TV Deal May Move MAC Football To Wednesday

MeanGreen61 · January 28, 2006

TV deal may push WMU football to Wednesdays November games would move to midweek in MAC

Thursday, January 19, 2006

By Howard Thomas

hthomas@kalamazoogazette.com 388-8541

The lure of national television exposure is likely to sack Saturday-afternoon football at Waldo Stadium in November.

The Mid-American Conference is close to giving the OK to move the league's entire November schedule to Wednesday nights this fall, Western Michigan University Athletics Director Kathy Beauregard said Wednesday.

The league has scheduled occasional midweek contests for years to have its games broadcast by ESPN and ESPN2, but moving all conference games to Wednesdays would be a first for a mid-level conference such as the MAC.

Beauregard said ESPN favors the MAC moving all November games to Wednesdays so the network can broadcast games that have the greatest impact on the races for the East and West division titles. The league would gain no additional revenue for making the change, which Beauregard said would be done as a one-year trial.

If league athletics directors give their approval, which Beauregard expects at a meeting early next week, negotiations with ESPN to televise at least one MAC game each Wednesday night in November would move forward.

Beauregard said she understands moving what likely will be two WMU home games from the traditional November kickoff time of 2 p.m. Saturdays to Wednesday evenings could hurt WMU's ticket sales and concession receipts as well as campus-area businesses that count heavily on Saturday football traffic.

But she said she will support the radical scheduling change because she believes it's the right move for both WMU and the league.

``I'm mixed on it,'' Beauregard said. ``We have to look at a lot of things, like our corporate base and people who have committed to (renting) suites and things like that.

``(Lost revenue) is something you have to balance out with the exposure that you gain by being nationally televised. But I think we in the MAC have to be flexible for television scheduling. It's just critical to the image of our programs.''

In 2005, games involved MAC teams every day of the week except Sunday, with many moved to nontraditional days to accommodate television. Toledo, for instance, played five of its 11 regular-season games on weekdays -- twice on Tuesdays and once each on a Wednesday, a Thursday and a Friday.

Such scheduling creates huge headaches for the rest of the league. Last season, Western Michigan had to opt out of a game at Wisconsin on Sept. 10 so it could play fellow MAC West member Toledo -- a mandatory opponent -- on the only date the Rockets had open after agreeing to play so many weeknight contests.

WMU is no stranger to night kickoffs; the school's first three home games last season started at 7 p.m. to avoid going head-to-head with Michigan and Michigan State games.

WMU coach Bill Cubit favors traditional Saturday-afternoon kickoff times but said he hasn't spent much energy thinking about playing all November games on Wednesdays.

``I never worry about that stuff. You play when your schedule says,'' Cubit said. ``Apparently the MAC office and the ADs think it's a good idea. They know a whole lot more than I do.''

Cubit said he understands the MAC's need to market itself nationally but said the move would take some getting used to.

``The logistics part of it -- it messes around with your schedule,'' Cubit said. ``We give kids Sunday off to be with their families and go to church, but that will be hard in November.''

WMU's game at Florida State, which was originally scheduled for Nov. 11, has been moved to Oct. 28.