Montana - Root Sports Schedule

[OptimusPrime]

EWU sold out 3 of 4 home games last year (that's right, we only got 4 home games which in and of itself was bullshit too).
The other game that wasn't a sell out was pretty damn close.
EWU has grown its program quite nicely over the last decade. In fact, if the schedule had anything to do with winning programs of the last ten years EWU would have gotten more games.
National Championships in 10 years
EWU - 1
UM - 0
MSU - 0

I'm actually not that pissed about this schedule, considering EWU got two games. I just think in terms of recruiting it's unfair.

Plus I can't believe ROOT wouldn't want to market more red turf games - I would think that would be a draw for them. Oh well - no worries to me as I'll be at every home game and fortunately our first two road games are in Moscow and Pullman respectively so those are easy road games to attend too.

Furthermore, this age-old argument that other schools in the Sky need to get up to Montana's level is absurd and not grounded in any kind of reality.
Maybe the einstein a few posts up who gave us the democracy school lesson can drop a little knowledge on state budgets and appropriations. Last I checked, the Montana schools are the only schools in the Big Sky considered the state's research institutions - thus they get the lions share of monies allocated by the state legislature.
So this argument I see on here time and time again is quite ridiculous. It would be like expecting Western Montana to fill a 20,000 seat stadium every Saturday. And don't even get me started about how Montana football is the ONLY thing going in Montana. Not like other places that have other Division 1 schools and professional sports.

So put that one to rest.

See you all in Cheney this upcoming season in what will likely be the first of your many losses this year.

First off, if you have a problem with only have 4 home games, not getting enough TV time, and any other "problems," I suggest you email, call, or send a telegram to Bill Chaves, your AD, he's the one who should be pushing for those things, and ultimately responsible.
Some other things:
-The red turf is not a draw, it is a novelty.
-EWU is within a 20 minute drive of 500,000 people or more, half of the entire population of the 4th largest state in the union, Montana. If you can't drum more support with that kind of base, not UM or MSU's problem. We have people drive 3 hours or more to come to our games, EWU couldn't get people to drive the 20 minutes to show up to the playoff games two years ago.
-I'm glad you got yourself a NC, it helps the conference. EWU still has a way to go. If the BSC ever lost the Montana schools, it would be irrelevant. We all know that.
-MSU > EWU this year.

 

[AZGrizFan]

Furthermore, this age-old argument that other schools in the Sky need to get up to Montana's level is absurd and not grounded in any kind of reality.
Maybe the einstein a few posts up who gave us the democracy school lesson can drop a little knowledge on state budgets and appropriations. Last I checked, the Montana schools are the only schools in the Big Sky considered the state's research institutions - thus they get the lions share of monies allocated by the state legislature.
So this argument I see on here time and time again is quite ridiculous. It would be like expecting Western Montana to fill a 20,000 seat stadium every Saturday. And don't even get me started about how Montana football is the ONLY thing going in Montana. Not like other places that have other Division 1 schools and professional sports.

What does state appropriations figures have to do with being able to put butts in the seats?

 

[Ursa Major]

EWU sold out 3 of 4 home games last year (that's right, we only got 4 home games which in and of itself was bullshit too).
The other game that wasn't a sell out was pretty damn close.
EWU has grown its program quite nicely over the last decade.

As evidenced by: http://www.spokesman.com/eagles/stories/2010/dec/16/kick-in-the-tail-feathers-for-no-show-eagles-fans/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have been to two games at the vo-tech in Cheney. One against UM and one against MSU. It probably doesn't hurt attendance when 1/2 the people in the stands for those games are Griz & Cat fans.

 

[grizcountry420]

EWU sold out 3 of 4 home games last year (that's right, we only got 4 home games which in and of itself was bullshit too).
The other game that wasn't a sell out was pretty damn close.
EWU has grown its program quite nicely over the last decade.

As evidenced by: http://www.spokesman.com/eagles/stories/2010/dec/16/kick-in-the-tail-feathers-for-no-show-eagles-fans/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have been to two games at the vo-tech in Cheney. One against UM and one against MSU. It probably doesn't hurt attendance when 1/2 the people in the stands for those games are Griz & Cat fans.

He said at the "vo-tech"...

 

[Brock Landers]

See you all in Cheney this upcoming season in what will likely be the first of your many losses this year.

You've beat us, what, 1 out of the last 6 games? Barely.

Division 1 football isn't fair in many ways, so I dunno why you're over here crying about it. Roots runs a business, not a charity.

 

[AZGrizFan]

See you all in Cheney this upcoming season in what will likely be the first of your many losses this year.

You've beat us, what, 1 out of the last 6 games? Barely.

Division 1 football isn't fair in many ways, so I dunno why you're over here crying about it. Roots runs a business, not a charity.

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[Brock Landers]

Sorry, Root*

 

[Ursa Major]

Could someone tell me whether Montana is on Root Sports Northwest or Root Sports Rocky Mountains? I seem to be getting conflicting information. I live in Seattle, so please tell me it's Northwest.

