Iowa-Iowa State Dual Meet, 12/6/09 [Archive]

duran

12-07-2008, 09:58 PM

COLUMN: Big Ten Network drops the ball on coverage of Iowa-Iowa State dual

Craig Sesker USA Wrestling (from themat.com)
12/07/2008

It was just before 8:30 p.m. Mountain Time last night when I settled into my recliner at my house in Colorado Springs. I was all set to take in the Iowa-Iowa State wrestling dual meet in High Definition on the Big Ten Network.

The meet was already over, and was being shown on a tape-delayed basis since the Big Ten Network instead chose to show the basketball mismatch between No. 10 Purdue and Arkansas Pine-Bluff. Purdue won a nail-biter by 48 points.

As everyone in the wrestling world knew, Iowa and Iowa State were ranked 1-2 in the country. The dual meet was expected to draw nearly 16,000 fans and break the all-time college attendance record.

I deliberately avoided checking on the outcome of the Iowa-ISU dual while watching the Webcast of the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational finals on my laptop.

My disappointment with the Big Ten Network began at 8:30. The Purdue blowout ran more than 20 minutes over its allotted time slot, so the scheduled 30-minute Big Ten Tonight highlight show was on when the wrestling was supposed to start. It continued until almost 9 p.m. Mountain Time.

Basketball highlight after basketball highlight was shown, even though the Big Ten listings had the wrestling scheduled to start at 8:30. As the highlights dragged on, no mention was made on the screen or by the announcers that the wrestling would be shown later than listed. That would have been helpful.

At the end of the highlight show, they decided to throw in the results of the wrestling dual right before they were going to show it. And they failed to mention that it was going to finally be shown coming up next on the Big Ten Network. Giving the result kind of spoiled it for a lot of people like me who were getting ready to watch it and had deliberately avoided checking the results.

People who set their DVRs for the two-hour time slot that the meet was scheduled to be shown in, didn’t even see the whole dual. Their recording was shut off during the second period of the 184-pound match, with two more matches still left to be contested, since the dual was shown later than what was listed.

To make matters worse were the comments the two clowns in the Big Ten studio made just before the dual was finally aired last night. The male studio host pumps up the dual by saying this: “Even if you’re not a fan of the sport, everyone gets excited when No. 1 meets No. 2.”

My initial reaction was, Did he just say that?

Then the blonde studio lady, who obviously had no clue, later says: “Hulk Hogan has nothing on them.”

Are you kidding me? I’m so sick of wrestling being disrespected by ignorant people like that. That’s unprofessional, and inexcusable, behavior for a broadcaster. Especially when they not only show this meet tape-delayed, but 22 minutes after the tape-delayed broadcast was listed to start.

The wrestling finally came on, but it was late. Very late. Anybody on the East Coast who wanted to watch this had to wait until nearly 11 p.m. before the first match was shown. It was just before 1 in the morning Eastern Time when it ended.

Once the coverage came on, it was well done. The coverage was solid with the veteran team of Tim Johnson, Dan Gable and Jim Gibbons on the call. It was a closely contested dual between two great teams. The place was packed and you could tell the atmosphere at Carver was electric. It was a shame we had to wait so long to see it.

During the halftime intermission of the dual, they went back to the studio to show the same basketball highlights they had on during the first half hour the dual was supposed to be shown. How about running a feature on wrestling instead? The Big Ten Network did some cool features, including an interesting one on Northwestern’s Dustin Fox, during its wrestling coverage last year.

How about a halftime feature on coaches Tom Brands and Cael Sanderson, two of the greatest American wrestlers in history? Instead, we got to see clips of Indiana’s lopsided loss to Gonzaga. Again and again and again.

Just when I thought I was done venting about this, I flipped my TV over to the Big Ten Network early Sunday afternoon.

The women’s basketball game between No. 22 Iowa State and unranked Iowa was being shown LIVE on the Big Ten Network. The same arena that was sold out the previous night looked like it wasn’t even close to being half full. There were numerous empty seats in the first row. Yes, the first row. On the side of the court, and not in the end zone.

By the way, the announced attendance of the Iowa-Iowa State women’s basketball game was 5,560. Attendance at the Iowa-Iowa State wrestling dual was 15,955, the biggest crowd in NCAA history. But women’s hoops was shown live and wrestling wasn’t.

I can understand most of the time when wrestling receives less coverage than basketball. Wrestling’s popularity obviously is not that of men’s basketball, but an exception needs to be made in a case like this.

The Iowa-Iowa State dual meet should’ve been shown live, instead of the Big Ten Network electing to televise the 50-point blowout basketball game between Purdue and Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Even that game drew less fans, 13,448, than the Iowa-ISU wrestling dual did.

I’m sure there were fans like me around the country who couldn’t wait to see the classic wrestling battle at a sold-out Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The unranked Iowa men’s basketball team can barely fill half the arena at Carver, but their recent game against cupcake opponent Bryant (not Jason’s alma mater) was shown live on the Big Ten Network. The Iowa-Bryant game drew 8,711 fans, but was televised live by the BTN.

The Iowa-Iowa State dual has been held on Sundays in recent years, and maybe moving it back to Sunday would put it back on live TV on the Big Ten Network. It was shown live on Iowa Public Television on Saturday night, but you can’t get that anywhere but in the Hawkeye state or in markets bordering Iowa like Omaha.

Shame on the Big Ten Network for some of its poor decision-making, and its treatment of wrestling, last night. It was a bad call on a record-setting night for a sport that deserved to be in the spotlight – live and in Prime Time.

I’m sure there were a lot of disappointed fans around Big Ten country, and the whole country for that matter, who had to wait and wait and wait to see this great dual meet.

The lack of respect wrestling fans were treated with last night is disappointing. But not surprising.

The Big Ten Network dropped the ball. They really dropped the ball.

(duran edit: Columnist Craig Sesker is the Communications Manager for USA Wrestling. A college wrestling meet draws 3 times as many spectators as women's roundball and gets played on a tape delay. As he explained, my DVR stopped recording halfway through the 184 pound bout.)