ISU gets the Shaft from ROOT Sports!!!

[otis campbell]

All you have to do is figure out where you will end up at seasons end, and see where you might pick up a televised game. A team ranked in the bottom ten last year in the entire FCS and some fans wondering why no TV this year??? Bengal football was given the shaft for the last quarter century by administration and coaching. A little credibility needs to be established. If Kramer can't create life in this lifeless body, it can't be done. This should be the year. Reminds me of a scene from 'Young Frankenstein":

[after failing to bring the creature to life]

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Nothing.

Inga: Oh, Doctor, I'm sorry.

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: No. No. Be of good cheer. If science teaches us anything, it teaches us to accept our failures, as well as our successes, with quiet dignity and grace.

[starts beating up the creature]

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Son of a bitch! Bastard! I'll get you for this! What did you do to me? What did you do to me.

Inga: Stop it! Stop that! Stop it! You'll kill him!

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: I don't want to live. I do not want to live.

Igor: Quiet dignity and grace

[rolls eyes]

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Oh... mama...


...well, stand by. :rofl:

 

[up for the challenge]

Otis - you are correct about the Bengal program not doing well for a very long time. Kramer is trying to put things in place to start winning games so I guess we have to see how this season pans out as he just finished his third recruiting season. Yes, the Bengals deserve "ZERO" tv time with Root Sports. On the other hand, why did Root Sports select some teams for tv time that had losing records? Maybe, it is because these losing teams got lucky and are playing against winning teams or draw teams. The teams that really got the shaft are Cal Poly (7-1) who only got 2 tv games and Northern Arizona (6-2) who only got 1 tv game. Teams that got lucky are Portland State (2 -6) got 3 tv games and Weber State (2 - 6) got 1 tv game. Maybe, ISU should have got lucky too...??

 

[BengalSapper]

The problem is that TV exposure can translate into better recruiting. It is not helping ISU not getting any TV games. The Big Sky as a conference needs to try and insure that all teams get some exposure. The Montana schools have had a hold over the conference for years TV exposure to the other schools can threaten there dominance. I don’t think it will be long until UM and MSU are in the middle of the pack and other schools in larger populated areas take the lead. In south east Idaho there is 300,000+ and 1.5+ million in the Wasatch front you can’t tell me that from audience stand point is not a market that you would want and try to get in to. The ISU WSU game could draw an audience as big as any other big sky game.

 

[PBP]

Bengal:

But the point is how many out of that 300,000 or 1.5 million that you talk about will actually sit down in front of a TV on a fall Saturday and watch the game?

Fair or unfair Montana and Montana State draw well on TV... the fans in that state go nuts over those programs.

ISU is still a work in progress, like Mike has said himself many times, you can't turn around 40+ years of mediocrity overnight. When he gets it done the ancillary things will come along, TV being one of those.

PBP

 

[up for the challenge]

Teams with a losing record in 2012 should get "Zero" TV games

OR

Give all teams at least one TV game.

I have no problem viewing ISU (0-8) vs. Weber State (2-6) or viewing Eastern Washington (7-1) vs. Cal Poly (7-1) based on their 2012 season. Those are good match-ups. Why would I want to view Montana State (7-1) vs Weber State (0-2)? That is not a good match up and only a draw for the Montana fans only.

 

[BengalSapper]

The point of this discussion is the fact that the Big sky conference is not looking out for all members. TV exposure is critical for teams to expand there recruiting. The ISU WSU game would probably draw a larger audience than people think.

 

[up for the challenge]

I guess the message from the Big Sky and / or Root Sports is, "A team that has an established winning program in the Big Sky will get the TV time". Eastern Washington, Montana, and Montana State are the established winning programs and will have 4 games each on TV this upcoming season . I guess the Big Sky and / or Root Sports feel these 3 teams will get more viewers based on their winning programs. Personally, I would like to see ISU play Weber State on TV as that would be a good match-up but that will never happen until both teams establish a winning program. As far as recruiting, yes, TV time maybe important for recruiting but it is not everything for a recruit to make his final decision.

