Viewers in Muncie will not be able to catch the Ball State-Iowa football game on their television sets this Saturday. Broadcast station WTTV-4 in Indianapolis will not be airing the game, and the game will only be available to viewers through the ESPN College Gameplan cable package. The rights to the game are owned by ESPN Plus, and WTTV-4 programming director Rusty Ricketts said he was never contacted by ESPN Plus to air the game.
WTTV-4 is part the of the Big 10 package, a deal that starts Sept. 17 and runs all year long, allowing the station to run Big Ten games that are available through ESPN Plus. Because the package doesn’t start until the third week of the college football season, WTTV-4 would have had to contact ESPN to ask for permission to air the Ball State game, which is something they never did.
The only station in Indiana that asked permission to air the game was WHME-46 in South Bend. The Christian station is also part of the ESPN Plus Big Ten package and sports director Chuck Freeby said they decided to pick up the game three weeks ago.
“We have a lot of Ball State alumni in this area, and we don’t have that many opportunities to show Ball State football,” Freeby said. “We have the Big Ten package that doesn’t begin until Sept. 17, and to me it’s a shame to have two weeks of the season go by before we air a game.”
Freeby said he’s already received positive feedback from South Bend residents about the addition of the Ball State game to the station’s programming schedule. It will be the first time Freeby has ever scheduled a Ball State football game for WHME, and he said he hopes to get the chance again after this season.
“From our standpoint, we consider Ball State very important because we have such a large alumni base in this area,” Freeby said. “We’ve never had a Ball State football game, and it’s a shame because we have a lot of local players that have gone and played for the Cardinals.”
The South Bend station also looks for games with Indiana ties because they are unable to air any Notre Dame games due to the school’s agreement with NBC.
Muncie viewers who don’t want to travel to South Bend or pay for the ESPN Gameplan package ($99 through Direct TV for the 2005 season) can go to two local restaurants, Scotty’s Brewhouse and CJ’s. Both purchased the ESPN Gameplan package and will show the game this Saturday at 11 a.m. Scotty’s owner Scotty Wise said he chose to buy the college package to help business.
“Two years ago, we picked up the Sunday NFL Ticket package, and we saw our business over the past two years almost double,” Wise said. “I think with school back in and football season ready to go, I think it can help business like the NFL package.”
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