The best non-football thing at the Ohio State-Akron game today was the enormous, hearty booing that greeted a promotional announcement for Big Ten Network. BTN, as you know, has been playing tough with cable companies, so fans who did not have a satellite dish did not get to see the OSU-UA game. It was nice to see that the savvy Buckeye fans recognized BTN's villainy, which in addition to boos prompted cries of "Greedy!"

I will note, too, that the boos came in a stadium where fans were for the most part courteous about UA. (The game announcer asks for courtesy, and a card handed out on behalf of Bob Evans says "we cheer for a good play and respect the visiting team" and "we use pleasant language and never boo.") Which doesn't make its many getting-loud traditions any easier to bear, of course.

And, yes, there were occasional remarks, even in the section where we sat with other clusters of UA fans. But even the comments were good natured; when a Buckeye fan behind us asked if there were any Zips fans were there, the bride — who is also a Buckeye fan, but not today — raised her hand. The guy grinned and made clear he meant no harm.

So the boos about BTN were all the more telling.

(more…)

This e-mail arrived this afternoon, during the Motor City Bowl. (I know, I'm on vacation. I told you I couldn't stay away.) Here's the e-mail:

I wanted to pass along the text of an email I sent to ESPN's viewer ombudsman, George Solomon.

I am rather dismayed that ESPN in their pregame coverage of the Motor City Bowl appeared to show an bias towards Memphis and spent little if any time on the Zips.  Here's the text of my email to Mr. Solomon:

<<beginning of my email to ESPN>>

I thought there was a pronounced bias towards Memphis in the pregame show and the opening introduction to ESPN's coverage of the Motor City Bowl on December 26.  If one watched the coverage leading up to the kickoff of the game, Memphis got a lot of airtime in terms of features
and discussion and Akron got almost no airtime.

I realize that an important angle to cover leading into the Motor City Bowl was the stellar career of Memphis running back DeAngelo Williams. ESPN would have been remiss had they not spent time on his awesome collegiate career and his nearing an NCAA record for career 100+ yard games.  But I think in the pregame coverage, ESPN covered Memphis almost to the exclusion of covering Akron.

I think ESPN's lack of pregame airtime regarding Akron was unfair to the Zips. I'm an alumnus of their arch-rival, Kent State; and even I notice the disparity here.

Thanks for your time — and hearing me out.

<<end of my email to ESPN>>
(end of e-mailer's note)

I was on the road during the pregame show, so I can't say if the coverage was as blatantly Memphis-tilted as this viewer thought. But during the game itself, there's certainly been a lot of talk about Memphis, even if they trailed early in the game. (As I wrote most of this, UA trailed 10-3, with the score 13-3 at the half.)

The local audience had a pro-UA alternative: the radio. That's where I heard pregame coverage, with the Zips' radio team, and you shouldn't be surprise to know that it had more to say about UA. The touted Memphis running game was downplayed as one-dimensional, to the point that it seemed high praise when someone (I think it was the UA coach) argued that in fact it was TWO-dimensional: the quarterbacked handed off to Williams, or the quarterback kept it.

Still, the local coverage actually managed to underscore why people get so unhappy when they feel slighted by a national game. I can't tell you who won the Motor City Bowl last year, or any year before that. But, as the radio pregame pointed out, when you get in a bowl game, you don't just show off your team, you show off your conference — and you show future bowl organizers that you can both put up an impressive performance and you can bring out your fans. (Hence the importance of all those buses carrying UA supporters to the Motor City Bowl.) You want to make the most of that showcase, so it's frustrating when announcers make less of you.

Of course, whatever Memphis does in the stats column, UA could make more noise just by winning this thing.

Update: Memphis leads 38-17 with about three minutes to go. Needless to say, their story is dominating the TV commentary now. I've heard a couple of kind things said about UA, although it has some of the feel of the end of the "Bad News Bears" — you know, when the Yankees sneeringly say the Bears put up a good fight. (Speaking of which, as much as I liked Billy Bob Thornton in the remake, the original movie is still better.) A good fight pales next to a good win. It would have been sweet for UA if Williams's record-breaking performance had to be listed as coming while UA won…

Then again, it's now 38-24, and UA just got the ball, so maybe the game isn't over yet…

Update 2: And now it's 38-31. Could Kelly Leak be QB?…

Well, since UA fell just a little short of a miracle, maybe Kelly was there in spirit. I hope they also have a Tanner Boyle…

We finished that Alan Rickman Christmas double feature on Christmas Eve with a big dose of "Die Hard" and successfully fought the urge to watch "Love Actually" again. Caught a little of the Browns-Steelers, but it's not easy to stay interested in a game once it's 20-0 and feels much worse than that sounds.

Church service that evening, which turned out a bit differently than I expected. I had agreed to help out a little, but found that I had been enlisted as the balcony usher, and so had my own little flock — about 15 people — to tend to. Also unexpected: How protective I felt about them during the service. But it's still a challenge to navigate steps in the dark while carrying a large, lit candle.

Not much TV on Christmas Day. The one big viewing was of "Tommy Boy." Not a Christmas movie, but still a very funny one.

And now it's Monday. Vacation continues, but I am starting to get ready for the rest of the year. Just packed up the Christmas CDs and cassettes, for instance. After relaxing for a couple of days, I feel as if I should be doing something, and I suspect there will be lots of viewing today.

The Motor City Bowl, with the University of Akron playing, is on the list, and I've set the recorder for Monday Night Football. It's the last telecast of the season, and for now ABC's last regular-season game (since that the NBC/ESPN deal kicks in next year). So it is a milestone of sorts.

But how deeply has anyone cared about MNF since the Cosell/Meredith/Gifford era ended? As more than one person has noted, in those days, it didn't matter if the game was good or bad, because you were intriqued by the announcers; for the last many years, the game was paramount.

Besides, I have to think that at some point ABC will try to get back in the game, and not just by having the deal for its corporate sibling, ESPN. CBS lost its old football deal to Fox, then grabbed NBC's share of the pie. NBC made a lot of noise about not wanting football, then grabbed a package of prime-time Sunday games beginning next season. And in doing so, it got the NFL to agree to flexible scheduling, letting NBC have some playoff-significant games late in the season instead of sticking it with whatever the preseason schedule determined; the latter approach was the one ABC had to accept, and it did not accept it happily. Now that flexible scheduling is agreed to for prime time, who's to say ABC won't chase it the next time a football package is available?

And suddenly all that thinking feels too much like work. Let me get back to fun. Go Zips. Fear the Roo.