Is ESPNU The Devil?

[Captain Kangaroo]

I think I'm officially tired of the ESPNU/MAC relationship.I love going to a Zips football game on a Saturday afternoon...getting there early...setting up the grill...meeting up with friends...often times the best part of a Saturday game day is the 6-or-so hours preceding it. Since the advent of ESPNU, games have been moved to all sorts of ungodly days...at ungodly hours...for what? "Exposure" sucks when it ruins my game day, or prevents me from attending all together. When it is exposure in the form of a 0.008 rating on ESPNUnseen...it sucks all the more. I don't care if ESPNUnseen was added to a cheaper tier of Warner Cable...NO ONE watches it. Would a handful of local Akron folks watch it on ESPNU? Maybe...but their sorry asses should be down at the JAR.Is it great for ex-patriot Zips like ZIP in Hawai'i? Sure...but how many ex-patriots are watching ESPNU? Really...be honest...52? Hustling your kids down to the Rubber Bowl for a game at 6pm on a Wednesday in November sucks. Having a pivotal MAC basketball game held on a Wednesday at 9pm sucks. Younger kids can't pull that off on a school night...so their parents can't either. You probably lose about 50% of the blue hairs in the lower bowl too.I appreciate Bleach Bum's position in-favor of such a game. If I were a single guy with no kids the BW-3's 3-hour pre-game would be a "can't miss" event, circled on my calendar for weeks. But for a lot of folks, 9pm Wednesday games suck.ESPNU is the Devil. I hate them.

[skip-zip]

If the ratings for a MAC contest on espnu are that poor, then it really isn't worth it. I don't know how bad it is. I have never checked.I've talked to quite a few people in the last few days who normally go to home games, and most of them said something to the effect of, "oh...it has been changed to 9pm?". Which indicates to me that our attendance AT the game will probably suffer because of the time change. Plus, there will be others that might have gone to a game this big, but will choose to stay at home and watch it, which reduces the attendance by even more.Maybe making sacrifices to have a game on espn or espn2 makes sense, but I'm not convinced that espnu exposure is worth this price. Especially with it being such a critical game in our division, and a packed house could play such a factor in the outcome.

[Zip Watcher]

I must be on a island or something .. because I'm pumped about the 9PM start and (psuedo)national TV game. Seems like we usually break out the whooppin stick on ESPN .. remember the WMU game last year?And for me, 7pm weeknights are sometimes very difficult to get to on time. Living / working in Cuyahoga .. it's tough to round up the troops and get dinner & to the game in 1 hour. So I don't mind the change for this week. Looking forward to having some time at the bar before the game to ease into it .. and not be rushing my a$$ off to get there. I am leaving the wife & kid behind .. school night and all .. but I like the 9PM once in awhile.This is a HUGE game for us .. there's a real chance to be playing for a 2 game division lead next week @ Can't State if the Zips take care of business on Thursday night. We need a good crowd. I hope we get it.

[Captain Kangaroo]

We need a good crowd.

Thursday night 9pm games ain't the way to get it. You lose the blue hairs and the families. Looking at the UA hoops demographics, that's a significant section of the fan base.I shudder to think how empty the lower reserved section will look on TV. Thankfully no one in TV land will be watching.Also -- Keep in mind my post is regarding ESPNUnseen and the MAC overall. Not simply this week's basketball game.ESPNU is the Devil.

[ZachTheZip]

Many of the families are unaffected by the late time because both the City schools and all the local private schools are off on Friday thanks to a teacher inservice.I really do hate ESPNU for football games, though. College Football should be played on SATURDAY, not a tuesday or a thursday in the middle of the day. I would sacrifice this "exposure" to boost the pathetic attendance numbers above 10,000. Will the U sacrifice attendance in the new stadium to reach out to a non-existant national audience while we still don't have a local one? What about the MAC? Half of our MAC games were on weekdays, and that is extremely unfair to everyone involved. This conference needs a new commissioner who understands that you can't sacrifice your existing fans in the attempt to get new ones.

[Valpo Zip]

Actually i am one of the 52 people CK talked about. I live 3 hours away from Akron and there is no way i can drive to the rooland to attend a weekday game. I have TW cable and i wish all our weekday games are televised or webcasted.

