Next football pact may affect NU-Buffs TV date
BY LEE BARFKNECHT
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
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Big 12 Conference
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Nebraska Athletic Director Steve Pederson will closely watch a Big 12 decision to consider having all of its football teams play on Thanksgiving weekend starting in 2008.
That move, in combination with a new league TV contract in 2008, could affect whether the Huskers play Colorado every year on the day after Thanksgiving.
"My preference would be to keep doing what we're doing," Pederson said Thursday at the Big 12 meetings. "That's been a national TV game and a great game for us.
"I don't have a huge issue with whether it's on Friday or Saturday. But you never know. As time goes on, someone might decide there is a better game to end the year."
Through 2007, ABC will continue to carry two Big 12 games on the Friday after Thanksgiving - Nebraska-Colorado and Texas-Texas A&M. Those games were slotted when the league was formed in 1996.
The past few years, one or two other Big 12 games have been moved to the Saturday after Thanksgiving for FSN to televise.
"From time to time," Commissioner Kevin Weiberg said, "ABC has asked about the possibility of having different teams play or altering who plays on Friday or having one of those games on Saturday."
The Big 12 television contracts are worth $50 million annually. That means "anything is possible" in scheduling, Weiberg said.
Pederson said he hopes the TV decision-makers don't forget history.
"After 10 years, you do build some equity in it," he said. "The numbers show a lot of people are watching our game with Colorado on that day. So I hope we maintain what we've got."
The Big 12 is set to begin scheduling an eight-year block of games beginning with the 2008 season.
As the games themselves were discussed, fan behavior at those events also entered the talks on the final day of the spring meetings.
"There has been ongoing concern around issues of fan behavior," Weiberg said. "Things like rushing the field and rushing the court. Also, the environment that the visiting teams and visiting coaches find themselves in."
The league will ask its presidents and chancellors to sign off on the following steps:
• Put more uniformed security near visiting team areas, especially in basketball.
• Establish consistent policies to deal with fans rushing the field or court. The league wants those events videotaped, and for those tapes to be turned over to each school's law enforcement and judicial systems for review.
• Start a public awareness campaign to try to encourage better behavior in stadiums and arenas.
In light of an entire student section at Colorado being ejected for throwing things onto the field during the Nebraska game, the league is adopting a policy for each school to designate a game management chief who deals with the officials once the game starts.
"In that incident last year, the referee really didn't know where to go," Weiberg said. "He went to the sideline, then eventually to our replay booth to ask for help to get to the public address announcer."
here is another article on the issue from Rocky Mountain Post.
http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/nca...725738,00.html