Filling in for the San Francisco 49ers vs. Philadelphia Eagles, would you believe the University of Hawaii vs. Louisiana Tech?
It isn’t on the drawing board, but if the NFL regular season is pushed back or canceled and ESPN asked, the Western Athletic Conference would consider playing some of its football games on Sundays, officials said.
With the NFL labor situation dragging on, people around college football are starting to wonder, "what if?"
ESPN spokesman Michael Humes told the Star-Advertiser, "We are optimistic that everything will get resolved," but added, "We are evaluating a number of alternate programming scenarios to minimize the impact of potential lost games."
ESPN is the WAC’s TV partner and commissioner Karl Benson said, while the network has yet to discuss NFL cancellation possibilities with the conference, "I think we would always consider it (a Sunday date). We’ve played some Sunday games in the past, at ESPN’s request."
The WAC and Conference USA played Sunday games on ESPN in November of 2008 and ’09. And the WAC has played some Sundays on Labor Day weekends. Under the terms of its contract, ESPN may give the WAC up to 12 days notice on selecting some in-season games for TV.
UH athletic director Jim Donovan said "I’m not saying it would be impossible (to play on Sunday) but it would be costly to make those kind of changes."
The WAC has been hesitant to have UH play on days other than Friday or Saturday because of travel considerations, but did have the Warriors play on a Wednesday night at Louisiana Tech in 2009 when the Warriors were backed up against an open date.
This year the Warriors’ game at Louisiana Tech is Oct. 1, a Saturday, with UH not scheduled to play again until Oct. 15.
It isn’t on the drawing board, but if the NFL regular season is pushed back or canceled and ESPN asked, the Western Athletic Conference would consider playing some of its football games on Sundays, officials said.
With the NFL labor situation dragging on, people around college football are starting to wonder, "what if?"
ESPN spokesman Michael Humes told the Star-Advertiser, "We are optimistic that everything will get resolved," but added, "We are evaluating a number of alternate programming scenarios to minimize the impact of potential lost games."
ESPN is the WAC’s TV partner and commissioner Karl Benson said, while the network has yet to discuss NFL cancellation possibilities with the conference, "I think we would always consider it (a Sunday date). We’ve played some Sunday games in the past, at ESPN’s request."
The WAC and Conference USA played Sunday games on ESPN in November of 2008 and ’09. And the WAC has played some Sundays on Labor Day weekends. Under the terms of its contract, ESPN may give the WAC up to 12 days notice on selecting some in-season games for TV.
UH athletic director Jim Donovan said "I’m not saying it would be impossible (to play on Sunday) but it would be costly to make those kind of changes."
This year the Warriors’ game at Louisiana Tech is Oct. 1, a Saturday, with UH not scheduled to play again until Oct. 15.
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