You'll get them live in HD on ROOT Sports NW if you live in the Seattle area...

I hope you're right Griz 71 but I fear we will be bumped or delayed (in Seattle) for UW, WSU or other PAC 12 games. As I'm sure you know Root (formerly FSNW) features a lot of Husky games. Especially over the last few years when no one else will carry their games. I tried to look up the schedule for the Husky games to compare them with the UM schedule but they are all TBA at this point. Most of the Husky games start at 1:00 PM which is a conflict with the Big Sky games. I have cable and the only other Fox College channels I have are Atlantic, Pacific & Central. Here is to a lot of Husky & Cougar night games this year!!

 

[GrizMusician]

I would think that the red turf would be a logistics nightmare for the TV crews... I don't know much about optics, but wouldn't it be difficult to focus?

 

[WILDCATFAN]

My only gripe is just what Great Day To Be An Eagle said, this really is a huge recruiting advantage for the Montana Schools who already have an advantage due to thier success and tradition.

It really is unfair to the rest of the league.

 

[tnt]

Maybe EWU has a half million folks to draw on but they also have D-1 program not too far south thaat draws pretty well too.... The biggest problem (and one of my degrees is from EWSC) is that even though they now call themselves a University they are still a 4 year community college of satellite campuses. More Eastern students attend classes across the river from Gonzaga in the course of week than are on campus. They are still essentially a non resident campus as well More students get to the "campus" on the magic bus system from Spokane than live on campus.

They have done amazingly well developing a tradition and following. Heck their Alumni Association finally caught up with me after thirty years. They have a ways to go, but they will get there.

The thing WE forget is that their is an absolute loathing for all things UM in Cheney. There was a certain game a few years back to decide a conference title and a certain call made in the last game held at Dornblazer that still lives in infamy. My brother in Law was the Faculty connect with the AD at the time. I was sitting with those folks when the call came. 4 guys jumped the fence to keep Zorn from committing a felony. To this day their isn't an Eastern team that hasn't seen the film of that call. They still reference it on TV coverage prior to the Montana Eastern game (and showed the film over several times) the year they rolled out the red carpet for us.

 

[WaGriz4life]

Maybe EWU has a half million folks to draw on but they also have D-1 program not too far south thaat draws pretty well too.... The biggest problem (and one of my degrees is from EWSC) is that even though they now call themselves a University they are still a 4 year community college of satellite campuses. More Eastern students attend classes across the river from Gonzaga in the course of week than are on campus. They are still essentially a non resident campus as well More students get to the "campus" on the magic bus system from Spokane than live on campus.

They have done amazingly well developing a tradition and following. Heck their Alumni Association finally caught up with me after thirty years. They have a ways to go, but they will get there.

The thing WE forget is that their is an absolute loathing for all things UM in Cheney. There was a certain game a few years back to decide a conference title and a certain call made in the last game held at Dornblazer that still lives in infamy. My brother in Law was the Faculty connect with the AD at the time. I was sitting with those folks when the call came. 4 guys jumped the fence to keep Zorn from
committing a felony. To this day their isn't an Eastern team that hasn't seen the film of that call. They still reference it on TV coverage prior to the Montana Eastern game (and showed the film over several times) the year they rolled out the red carpet for us.

I'll bet you anything not one player on EWU's team has any idea what you are talking about, much less seen the film of that game at Dornblazer.

 

[SloStang]

Honest question: How many of EWU's games were televised last year?

I do not know about EWU, but Cal Poly had 6 games televised in 2011 (it is great, I DVR'd all of them and they are helping get through the off season). Of the five that were not, all but NIU were available on the internet.

 

[WILDCATFAN]

Weber had 3 on altitude, @ UNC, home to MSU and @ EWU

 

[AZGrizFan]

Griz - 7
Cats - 6
EWU - 2
NAU - 1
SUU - 1
UCD - 1
UNC - 1
UND - 1
SAC - 1
PSU - 1
WSU - 1
ISU - 1
CP - 0

I'd be pissed if I was running Max Media or KPAX. Not that I'm complaining as a fan, but I will be if they choose not to pick up the remaining MSU and UM games. We go backwards in that scenario as a fanbase.

This is exactly how I see it, 79. It's a backwards move for all fans in/from the state of Montana.

 

[T&C Griz]

The rumor still is that Kpax is not going to bid on the remaining games that Root is not going to air. Im sure that they are mad that Root/Fullerton said that no more than 3 games per team would be broadcast on Root, leaving Kpax the rest of the Griz games to broadcast.
Does anyone know what the amount that the Griz will get for their 1/13th share of the Root $$$$ ??
I would be curious to find out if it is more $$$ than Kpax gave the Griz to broadcast all the games last year.

 

[Bear Axed]

My only gripe is just what Great Day To Be An Eagle said, this really is a huge recruiting advantage for the Montana Schools who already have an advantage due to thier success and tradition.

It really is unfair to the rest of the league.