 

[PBP]

Up:

You guess correctly in my opinion in the sense that ROOT Sports network is a business. Honestly why should they care if all Big Sky teams are being treated equally? I think they'd like to see all the teams in the conference do well but that doesn't happen very often and they have a responsibility to the owners / board of directors.

They paid the conference money to televise football games, in order to get that money back (or to make money since they are a business) they need to sell advertising. To sell advertising they have to be able to go to potential clients and say, "this is what we draw viewer-wise. Are you interested?"

The better the number of viewers, the better the chances of selling advertising.

I assume they looked at the numbers and told the Big Sky in essence, 'these are the teams that seem to attract the most viewers...' and went from there.

I don't know how much the Big Sky per se had to do with the schedule. I assume they had some input and would want as many teams as possible to be shown but ROOT Sports having paid the money probably has 51% (or more) of the final vote. LOL.

It's a business, that's the way most businesses operate i.e. 'the bottom line.'

Again in my opinion when Mike starts getting it done, when ISU starts winning some games, everything else will fall into place. Right now based on the recent past, you have to at least understand why ROOT Sports just wouldn't be that interested in showing ISU I assume they just wouldn't get many viewers outside of say Southeast Idaho and the area of the team ISU is playing.

PBP

 

[up for the challenge]

PBP:

You are right... It is all about business advertising and fan viewing. Montana, Montana State, and Eastern Washington are the elite teams that would obtain the most TV viewing based on their fan base, past championships, and winning records. Cal Poly will probably be the next team to enter the elite status based on their past history and 7 - 1 record last season. The ISU fans will just have to understand why they are not getting the TV time. From a business perspective Montana vs Montana State game will generate more $$ than the Idaho State vs. Weber State game. It does not take a CPA to figure that one out. The good news is that the ISU fans can drive down to Weber State to view the game live which is better than TV viewing. The ISU players, coaches, and the athletic department need local fan support to help turn their program around. There is no reason not to sale out Holt Arena on game day. Businesses in the City of Pocatello need to get on board with ticket sales as ISU employees and the student body support their businesses everyday.

 

[Skippy]

I asked Jon Kasper of the Big Sky office to give me some insight on how the Root Sports contract works. In essence what he told me was that Root is the final arbiter of what games get on TV, per their contract. The good news is that every school in the conference is actually getting some money from the TV contract, whether they appear on TV or not. So the conference has sacrificed "schedule control" for dollars, and the folks at Root made the decision not to air any games that involve ISU this year.

As Jon pointed out to me in his response, the Big Sky is one of the few FCS conferences to actually make any money from TV, and, as he also noted, Big Sky fans can watch any conference game for free on their computers, via Big Sky TV.

Another point that Jon made is that schools that aren't selected for Root games are free to go out and sell their games on the secondary market. He noted that Eastern Washington, NAU and North Dakota have all sold their homes games that were not selected by ROOT to other broadcasters. He said the conference has talked to some broadcasters about picking up the Idaho State-Weber State-Southern Utah games, but so far they haven't generated much interest. And the conference is adamant that it will not pay for production of games anymore, so if broadcasters don't think they can sell enough advertising to pay for the production costs and turn a bit of a profit, it's not going to happen.

Bottom line: ISU has to make itself attractive enough to ROOT or a secondary broadcaster to get on the air, and right now that hasn't happened.

 

[up for the challenge]

Skippy - I agree with your quote: "bottom line, ISU has to make itself attractive enough to ROOT or a secondary broadcaster to get on the air, and right now that hasn't happened".

Possible Action Items:

* Having a winning season is needed.

* Selling out Holt Arena would help.

* Businesses in the City of Pocatello should get on board to help generate ticket sales. I see the football players donating their time as volunteers in the community every season.

* Donations are welcome. I sent my donation in last season and will do so again this season.

 

[WILDCAT]

I asked Jon Kasper of the Big Sky office to give me some insight on how the Root Sports contract works. In essence what he told me was that Root is the final arbiter of what games get on TV, per their contract. The good news is that every school in the conference is actually getting some money from the TV contract, whether they appear on TV or not. So the conference has sacrificed "schedule control" for dollars, and the folks at Root made the decision not to air any games that involve ISU this year.