[GP1]

I love this topic. Most of my response will be about football. I actually think the Tuesday/Wednesday games on ESPNW(whatever) have been horrible for the quality of product the MAC presents. I kid about the MAC being like Dollar General (it is) and I believe these games are contributing to the bad product on the field.Most importantly, football players like a certain mental rythm during the week. What I mean is Monday/Thursday maybe helmets and shoulder pads...Tuesday/Wednesday full pads/full contact....Friday shorts and t-shirts. Saturday a game and getting really drunk after the game. These games break the rythm by moving games from Saturday to whenever they air. There are times when a team plays Saturday and then has to turn around and play Wednesday. That's not enough time for a young man to mentally prepare for a game and the quality declines. There are also times when a game becomes more than a week away....that's too long between games and I think the players become complacent and the quality declines.If the MAC wants to improve the quality of product on the field, it needs to go back to Saturday only games. Stop the 6:00 starts as well. The probability of rain is greater in the evening during the fall than during the day. Allow people to get out of the house in the afternoon to enjoy the sun. There is such little sun in Ohio that people would enjoy the afternoon sitting outside. It does the league no good to play on national TV during the week and have the teams play like crap. If the MAC plays like crap on national TV, the rest of the country will think the product is crap. People are not stupid, they don't want to spend their money on crap.

[Let'sGoZips94]

I'm lucky because I don't have school Friday. So this time doesn't affect me much. By the way, how many people think Bubba will have 1 pt. or less?

[ZipAlumn]

We need a good crowd.

Thursday night 9pm games ain't the way to get it. You lose the blue hairs and the families. Looking at the UA hoops demographics, that's a significant section of the fan base.I shudder to think how empty the lower reserved section will look on TV. Thankfully no one in TV land will be watching.

I'll be one of the "blue hairs" that will be lost for this game. I usually attend home games but with the nine o'clock start on a weeknight makes it just too late. When the game is over at 11:00 or 11:30, and then the drive home makes it a little late to get up at 7:00 the next day. So six of my friends and I will be in my living room with wings and beer, and we will all be home well before midnight.

[GoZips88]

The "in service" day for teachers on Friday means all four of us (wife, two kids, and I) will be there. Good chance only half of us would have gone (my son and I) if it weren't for the day off school. My daughter got all excited this evening when we all realized that school day Friday wasn't going to be a problem. Even she (9-year-old) knows what a big game this is for the Zips. All in all, put me down for normal 7PM start times for basketball games and 1PM starts on Saturday afternoon for football. It's cooler and dark for 6PM starts and I'd rather be out in the sun as well in the relatively warmer temps. The Tuesday/Thursday games screw up my college football fan biorhythms too.

[ziptrumpet87]

I agree that the football games should all be Saturday. I don't make it for games after work on a weekday mostly because I work in Cuyahoga Co. and don't get home until after 6. By the time I'd get changed and get there, it would be halftime or later (maybe it would be more possible at the new stadium, but that's a few years off). I don't really care what time on Saturday (warmer for afternoon games, but you can have fireworks for night games), but lets go back to weekend games.I don't think it messes up the basketball season as much because we are all used to games on weeknights already and there is no tailgating taking place.

[Zipsrifle]

I love how the MAC will do anything to piss off it's loyal fans for "National Exposure". It also seems that all to often, we move the game dates, people change their schedules around, and ESPN decides that it will probably get better ratings if it were to show POKER, and move the game to a channel nobody gets at the last minute. In the end, I guess they are pretty smart, because if you're a MAC fan, then you are probably gonna follow that product no matter what happens. I'll be at the game, but I doubt anyone will be able to join me because of the time, so I'll probably grab one of the lower reserved seats since I don't have to shell out for additional tickets! I can probably get a blue wig if necessary.

[Zippysgotagun]

Personally, ESPNU has been good to me. I love college sports in general, and they have lots of college football and basketball on in season. I don't care who's playing...it's still college sports.And Zip Watcher, I do remember the WMU game last year, most notably the rowdies "You have one point" chant several minutes into the game. Awesome.

[Valpo Zip]

I do remember the WMU game last year, most notably the rowdies "You have one point" chant several minutes into the game. Awesome.

I LMAO everytime i remember this chant. I was a rowdy and when somebody started the chant, i couldn't participate in it because i was choking out of laughing so hard. It took me few seconds to calm down and chant with the rest of the rowdies.Great memories.

[BZip_08]

The "in service" day for teachers on Friday means all four of us (wife, two kids, and I) will be there. Good chance only half of us would have gone (my son and I) if it weren't for the day off school. My daughter got all excited this evening when we all realized that school day Friday wasn't going to be a problem. Even she (9-year-old) know what a big game this is for the Zips. All in all, put me down for normal 7PM start times for basketball games and 1PM starts on Saturday afternoon for football. It's cooler and dark for 6PM starts and I'd rather be out in the sun as well in the relatively warmer temps. The Tuesday/Thursday games screw up my college football fan biorhythms too.

You have raised your kids right... That's awesome that the public schools have an in-service day, I love seeing all the little future zips there. They have no shame cheering, dancing or screaming their heads off, it's great.

