More UH football An unprecedented three regular-season University of Hawaii football games are expected to be televised nationally this fall as part of the Western Athletic Conference's broadcast package with ESPN.
will air on ESPN
Officials expect the network will
televise 3 games this yearBy Dave Reardon
dreardon@starbulletin.comThis year's schedule is being finalized, but several sources indicate UH's games at Brigham Young and Fresno State and a home game against Washington State will be picked up.
At least one road game and probably both, and maybe the home game, will have their dates changed.
"If we have to change the Washington State game to Friday it shouldn't be too much of a problem," UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida said. "We're scheduled to play on Thanksgiving weekend (Saturday, Nov. 30)."
The UH game at BYU will be moved up a day to Friday, Sept. 6. The Hawaii at Fresno State game will likely be pushed up, too, to Oct. 25.
"We're still waiting to hear from ESPN, but we're going forward, assuming it will be Friday," FSU athletic department spokesman Steve Weakland said.
BYU athletic director Val Hale said the Warriors-Cougars game "is all set" to be moved up a day, despite initial resistance from area high school football administrators.
"I talked to all of the high school athletic directors in our valley," Hale said. "They don't want us to play on Fridays. We understand their concerns and I told them it would just be on occasion, not a habit."
College football games were not played on Fridays until a rule change last year allowed incursions, including the Fresno State at Hawaii game that was televised on ESPN.Keith Amemiya, the executive director of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association, is against Friday night college football because of its potential effect on high school games.
"We'll do whatever we can to support the University of Hawaii athletic department," Amemiya said. "However, at the same time, football is the financial lifeblood of our high school athletic programs. If football doesn't do well financially it has grave implications upon our schools' overall athletic budgets, just as on the college level. We hope that the WAC will follow lead of the so-called major conferences in declining (college) football on Friday night."
The UH athletic department opposed moving last year's Fresno State game to Friday because it feared lost revenue from a game that might have sold out on Saturday. But the exposure the Warriors got through their stirring 38-34 last-play upset victory being on national TV (as was the 72-45 season-ending win over BYU) probably helped the program in the long run, although only 35,074 saw it in person.
UH coach June Jones welcomes the idea of more ESPN games.
"That's good news. That we're getting more national attention means we must have done something right last year," he said.
Jones said that losing a day of preparation -- especially for the road games -- doesn't hurt Hawaii's chances to win.
"Actually, because of what we do (the run-and-shoot offense), it's more to our advantage to play on Friday," Jones said. "Our gameplan doesn't really change because of who we're playing, but other teams' do."
UH is 4-16-1 on national TV, but has won the last three in a row.
More national Hawaii games hurts KHNL-KFVE, which normally televises Warrior games. The station which calls itself "The Home Team" is in negotiations for a new contract for local UH broadcast rights.
"As UH gets more national games, it affects us proportionately," program director Dan Schmidt said. "But three games being taken by ESPN won't affect us worse than it did last year when we lost two, because we will still have 10 games to do." (UH plays 13 games this year.)
Yoshida and KHNL-KFVE vice president/general manager John Fink said the ongoing negotiations include financial allowances for the local station being cast aside for the ESPN games.
"The games they take are certainly the cherry games. That should be taken into consideration," Fink said.
He added the contract negotiations are going well.
"It's like two partners trying to come to agreement," he said. "The beauty this time is we're trying to roll over five more years rather than coming in blind."
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