As Jon pointed out to me in his response, the Big Sky is one of the few FCS conferences to actually make any money from TV, and, as he also noted, Big Sky fans can watch any conference game for free on their computers, via Big Sky TV.

Another point that Jon made is that schools that aren't selected for Root games are free to go out and sell their games on the secondary market. He noted that Eastern Washington, NAU and North Dakota have all sold their homes games that were not selected by ROOT to other broadcasters. He said the conference has talked to some broadcasters about picking up the Idaho State-Weber State-Southern Utah games, but so far they haven't generated much interest. And the conference is adamant that it will not pay for production of games anymore, so if broadcasters don't think they can sell enough advertising to pay for the production costs and turn a bit of a profit, it's not going to happen.

Bottom line: ISU has to make itself attractive enough to ROOT or a secondary broadcaster to get on the air, and right now that hasn't happened.

Altitude has shown Weber/ISU games before, maybe they will again in the future

 

[PBP]

Wildcat:

I think that Weber being in the SLC market has a better chance of getting a local station to pick up the production cost and televise some of their games than say ISU or Southern Utah.

I'm pretty sure Altitude is now out of the televised football business in the sense of them producing and airing games, they'll take a feed say from the Big-12 or the Pac-12 but I don't think they'll be doing any games themselves anymore.

PBP

 

[up for the challenge]

If Roots sports hired me to pick the top 3 teams from the Big Sky for fan viewing it would be Montana, Montana State, and Eastern Washington. These are the top teams that have won championships over the last 5 years. The other teams are considered non-draw teams until they win a championship.

 

[PBP]

That and the fact Up, that the three teams you mentioned are in Root Sports' coverage area. They'll show the teams that are in the area where they are being shown on cable systems.

That's the thing when folks bring up Cal Poly and NAU. I don't think Root Sports is on any Northern California cable systems and I absolutely know it is not on any cable systems in Arizona.

It might not be fair to those teams involved but that also plays a part on what games are going to be shown.

Again it comes down to the fact that Root Sports is a business and they want to turn a profit if they can.

PBP

 

[up for the challenge]

PCB - What teams are in the Root Sports coverage area?

 

[PBP]

Up:

Root Sports is the former Fox Sports Northwest so that should give you a good idea. Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Nevada come to mind.

Don't know if they are in Northern California and they don't go into the Dakota's that belongs to Fox Sports Midwest.

Root Sports also owns the former Fox Sports Rocky Mountain and Fox Sports Pittsburgh so they are in Utah, Colorado and Pennsylvania. I'd imagine those are seperate divisions though so I don't know if they'd get Big Sky programming.

PBP

 

[up for the challenge]

PBP

Apparently, Root Sports does not cover fan viewing from Arizona, Utah, North Dakota, Colorado, and California. If that is the case than ISU really is the only team out of the 5 teams that did not get TV viewing based on the Root Sports coverage area. I guess Root Sports has decided that ISU will not get much viewer interest from Idaho. You really cannot blame Root Sports for their decision as Holt Arena is lucky to get 5000 fans on game day. As mentioned in the previous posts, ISU will need to start winning games to gain fan support and cable interest.

 

[SLCBengal]

Root Sports also owns the former Fox Sports Rocky Mountain and Fox Sports Pittsburgh so they are in Utah, Colorado and Pennsylvania. I'd imagine those are seperate divisions though so I don't know if they'd get Big Sky programming.
PBP

I get Root Sports-Rocky Mountain on Dish, and it does indeed carry the Big Sky games.

http://rockymountain.rootsports.com/

NAU has had a relationship with Fox Sports - Arizona in the past, and I can only assume they will continue to have some of their games aired there...

http://www.foxsportsarizona.com/pages/nau

 

[PBP]

SLC:

I'd imagine that will continue as well so anybody who had DirecTV or Dish and has the regional network sports package will be able to watch them. Fox Sports Arizona also shows selected men's and women's basketball games.

PBP