Trifecta of Doom: Towson, the Big Ten Network, and Northwestern being Northwestern.

by Rodger Sherman on Aug 31, 2009 12:23 PM CDT Comment 8 comments

Title ominous enough for you?

Anyway, I know it's messed up to complain about Northwestern's television situation: I'd think I lost the right to do so after watching the NU-UC Riverside game on an airplane. (I also once watched an inning of NU softball on a plane.) But today, I gotta gripe.

Basically, a perfect storm of Northwestern being Northwestern events are conspiring to make it really, really difficult for me to watch Saturday's game vs. Towson.

The first, and simplest reason, is that college football starts September 5th, and Northwestern, unlike most schools in the country, is on the quarter system, meaning we start about 3-4 weeks after every other school in the country, and well into the swing of the football season. The problem here is that I live about 800 miles away in New York City, meaning I won't be going to this game or the EMU game. This is just one of those sort of annoying things about NU football: we get 2-3 games every year with essentially no student section, which means our attendence isa bout 3-4000 lower than it should be.

But how to watch the game in New York? If you're not living in the states that contain Big Ten schools, it's already sort of hard to get the Big Ten Network - you have to pay to get that station, plus a bunch of other channels you don't particularly care about - and the cost of this and the fact that it will come in handy for maybe two games a year make this an unappealing option.

However, even if I did have the network, a quick glance at the TV schedule for next Saturday on Time Warner Cable shows that with a ridiculous 7 Big Ten games beginning at noon ET, NU gets the short end of the stick: Ohio State and Minnesota will be getting the ESPN and ESPN2 slots, while MSU, Purdue, Iowa, and Penn State get the Big Ten Network and three overflow channels, while the Towson vs. Northwestern game doesn't air live, instead getting shown at 6 PM the next day. If this information is incorrect, somebody tell me, but my cable box and the Time Warner website appear to verify this. I wouldn't be surprised: last year, NU vs. Duke was the only football game containing a Big Ten team that didn't get televised. I presume watching the game is easier in Big Ten country, but that's the problem with going to a school 800 miles from home.

It certainly doesn't help that a) we're Northwestern, the school with the smallest fanbase and the least regionally centered one, thus making airing the game anywhere unappealing and b) the fact that we're playing Towson, a team that struggles against FCS opponents, thus making the game completely unwatchable for anyone who isn't an NU fan.

Also, the fact that NU's fanbase is so diluted makes it difficult to make a large gathering of NU fans anywhere. Therefore, while the Buckeyes and every other college in the world has a well-established NYC bar, I've only heard rumors that there's a place like that in New York, and I've never actually met anybody who's been there. (If any of you can give word on whether that place is, in fact, an actual place, please, I'm desperate over here.)

Personally, I plan on gathering the NYC NU crew together at a sports bar where I watched the SIU game last year, but any suggestions about places to watch the game in New York are appreciated.

Long story short, the fact that we're Northwestern and we're playing Towson makes it sort of difficult to find Saturday's game for a large percentage of our already small fanbase. And that's not good for anybody.

There won't be any game thread - first off, if you live within two hours of the school or so, you should be at the game. Second off, I see no way I can bring a computer to wherever I watch the game, and third, blogger isn't to conducive to game threads.

However, hypothetically, if, let's say, I don't know, my blog gets picked up by a large sports blog network that currently has a blog for every Big Ten team besides Northwestern about 2-3 weeks from now (COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH), I'll post a game thread for every game, and I'll need you guys to help make them actually interesting. So, hypothetically, be prepared. Hypothetically speaking, of course.

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I think you might be able to watch it on the Big Ten Network's online site. I know I was able to watch NU play Chicago State this year in basketball there. Not sure, though.

by Anonymous on Aug 31, 2009 12:31 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Online streaming was only for select non-televised non-conference basketball games. You can only buy an online viewing package for football if you live outside of the US and Canada.

Check out this post from LTP a few weeks ago:
http://www.laketheposts.com/2009/08/bottoms-up-in-big-apple.html

by NorthwesternHighlights on Aug 31, 2009 12:48 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I'm pretty sure Blondie's has the game, and is a huge NYC NU bar...just a thought.

by Chaddogg on Aug 31, 2009 1:15 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Yep, Blondie's.

As a fellow New Yorker ('burbs, not legit city, unfortunately), I feel your pain.

BUT!!!! justin.tv has good pirated streams of football games. No guarantee that NU is on, but it's worth a shot. If they let Stephon Marbury have a round-the-clock stream, they should basically allow B-level porn onto that website; neither piece of programming has any demonstrable benefit of any kind.

by Joshua on Aug 31, 2009 2:16 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I read that post on LTP - the fact that Blondies' website lists NU about 6th or 7th is disconcerting. Has anybody actually been there?

I watched last year's NU-MSU basketball game in journalism class on justin.tv, which was pretty fun. I doubt they have Towson-NU, though.
And StarburyTV is the best thing every to happen to the internet. Haven't watched it in a few weeks, though, I hope he's still going.

by Rodger on Aug 31, 2009 2:58 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I'm sure they got a Big Ten Network pirate feed somewhere.

Please don't compliment Stephon; he's gone from my Knicks, and that's all I care about. Vaseline and crying, my ass!

by Joshua on Aug 31, 2009 3:06 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Blondie's gets packed with NU fans for football games. My family could barely get in the door for the Sun Bowl. They serve purple shots!

by Anonymous on Aug 31, 2009 4:28 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

That purple shots thing is too much - you guys have to see the logo for the hypothetical web site I was talking about which would hypothetically launch in the next few weeks. Anyway, I guess Blondie's is the place to be, might end up there Saturday.

As a diehard Knicks fan, I consider Stephon Marbury to be the most interesting athlete in any sport in recent memory. If my Medill degree pays off, I wanna write a book about Steph, like, 15 years from now. Don't laugh.

by Rodger on Aug 31, 2009 5:25 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

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