I think you just became a Soccer Mom! :thumb: Life should be fair! :x

You can now Cheer because everybody plays in spite of skill level
and be grateful every one gets a participation ribbon!

 

[WILDCATFAN]

My only gripe is just what Great Day To Be An Eagle said, this really is a huge recruiting advantage for the Montana Schools who already have an advantage due to thier success and tradition.

It really is unfair to the rest of the league.

I think you just became a Soccer Mom! :thumb: Life should be fair! :x

You can now Cheer because everybody plays in spite of skill level
and be grateful every one gets a participation ribbon!

In a sport where both Montana's already have a recruiting advantage, this is going to give them an even larger recruiting advantage. That's what's not fair.

I'm not a person who thinks eveyone gets a trophy, I dont believe in that, but when a WHOLE conference goes in for a tv deal, EVERY conference member should get equall tv time, and not have it all centered on just two schools.

It's not a matter of "I get to watch Weber on tv" its a matter of how much more is this gonna benefit Weber? Definetely not as much as it will MSU and UM

 

[HannahO]

Maybe EWU has a half million folks to draw on but they also have D-1 program not too far south thaat draws pretty well too.... The biggest problem (and one of my degrees is from EWSC) is that even though they now call themselves a University they are still a 4 year community college of satellite campuses. More Eastern students attend classes across the river from Gonzaga in the course of week than are on campus. They are still essentially a non resident campus as well More students get to the "campus" on the magic bus system from Spokane than live on campus.

They have done amazingly well developing a tradition and following. Heck their Alumni Association finally caught up with me after thirty years. They have a ways to go, but they will get there.

The thing WE forget is that their is an absolute loathing for all things UM in Cheney. There was a certain game a few years back to decide a conference title and a certain call made in the last game held at Dornblazer that still lives in infamy. My brother in Law was the Faculty connect with the AD at the time. I was sitting with those folks when the call came. 4 guys jumped the fence to keep Zorn from
committing a felony. To this day their isn't an Eastern team that hasn't seen the film of that call. They still reference it on TV coverage prior to the Montana Eastern game (and showed the film over several times) the year they rolled out the red carpet for us.

I'll bet you anything not one player on EWU's team has any idea what you are talking about, much less seen the film of that game at Dornblazer.

You would lose that bet ... It's hard to ever forget that kind of blatant flat out wrongness and much as you'd like to forget, they don't. And the fans don't .... And if it only happened once we might not be so bitter but it has happened too many times to be able to say that it's Big Sky officiating and it will even out.

Perhaps by the reasoning of the Grizz posters, we should simply change the name of the conference to the Treasure State conference since it appears that the only schools of consequence are from Montana! :shock:

This kind of lopsided coverage within a conference does bring an unfair competitive advantage (akin to the days when Nortre Dame had national network games prior to cable tv while everyone else had regional telecasts). The interesting thing is that, even with this type of favorable coverage, previous Grizz posters have bitched about what they don't like about it (not enough home games, have to have cable etc.). There's no mystery why other fan bases are unhappy with 0, 1, or 2 games on the schedule, and I dare say if all of you took your maroon colored glasses off for even a moment you could acknowledge the inequity. Instead all this smugness and superiority gets you little sympathy when you have internal problems such as you have recently experienced and a whole bunch of STFU!

 

[EWURanger29]

Maybe EWU has a half million folks to draw on but they also have D-1 program not too far south thaat draws pretty well too.... The biggest problem (and one of my degrees is from EWSC) is that even though they now call themselves a University they are still a 4 year community college of satellite campuses. More Eastern students attend classes across the river from Gonzaga in the course of week than are on campus. They are still essentially a non resident campus as well More students get to the "campus" on the magic bus system from Spokane than live on campus.

Good post, and a lot of what you're saying would still be accurate if we were talking about the 80's or 90's. EWU has really gone away from the model they used back then.....I.E. they are putting a lot more effort and money into the infrastructure and development of the main campus. You can see evidence of that fact in all the construction and renovation they've been doing the past several years on campus, and in current projects like the Gateway Project which will add a multi-purpose athletic facility and 8,000 additional seats to the East Side of the Stadium. The Riverpoint facility still exists, but the Spokane Center was recently approved for sale. So, more students do not attend class in Spokane than in Cheney, not by any stretch of the imagination. There are obviously a lot commuters, but I recently saw a figure which stated that over 75% of students now live either on or off campus in Cheney. The fact that they recently approved the construction of more dorms also supports this. It's been a long and painful process, but the University finally has the right leadership in place that "gets it" in terms of developing the main campus, athletic facilities, etc. Add to that the fact that it's the fastest growing University in the State with well over 12,000 students now, and there's a good trend going there. It is a much, much different place than it was even 10 years ago, for the better.

As far as the TV contract, meh....I knew it would be Montana heavy, although I didn't realize that every game would include a Montana school. But it's kind of hard to be too pissed off about it when we at least have one more game than every other school besides the Montanas. I think they could have at least included Cal Poly in one of those games, but I ain't in charge.