From UIL regarding Tyler Lee on ESPN

[supercentex]

From UIL press release:


In other action, the State Executive Committee ruled that the UIL rule
regarding live television broadcasts of regular season football games on
Friday night is clear, and no other interpretation of the rule could be
issued. Therefore, there was no change in the rule's original
interpretation that there is no exception to allow a live television
broadcast of regular season football games on Friday night.

[supercentex]

LEE-COLERAIN FOOTBALL GAME
WON'T BE TELEVISED LIVE
08/03/2005
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The Robert E. Lee and Cincinnati Colerain football game, scheduled for Sept. 9 at Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, will not be televised live on ESPN-U.


This was the ruling made by the University Interscholastic League's execu-tive committee Wednesday in Austin. The committee agreed to further discuss a rule change at its legislative session in October.

[PackAttack2005]

Good for the U.I.L. The interpetation of the rules must be upheld equally for all schools, without exception for the one school. By keeping the door shut the U.I.L. will avoid the "can of worms legal issue" that could be started by allowing one school a special pass for Friday night.

The U.I.L. did the right thing.

[GTown02]

Even though UIL made the right call, i'm still upset about not getting to see it live.

[dragonsdaddy]

everyone is dead on accurate on your assessment of the worm container as lawyers for the top programs around were already preparing their briefs for future, weekly television deals.

[pooch]

It'll be shown on tape-delay, though, right?!?!

[supercentex]

LIVE TV BROADCAST NIXED
By: CHRIS PARRY, Staff Writer
08/03/2005





Robert E. Lee and Cincinnati Colerain will clash at 8 p.m., Friday, Sept. 9, at Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio in the showcase game of the inaugural Kirk Herbstreit vs. USA Challenge.

But it will not be on television - at least not on live television.


This was the verdict handed down Wednesday after the University Interscholastic League's executive committee heard appeals from Tyler Independent School District athletic director Danny Long and Ken Halloy, vice president of Fahlgren Sports Marketing, the firm responsible for producing the event.

ESPN had been slated to broadcast the Lee-Colerain game live on its new network, ESPNU, but this ruling means it will have to find alternate programming. The reason is because the game will be played on Friday, a day on which the UIL constitution forbids live television broadcasts of regular-season games.

Long said that while the committee listened and agreed with many of his and Halloy's points, it does not have the authority to overrule the constitution.

The committee made a motion to refer their request to the legislative council, which meets in October.

"Basically, they denied our request to have it live, but it was not a complete defeat because they are going to look at this issue further," Long said. "Where we go from here is we go to Ohio and beat Colerain in Crew Stadium, that is where we go from here."

Halloy believes one of the ESPN networks could show the game tape-delayed, but nothing is official.

"Given the magnitude of the event, ESPN has hinted that it wants to consider possibly rebroadcasting the game on Saturday morning," Halloy said. "We have Archie Griffin and Earl Campbell doing the coin toss before the game. It's things like that which have made this event so much more sexy to ESPN.

"This event has become a show. I think (the game) will get a lot of play prior to the Texas-Ohio State game."

Long said he presented the committee with conflicting statements he found in the UIL constitution and UIL football manual. The football manual states that a live telecast of a Friday night game can't be in an area where other schools are playing, but the constitution says the UIL has the power to allow for live television, but for playoffs only.

"My request was to allow the UIL latitude in this case for a regular season game until a legislative council could discuss this," Long said. "I thought this committee could make that decision. I was led to believe that."

This decision ended a near four-month waiting period for East Texans to see if they would have an opportunity to watch the game.

The Lee-Colerain game, pitting the defending Class 5A Division I champions against the reigning Ohio Division I champion (ranked No. 6 to start the year by the National Prep Football Poll) was officially announced May 18 at a press conference at the Tyler Chamber of Commerce. At that time, ESPN was rumored to be in negotiations to televise the game, but nothing was official. During a June press conference at Crew Stadium, it was made official that the game would be televised nationally with ESPN broadcasting the game on its new network, ESPNU. This came after the Ohio High School Athletic Association had voted to waive its similar rule of not televising Friday games.

The UIL released a statement saying it did not feel the same way and added if ESPNU televised it, it would have to be blacked out in Texas. Reports surfaced in late July from Fahlgren Sports Marketing of ESPN saying it did not have the technology to black out one state, and gave the firm a week to gain permission from the UIL.

The deadline passed without word except for the UIL saying it would send the motion to its executive committee, which met Wednesday.

"We gave it our best shot and Danny was excellent," Halloy said of their presentation to the committee. "I think it probably began a process, but unfortunately for Tyler, the timing will not help them now. I came down here for Tyler Lee. What a really special thing for Texas fans to see this game, it would have been cool to see."

Halloy went on to say the days of not televising high school Friday games is about to be over, thanks to ESPN college football.

"I think the rule will ultimately have to change because college football on Friday nights is becoming the rule now rather than the exception," Halloy said. "For example, on the night of our game in Columbus, ESPN2 is broadcasting the Ohio University-Pittsburgh game, 80 miles away. I can assure the Ohio High School Athletic Commission is not very happy about that.

"This is the next frontier in sports. It is the trickle-down effect of our insatiable appetite for football."

[R E Lee]

It is only a matter of time. With the college games moving to Friday nights, the UIL, and High School Football in general, better start fighting back or they will look up to half empty stands, and alot less revenue.

Just look at the example in Florida. TV didn't kill college football and it won't kill high school. Good teams will always draw fans. Saying all of this, I really don't care whether the game is telivised or not, I will be there in person, and I will always choose to attend Lee games as opposed to watching them on T.V. I would enjoy watching other teams play on T.V. on Friday nights if I were not going to travel to my home teams away games.

Tough desision and I'm sure the economics will prevail in the end.

[supercentex]

If anyone wants to send a nice email (sarcastic) to the UIL.......send it here. I already sent one.

uiladmin@uts.cc.utexas.edu

[slcsportsfan]

It is only a matter of time. With the college games moving to Friday nights, the UIL, and High School Football in general, better start fighting back or they will look up to half empty stands, and alot less revenue.

Just look at the example in Florida. TV didn't kill college football and it won't kill high school. Good teams will always draw fans. Saying all of this, I really don't care whether the game is telivised or not, I will be there in person, and I will always choose to attend Lee games as opposed to watching them on T.V. I would enjoy watching other teams play on T.V. on Friday nights if I were not going to travel to my home teams away games.

Tough desision and I'm sure the economics will prevail in the end.

That is not very likely. I can assure you that the people with kids in HS will always go to the games no matter how close a college is and no matter who is playing. It would hurt the away games I would imagine. Just look at our ESPN game last year vs. Denton Ryan. Ryan had to give back 1,000 tickets that they could not sell.

What allowing HS games to be televised live would do is that it would help generate revenue for the individual high schools who are fortunate enough to have their games on tv. The money generated would not fall under Robinhood and therefore, would be very appealing to high profile schools. Unfortunately, it would keep lower income schools and schools "not so" high profile even farther back on the monetary scale. I spoke the booster club president here and he said they were disappointed that the game would not be on tv. They were ready to head to court to fight to have SLC games on tv.

[CCHS77]

If anyone wants to send a nice email (sarcastic) to the UIL.......send it here. I already sent one.



Why send a "sarcastic" note to the UIL for uphold their own rule.

[RPM]

good move by UIL..

now if they could only work out the one state championship deal.. :D

[dentonRYAN]

good job UIL