M Soccer v. #1 Akron - Today at 4pm
I know it was mentioned in the comments to FormerlyAnonymous' "10/16 Michigan Sports Weekend" diary, but since that was a few days ago and some people might've missed it, I just thought I'd mention that the Michigan men's soccer team is taking on Akron today at 4pm at the soccer complex. Akron is undefeated and the number one team in the country. It's beautiful out today and I'm sure there are some students around campus for break with nothing to do, so make the trip down there and support the team.
October 20th, 2009 at 11:45 AM ^
The fact that Akron is #1 at anything is amazing to me.
October 20th, 2009 at 11:57 AM ^
I saw that earlier this year and figured it was for the soccer equivalent of the FCS subdivision. They recruit directly from Brazil or something?
October 20th, 2009 at 12:00 PM ^
I'm a little bummed this isn't going to be on BTN. I understand they have "campus programming" and 23rd re-runs of their weekly shows to do but I thought a big reason the BTN was invented was to show big games in non-football sports like this. Are they allowed to show out of conference games? Oh well...
October 20th, 2009 at 12:18 PM ^
the problem is that the soccer teams are playing at a temporary stadium. There aren't any camera's set up to film games. I was at a men's game earlier in the year and it is basically like a high school field right now with bleachers. (the pitch is excellent however) Once the new stadium is finished, I think you will see a lot more U of M soccer on the BTN, especially because Burns is really doing a good job building a program.
October 20th, 2009 at 12:39 PM ^
The game you were at was the competition field and that is where the 'stadium' will eventually be. They only thing temporary are the bleachers. They are starting construction on that very soon if they haven't already and have moved the remainder for the men's and women's soccer games to the west field where they played last year.
However, I don't know why that would keep the BTN away. Last year they broadcast the Michigan State game on the west field so it's not like that field isn't BTN compatible. A friend of mine that works with the women's team did tell me however that last weekend's women's game against Indiana was moved back to the competition field from west field at the request of the BTN even though the bleachers had already been removed from the site.
October 20th, 2009 at 1:25 PM ^
Part of the problem is the construction. They plan to make every BigTen arena have streaming capabilities by next season for major sports. Right now, Michigan doesn't appear to have it ready anywhere other than Crisler.
Once that is in place, they'll start offering games announced by student groups like WCBN more often.
As for the major channel, they do a pretty good job of squeezing things in on the weekend, but they're still working on expanding their midweek games. It's my opinion that they were probably gauging the interest in midweek games during their first year, as evidence of the many more games being scheduled this year.
They do show nonconference games on occasion (Wake @ Indiana earlier in the year) if they are hosted by BigTen institutions, but those schedules were put in place before the season. Michigan is outperforming conference expectations right now, so I could see that affecting this game being chosen to be broadcast. That said, it doesn't look like any midweek games are being shown on the channel.
Another note, volleyball is being broadcast on BTN tomorrow against Michigan State. The game is in EL, but yeah, 7pm on BTN. Should be a pretty good one, and UM should win fairly easily.
October 20th, 2009 at 2:40 PM ^
for the clarification.
October 20th, 2009 at 1:37 PM ^
Did you play for Burns? What year did you graduate?
October 20th, 2009 at 2:38 PM ^
I played club soccer when Burns was coaching club in 1994 and 1995. At that time there wasn't any varsity and we fielded two club teams. I was on the second one. I graduated in 1997.
October 20th, 2009 at 10:49 PM ^
I also graduated in 1997, I was the GK on the first club team. My senior year (Fall '96), I was the club president and was actually responsible for getting the second club team disbanded. Sorry about that, I guess I was kind of a dick back then...
Anyway, agreed that Burns has done a great job bringing the program into a Top 25 squad. Who would have thought that the program would go from one weekly Daily article to people posting about it on a blog...
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:18 PM ^
I was on the club team too, but not until '99. Then it went varsity.
October 20th, 2009 at 12:17 PM ^
This is a big game for the team. I wish they could have scheduled it for a later start in order to draw a larger audience, but oh well. Hopefully the guys will come out and play hard to pull off the W.
October 20th, 2009 at 12:26 PM ^
I'll be there.
This game was originally scheduled at 7pm. I'm not sure why exactly they moved it up. Maybe to not coincide with high school soccer districts, which are going on this week?
Also, the stands have been removed from the field so construction can start. If you're going to the game, bring a chair with you.
In reference to a comment up there - the women's game against Indiana this weekend was on BTN, granted the camera view wasn't the best. I'm guessing the fact that it is not on BTN has more to do with BTN not wanting to televise it as opposed to the fact that the stadium is still incomplete.
And yes, the pitch is absolutely perfect. I would love to play on that field.
October 20th, 2009 at 12:42 PM ^
It was moved up because the west practice field doesn't have lights.
October 20th, 2009 at 1:02 PM ^
a Big 10 team, so no tv.......i think its that simple here, #1 team or not.
October 20th, 2009 at 1:38 PM ^
This is as if Michigan were playing number one Duke in hoops, and neither the network nor espn picked up the coverage and the BTN opted out. This is EXACTLY the purpose for which the BTN was formed.
October 20th, 2009 at 1:46 PM ^
There's an obvious monetary difference between men's hoops and soccer. Olympic sports (other than men's basketball) television coverage is in its infancy at the college level. The BTN can't just say, oh, they're #1 this week, so we should jump on that at a week's notice. They prepare much of the current schedule well before the season starts.
By preseason standards, this would have been a bottom 25% of the BigTen team versus a top 15 team. That didn't have so much attraction 2 months ago. Like I said though, the BTN is making strides to show more games. Their streaming venture should clear most of the problems up in the next year or two.
October 20th, 2009 at 5:01 PM ^
An update for anyone interested: Akron is up 3-0. The Zips have really dominated the play, controlling possession and getting the vast majority of scoring chances. Not looking good thus far.
October 20th, 2009 at 6:15 PM ^
Justin Meram scored early in the 3rd but Akron quickly answered with a 4th minutes later.
Michigan had 3 very good chances in the first half but a six minute spell late that saw Akron get their first 3 goals pretty much shut the door.
I've been to most games over the last 7 years and this Akron team is probably the best I've seen play. Not that there's been a lot of top notch competition coming to Ann Arbor but I think they're better than the Indiana teams that won championships in 2003 and 2004.
October 20th, 2009 at 6:22 PM ^
Too bad the news couldn't have been better.