NBC offering treat for Miami Hurricanes fans. And media notes.
A six-pack of media notes on a Wednesday:
▪ Networks have resorted to replays of events to fill time during the coronavirus pandemic, and the novelty has worn off to an extent.
But for Miami Hurricanes fans, NBC-SN’s replay of four classic UM football games this week should hold appeal, because these games haven’t aired in many years.
Here’s the schedule:
9:30 p.m. Thursday: the 1995 UM-Nebraska Orange Bowl, with Tom Hammond and Cris Collinsworth on the call and Bob Costas hosting.
11:59 p.m. Thursday: the 1988 Miami-Oklahoma Orange Bowl, with Don Criqui and Bob Trumpy on the call and fresh interviews inserted with former Hurricanes Steve Walsh and Bernard Clark.
9:30 p.m. Friday: the 1987 Miami-Penn State Fiesta Bowl, with Charlie Jones and Bob Griese on the call, and Jimmy Cefalo reporting.
12:30 a.m. Saturday: the 1984 Nebraska-UM Orange Bowl (UM’s first national title), with Criqui, John Brodie and Bill Macatee on the call.
Liam McHugh will host the Thursday coverage, Mike Tirico the Friday coverage.
(One quick on-field UM note: Though UM at one point was saving its final scholarship for Willie Moise, I would expect UM to reach out to Houston offensive lineman Jarrid Williams, who announced plans Wednesday to look elsewhere as a grad transfer. He was a two-year starter at right tackle for the Cougars -- playing with new UM quarterback D’Eriq King -- and was second-team preseason all-AAC last year before an injury ended his season after four games.)
▪ In an Instagram Live session with Haute Living, Heat wing Jimmy Butler cracked that one reason he sent basketball hoops to all his teammates is because “T-Herro [Tyler Herro] was getting on my nerves, cussing me out because he couldn’t shoot. And I was like, ‘What do you want me to do?’”
Many Heat players live in condos and can’t put up the baskets.
Goran Dragic, who lives in a home, installed Butler’s basket and now has two outside his home.
▪ The NFL Draft ratings were strong in South Florida, but I would have expected our market to rank higher among major cities, considering the anticipation here.
In Miami-Ft Lauderdale, 8.5 percent of homes with TV sets watched round one of the draft combined on ESPN, ABC and NFL Net, barely below some Dolphins games last year. That ranked 29th of 36 big cities.
West Palm Beach generated a 12.0 rating for round one coverage.
Nationally, this was the most-watched draft ever, which was anticipated in part because of the lack of live sports competition and stay-at-home orders in many states.
Among all viewers ages 18 to 49, the three days of the draft and the third and fourth episodes of ESPN’s Michael Jordan documentary were the five most watched television programs last week.
▪ Networks face a host of challenges in airing sports without fans, and former Fox Sports Chairman David Hill told The Houston Chronicle that TV networks “might consider using recorded crowd noise on telecasts and, perhaps, piping noise into stadiums and arenas.” Fox lead announcer Joe Buck advocated that idea during a video-conference roundtable discussion on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel this week.
And it’s probably a good idea because it would make the broadcast sound similar to what viewers are accustomed.
ESPN/ABC lead NBA voice Mike Breen, also appearing on that Gumbel roundtable, said NBA announcers likely would call games from a studio if the season resumes.
▪ ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit, speaking last week on the future of the college football season, said: “I’ve talked to actual decision makers in the college game, and I think what they’ve done is built three to four contingency plans based on what happens with this virus and what Dr. [Anthony] Fauci and others recommend.
“If everything is OK, status quo, show up on campus in July, two-a-days, regular season, here we go. That’s the first contingency. And then they go a all the way back to the second, third, fourth contingency, all the way to a willingness to start in late February or March and playing March, April and May and post season in June, which would be a last ditch effort which proves how willing the administrators are with the NCAA and ADs and presidents to have a college football season. They’ll do everything they can if it comes to that extreme to be able to potentially have a 2020 season.
“A lot of this is still being a feeling out process and we’re going to wait to see what the data shows. I’ll turn the TV on and I’m sure something new has happened as far as how to get a test for this and what makes the most sense in taking care of the athletes and don’t just send them back because we have to make our bottom line. Next time someone gets it and dies - can you imagine what happens if they hurry back and a player or coach or referee gets this virus and gets sick and dies? That’s something that they have to think about and they want to obviously avoid.”
Of a potential spring season, Herbstreit said: “Can you imagine that? How bizarre would that be? But it goes to show you how far we are willing to go to get our football. I think it would be weird to watch spring football. Like XFL - as a fan, a consumer, I have a really hard time getting into spring football. I like that it goes away in early February after the Super Bowl and love when it comes back in July for NFL training camps. But this is desperate measures. We’re all in uncharted waters, a world we’re trying to adjust to every day, being quarantined. If it means pushing it back to starting in December, January, February or March, then that’s what has to happen.
“What’ll be really interesting in the college game is if they go that far back, [with top prospects such as Clemson quarterback] Trevor Lawrence, do they play the season in the spring or opt to basically sit out because of their obvious status of being drafted? I have no idea about any of that, but it does make you wonder what some players at that level would do.”
▪ Quick stuff: The Rams and Chargers will be featured on HBO’s Hard Knocks if there’s a normal training camp, according to ESPN… The NFL reiterated the regular-season schedule will be released by May 9....
CBS’ Jim Nantz, also appearing on that Real Sports discussion, spoke of the challenges for TV networks to accommodate events when there are potential conflicts. It will be interesting to see how CBS juggles the final round of the Masters with NFL games on Nov. 15…
ABC-WPLG 10, Fox-WSVN 7 and NBC-WTVJ 6 have continued to air their Sunday night sports shows, but CBS-WFOR 4 hasn’t carried its Sunday night show in more than a month. Kudos to NBC-6 for maintaining a sportscast on its late weekday newscast… Fox Sports asked on air-employees to take a 15 percent pay cut.
Here’s my Wednesday piece on where UM’s 2021 football recruiting class stands.
Here’s my Wednesday Dolphins piece with an in-depth look at their rebuild and where they go from here.
This story was originally published April 29, 2020 at 10:04 PM.
