As far as record books are concerned, Spring Games are useless. Essentially they are glorified practices surrounded by the intensity of live game situations. But they are important to diehard fans (like yours truly) who can’t get enough of UC football. This dead period is particularly agonizing considering basketball season is over and football is coming off yet another Big East Championship. Even more so, UC was able to retain a young, successful coach for the first time since God-knows-when. This stability was a welcomed sign to a football program that has seen so little of it recently. Excitement for Bearcat football has never been higher as more and more people are hopping back on the bandwagon.
This is a critical time for the football program and Whit Babcock must capitalize on the recent success to build the donor base and keep the train moving. Bearcat Bowl VI allows fans at least a quick glimpse of what the football team will look like in the fall. There is a laundry list of questions surrounding this team right now; Who will be the starter for Isaiah Pead? How is the progression of Munchie Legaux going? Who will back him up? How will the replacements of Derek Wolfe and John Hughes pick up the slack? Who is injured and who is healthy? All of these questions can be answered in large part during the Spring Game.
At least these questions will be answered for the 500-or-so people who will fill the 35,000-seat Nippert Stadium on Saturday. According to the gobearcats.com, Cincinnati’s Spring Game will not be televised for the first time in years:
The obvious question to ask is ‘Why?’.
I don’t know about you but I hate those answers. First of all, using the cost of airing the event is a subpar excuse. In all likelihood this game would have been televised locally on Fox Sports Ohio. As you probably know this is the exact same station that carries the Cincinnati Reds and it just so happens that they will tangle with the Washington Nationals when? At 4:00 PM on Saturday, the exact time UC’s scrimmage is scheduled to begin. So I can’t really harp on the UC athletic department for this. FSO can pick whoever they want to broadcast in the Cincinnati market and 99.99% of the time the Reds take precedent over the Bearcats. It is what it is.
But that shouldn’t stop FSO from streaming it online. Last week FSFlorida streamed the Florida Gators’ spring game on their website. And if FSO refuses, why can’t Cincinnati Athletics stream Bearcat Bowl VI themselves? They were able to do it for last year’s Spring Game. While the footage was constantly interrupted by untimely interviews between Tom Gelehrter and various players, we did get to see real, live football for the first time in months. All they have to do is throw the footage on Catsvision All-Access, UC’s media hub for all things Bearcats. Returning to my point, how can streaming an online broadcast for a couple of hours really cost that much money? I mean, I understand as much as anybody that UC athletics isn’t exactly overflowing with cash but Whit should roll this game up under the line ‘Marketing Expenses’.
Because this is one of the purposes of broadcasting the Spring Game, advertising the University of Cincinnati and Bearcat athletics. Whit speaks about spreading the ‘Bearcat brand’ and this would be another opportunity to fulfill that goal. Like I said, excitement for UC football has never been higher. Why not build on that momentum by giving fans something to talk about this Summer?
"Oh man, did you see that juke George Winn made in the Spring Game? Looks like we will be better off at runningback next season than I thought."
That’s called a conversation starter that gets people to pick up the phone and buy season tickets, go to the games, buy UC gear, and watch the Bearcats on TV. It’s also a recruiting tool for Butch Jones to showcase to recruits who did not wish to attend the game. This is particularly useful for out-of-state prospects who wouldn’t be able to see a broadcast on FSO anyways. Even parents of current players can tune in and watch their son don the red and black jersey for the first time.
Secondly, I’m wondering if this is a tactic to actually get fans to go to the game. Historically the Bearcat Bowl hasn’t drawn well but that’s not uncommon for 90% of the programs across the country. This isn’t Alabama who would draw 50,000 to watch the place kickers blast field goals for an hour and a half. Those fans live, breathe, and eat college football. This is Cincinnati whose program is still in the infant stages of development. The Bearcats have a good 10,000-20,000 passionate fans but no where near the hundreds-of-thousands found at Ohio State, Texas, and across the SEC. Cincinnati football needs to be televised as much as possible for the very reason that there aren’t enough passionate UC fans out there.
Finally, I don’t understand how the format affects whether or not the Bearcat Bowl can be broadcast. This quote from the UC Bearcats official website doesn’t make it seem like this is a ‘practice’, as indicated above:
"The contest will feature four 12-minute quarters, regular clock stoppages in the first half, running clock in the second half with a 10-minute halftime."
That sounds like a football game to me. The only difference from a live game in the Fall is that the quarters will only be twelve minutes long as opposed to fifteen. That’s it.
Quite frankly, this is the first major mistake of the Whit Babcock era. He has been phenomenal in his short time at Cincinnati providing a shot of energy into the athletic department and his ‘Fan Guides’ this past basketball season were effective albeit cheesy. But if Whit wants to expand the fanbase, entice alumni and donors to give money, and in general build excitement for UC athletics, blacking out the Bearcat Bowl is not the way to do it.
My fear is that Bearcat Bowl VI will be overlooked like a insect scurrying down a busy sidewalk. Most people didn’t notice it was there and didn’t give it a second thought. Remember last year when Walter Stewart picked up 3 sacks in Bearcat Bowl V and everyone was bringing that up in the months leading up to Austin Peay? That’s the kind of hubbub a Spring Game will bring this program that needs as much attention as it can get.
What do you think?