I stopped watching the game when the score got out of hand it was apparent that one could be more entertained by watching a UND practice with the number one’s going against the scout team. I had a few of my friends make the comment, “why would UND even play a NAIA team?”
First off, game action is always better than practice action. Game action gives the coaches got a chance to see their players in live action against another foe other than their own team mates. Unfortunately, UND lost their starting quarterback Braden Hanson to a leg injury and appears to be unavailable for a couple of weeks.
I would have to say that my first impression of the Big Sky TV’s on-line version was very good.
There are a couple of things that you will need to do to be able to watch the on-line video – you have to have to down load Adobe Flash Player 10.x and the ONE Vision Plugin. I also highly recommend using the Google Chrome Browser as well.
While fans aren’t happy with this, this doesn’t mean the University isn’t trying to solve this issue and there is a lot of time yet to come to a solution. Jayson Hajdu aka @UNDSID posted this new nugget on Sioux Sports.
At this point, Fox College Sports is only picking up men’s hockey. All home men’s hockey games will be broadcast on Fox College Sports for 2012-13 only. Once UND joins the National Collegiate Hockey Conference in 2013-14, CBS Sports Network holds national broadcast rights to all NCHC games. Thus, UND cannot broadcast nationally on another network, even if CBS Sports Network is not showing that particular game.So going forward it appears that on line broadcasts are going to be a wave of the future for UND sports. This is an issue that fans are positive about and while watching sporting events on line is not the best method of watching football and hockey – it at least gives fans an option to listening to the game on line – that’s not a slam on Tim Hennesy either, because he is one of the best hockey play-by-play guys in the business in my humble opinion.
Is this ideal for UND as an individual institution? Of course not. In college athletics, there is a cost to doing business. Sometimes concessions have to be made for the best interests of the league(s). Now, this doesn’t preclude us from attempting to regain that national footprint in the future. We are well aware of how many loyal fans we have nationwide and we will make every effort to make sure we reach as many as possible, in as many ways as possible.
In the meantime, fans outside of the MidcoSN viewing area will still have the opportunity to view home men’s hockey games via UNDInsider webcasts. We like to think we already offer high-quality webcasts – we pull the feed directly from the television broadcast – but we are still making significant upgrades for the upcoming season.
Specifically, we are upgrading in terms of quality (to near-HD), video player (better streaming for your connection speed) and accessibility (iPad, etc.). Once MidcoSN makes the conversion to HD in 2014-15, our webcasts will also be available in full HD.
With the upgrade to near-HD – and eventually full HD – you’ll still be able to enjoy UND men’s hockey games on your television screen by connecting your computer. It will essentially be the same quality you previously enjoyed, albeit with an extra step involved.
Our goal is to provide our programming to as many fans possible through as many platforms as possible. We’ve come an awful long ways since the days of one or two games per year being broadcast on local network television. In 2012-13, every home game will be available to watch on television, webcasts and mobile devices.
Personally, I prefer to watch hockey live or on a television set as opposed to listening to hockey on a radio or on the computer. Most sports fans that I know are visual people. Talking to other people that I know and through the blog, it appears that there are others that feel the same way.
Let’s not kid ourselves, some schools on line broadcasts are better than others – one of the best free on line broadcasts is the GCI Cable out of Anchorage, Alaska. For the most part the B2 Broadcasts in the past have been questionable and in some cases brutal.
From my vantage point, it appears that the UND will probably be on the fore front of this issue and the athletic department at the University of North Dakota knows that they have a huge fan base outside of the state of North Dakota that is very passionate about UND sports. If there are any updates on this issue I will post it on the blog – I will also keep my ear to the ground.
