helicopter Armed Forced Bowl; the papajohns.com Bowl; the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl; the PioneerPureVison Las Vegas Bowl, the New Mexico Bowl; the MEAC/SWAC Football Classic; the National Golf Challenge presented by Callaway; and collegiate basketball events including the Spartan Clash (Auburn Hills, MI); the O'Reilly Auto Parts All-College Classic (Oklahoma City, OK); the Old Spice Classic (Orlando, FL); the ESPNU Puerto Rico Tip-Off Classic (San Juan, PR); and the Anaheim Basketball Classic (Anaheim, CA).
