The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

Column: NU on the tube.

College athletics is a big business and fan interest spreads from coast to coast. Certain schools have cult-like followings and popularity that goes beyond geographic boundaries.
For these teams, even the casual fan can identify some fact about them, be it their history, players, coaches and in some cases, even their mascot.
I think we can all recognize that Northeastern simply doesn’t have this nationwide appeal. Ask people on the West Coast about NU and unless they are alumni or know someone affiliated with the school they can probably only guess the school is directionally-named and must be in the Northeast. Without some sort of athletic hallmark Northeastern gets lost in the shuffle among other schools.
Seeking to change this, the Athletics Department has done work to try to get exposure by unveiling the ‘Now is the Time’ slogan and introducing Ncentives to reward students for going to games. This work centers more on local campus support for athletics but unfortunately does little to open up Husky athletics to a broader audience.’ ‘ ‘
The best way to get exposure to a wide audience in this day and age:’ ‘ television.
Because some of our teams have enjoyed new levels of success this year, television networks are broadcasting more Northeastern games than usual, thereby allowing fans to see more games and introduce Northeastern to the’ general public. Bill Coen’s basketball team has been the most exposed this year with at least 17 games guaranteed to make the airwaves. Some of the platforms basketball has been shown on include ESPNU, NESN, Bright House Sports Network, Comcast SportsNet, Big Ten Network, CSS, MSG+ and MASN.
‘ Most of these networks are regionalized television, shown in only certain areas of the country. However, the Huskies most recent televised contest’ brought Northeastern to a new frontier.
Last Saturday, Northeastern earned a 69-57 victory over Wright State.
On the surface, a non-conference game between two mid-major schools doesn’t seem significant. The fact that the game was carried on ESPN2 makes it NU’s most significant game of the season, not from a standings perspective but rather from an exposure perspective. According to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, ESPN2 reaches approximately 89 million viewers. That means that on Saturday Northeastern’s win was available on 89 million television sets across America and abroad. No other form of promotion can match what ‘The Worldwide Leader in Sports’ offers.
Consider another example of ESPN’s power. On the Feb 15 SportsCenter, Northeastern made the top 10 plays of the weekend segment thanks to a behind the back pass by Chaisson Allen to Matt Janning for a dunk. The clip runs no more than 12 seconds and even mentions that Northeastern didn’t win that game. Four people I know from other schools texted me that day to mention they saw my school on Sportscenter. Hence, that is the power of exposure.
‘ Television exposure brings teams to a wider viewing audience, and helps with recruiting players and students alike. Any TV exposure is good exposure, and if networks like ESPN are broadcasting, that’s just gravy.
The basketball team’s game this Saturday at home against Old Dominion will be shown on Comcast SportsNet. It is Senior Day and the last regular season game before the Huskies head to Richmond for the CAA Tournament, where all tournament games will have television coverage of some sort. Unfortunately with this being the first weekend of Spring Break,I anticipate attendance to take a dive for this game. Those not on campus can watch the game on Comcast at 6 p.m.
‘ We can thank Comcast for exposing Husky basketball to the public.

‘- Patrick McHugh can be reached at
[email protected].

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