The good news for the University of Hawaii today is that it isn’t Idaho or New Mexico State. Last one to leave the Western Athletic Conference, please turn out the lights.
UH made its successful getaway long ago. So things could be worse. Much worse.
But it’s still to be determined how soft a landing spot for the Warriors the Mountain West really is. There’s still a lot of conference shuffling left to be done. Maybe there always will be.
And so it is with the TV games announced Thursday by the MWC; their value remains debatable, perhaps dubious.
Hawaii is slated for "national" TV four times this fall. The party line in the past has been that the bigger the audience the better for UH, that the exposure is worth the sacrifices.
But there’s a big difference between being on and being seen.
UH’s pay-per-view telecasts of the Nevada and Boise State home games are trumped by the NBC Sports Network. Don’t be fooled by that NBC part of the name; it’s not going to be over-the-air and "free."
It is a cable network, and is offered currently as part of Oceanic Time Warner Cable’s value package.
The games will be nationally distributed, but that doesn’t mean every market in the country will pick them up, so it’s not like being on ESPN. NBC Sports Network is available is about 25 percent fewer homes than ESPN.
Its effect on the Aloha Stadium gate will depend on whether Oceanic keeps the NBC Sports Network on the value package or moves it to a premium package — assuming it is allowed to do so by its parent company, Time Warner. If I were Oceanic, I’d want to make back more of what I’d invested. Then fans will weigh buying pay-per-view vs. going to the game.
Suffice it to say there are many, many moving parts remaining in the TV equation with UH and the Mountain West. So stay tuned … if the game’s available and if you can find it, and if it is affordable, that is.
Then you’ve got the change in kickoff times that go with being on "national" TV. The Sept. 22 game against Nevada will start at 4:30 p.m. and the Nov. 10 game against Boise State will start at 2 p.m. A lot of people have other things to do on Saturday afternoons (including work for some). Early starts generally hurt the gate.
These changes in starting times won’t help season-ticket renewals, and some fans are testy about renewals already. UH is spinning the fact that there is no hike in season-ticket prices from last year as a boon for the fans; but most of them quickly see through that. They’ve noticed that there is one fewer home game in 2012 than 2011 … and four of those six home games are against Lamar, New Mexico, UNLV and South Alabama.
It will be interesting to see if the buzz surrounding popular new head coach Norm Chow will override what most realize will be a rebuilding year as Chow works with personnel mostly left over from a different offensive system. Here’s one for the optimists to hang onto: When UH last changed systems, it went from 0-12 in 1998 to 9-4 in 1999.
But with no No. 1 quarterback chosen after the completion of spring practice and an offensive line still under construction, at this point the Warriors offense is almost as much of a mystery as the TV situation.
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783.