[Z-Pouch]

I shudder to think how empty the lower reserved section will look on TV. Thankfully no one in TV land will be watching.I'll be one of the "blue hairs" that will be lost for this game. I usually attend home games but with the nine o'clock start on a weeknight makes it just too late. When the game is over at 11:00 or 11:30, and then the drive home makes it a little late to get up at 7:00 the next day. So six of my friends and I will be in my living room with wings and beer, and we will all be home well before midnight.Please don't let your tickets and seats go to waste. Sell/give them to another Zip fan to fill up the lower bowl. A bunch of empty lower seats for a "big?" game makes the program look like it's going the wrong direction (whatever the typical UA excuses). UA has no control over these unused seats because of your decision on the later start - Get them into someone's hands that will be able use them and keep our home court advantage. Unfortunately, I gotta believe that there are a ridiculous number of "sold" blue lower level seats that go unused every game.And nothing personal to anyone considering staying home - but sitting in your living room watching on the tube aint nothing like being there.

[Valpo Zip]

You have raised your kids right... That's awesome that the public schools have an in-service day, I love seeing all the little future zips there. They have no shame cheering, dancing or screaming their heads off, it's great.

You got that right Bzip. Gozips88 and his family should be role models for all the akron alumni to follow.

[GoZips88]

Yeah, I agree Z-Pouch. It's the only game this year with an oddball time. I hope as many of the regulars as possible decide to make the effort to attend, even if it is only until half-time. Help support the Zips to a nice half-time cushion and let them finish it out. I'm a firm believer that a big, raucous crowd can really make a difference. Though only 1500 were able to make it to the OU game last year, the ones who were there were loud and directed enough of their energy towards Bubba that Bubba and the Bubbacats just wilted away. Nice blow-out win at home and I wouldn't mind seeing that repeated again this year in front of whatever the ESPNU crowd happens to be.

[Z-Pouch]

Though only 1500 were able to make it to the OU game last year, the ones who were there were loud and directed enough of their energy towards Bubba that Bubba and the Bubbacats just wilted away. Nice blow-out win at home and I wouldn't mind seeing that repeated again this year in front of whatever the ESPNU crowd happens to be.

and because of the snowstorm, there was open seating down low that put the depleted crowd right on top of the court. I remember it made it seem like a lot more then 1000 people (okay 500-750) were there. and who could forget the fan that showed Bubba a real outside shot.

[skip-zip]

GoZips88...I remember last year's game. I think it was projected to be a sellout (Bubba's first return to Akron), but a heavy snow that day created a lot of no-shows. I sure hope the change in the start time doesn't produce too much of a negative effect this year. But, there will certainly be some people who will be staying home because of it.

[Bleacher Bum]

GoZips88...I remember last year's game. I think it was projected to be a sellout (Bubba's first return to Akron), but a heavy snow that day created a lot of no-shows. I sure hope the change in the start time doesn't produce too much of a negative effect this year. But, there will certainly be some people who will be staying home because of it.

I remember a ton of Rowdies planning on booing Bubba and the team as they got off the bus, then I remember 3 of us actually doing it.

[OZoner]

You have to keep in mind that for anyone not within a two-hour radius of Akron, they're not seeing the Zips play without ESPN U. The channel is FINALLY getting into more households now (it's on Time Warner digital), and you can always go to a bar and request it.Yeah, there's some semi-ridiculous bending of schedules that is sure to make the locals mad. But I think, overall, it's a good thing. We need to be on TV. We need to put ourselves out there. FSN isn't doing it for us.

[ZachTheZip]

For those of you that can't make it to tommorrow's game for whatever reason, I urge you to go to the Women's Basketball game on saturday at the JAR against Can't State instead. We don't want more Can't fans there than Akron fans like there have been in the past...

[Z.I.P.]

I think I'm officially tired of the ESPNU/MAC relationship.I love going to a Zips football game on a Saturday afternoon...getting there early...setting up the grill...meeting up with friends...often times the best part of a Saturday game day is the 6-or-so hours preceding it. Since the advent of ESPNU, games have been moved to all sorts of ungodly days...at ungodly hours...for what? "Exposure" sucks when it ruins my game day, or prevents me from attending all together. When it is exposure in the form of a 0.008 rating on ESPNUnseen...it sucks all the more. I don't care if ESPNUnseen was added to a cheaper tier of Warner Cable...NO ONE watches it. Would a handful of local Akron folks watch it on ESPNU? Maybe...but their sorry asses should be down at the JAR.Is it great for ex-patriot Zips like ZIP in Hawai'i? Sure...but how many ex-patriots are watching ESPNU? Really...be honest...52? ESPNU is the Devil. I hate them.

Sorry Cap'n. The 58 (not 52) Zips in Paradise want to say: ESPNU @ 4 o'Clock Thursday. Be at Eastside Grill, and you'll have a thrill! :wave:Z.I.P. (don't call me Pat, it's Ex-Pat)

[gozips19]

a special thanks to the devil for showing the game last night. wasn't able to attend but caught much of the game when i got home. on a side note; i wanted to vomit every time i heard chones refer to akron as akron u. at least reg's was good!