My involvement with what was then called the CIAU begin in 1993 on the campus of McMaster University when a good friend of mine and I fancied ourselves as sports broadcasters and wandered in to 93.3 CFMU , the campus community radio station. After a forgettable period in which we did news and sports updates and participated on a one hour call in sports talk show called Instant Replay, where sometimes we actually had callers every once in awhile. Eventually we "graduated" to the much coveted half-time host spot for the live coverage of McMaster Marauder broadcasts where we "analyzed" the game and came up with our own end of season awards called "The Stevies". You see, both of us were named Steve, so you can see the creative genius it took to come up with the name of the award show. Little did I know that this would be the beginning of an on again , off again 27 year relationship with university sports as it meandered its way through various branding and marketing . the OUAA/OWIAA became the OUA and the CIAU became CIS and then USport. I have a certain affinity for university sports, and in particular for McMaster University. Thanks the the excellence of its men's and women's basketball program, I got to see parts of the country that I'd normally never get to see covering provincial and national championships and other games in most gyms and fields in Ontario as well as in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland. After the half time show, I graduated to play by play for the women's team , and then the men's team and then back to the women's team. After a short sojourn with York University calling their basketball games on Rogers TV, I was back with McMaster calling their TV games for local TV. The past few years have had me back to my radio roots serving as the play by play voice of the McMaster football team for TSN 1150 in Hamilton. So while not proclaiming myself as an all knowing expert, I've got a thing or two to get off my chest about the coverage of the university game today.
Sometimes the more things change, the more things stay the same. As early as 1993 a friend of mine Dale Stevens got together what was called the CUBDL Digest, a chance for fans to comment and post about the great game of university basketball. We thought that university sports deserved a greater spotlight and national attention when it came to TV coverage as TSN only jumped on board during championship season. CHCH TV in Hamilton had the Game of the Week that would give university sports a much needed profile with a weekly football game in the fall and a weekly basketball game in the winter. To me, those were the halcyon days for the OUA and the CIS. Weekly TV coverage on a channel with wide distribution fed naturally into TSN who took the ball, put together a good on-air product and produced modest, though reasonable ratings given the limitations and reach of the sport. Of course this was before and in the infancy of internet streaming , and even before Sportsnet came along in the late 90's. Add in some local TV, campus community radio and newspapers and decent mainstream newspaper coverage and the sport was generating something of a profile. Fast forward to today and the coverage just is not the same. The Game of the Week is long gone replaced by OUA.TV which streams all sports with varying levels of success. Some schools offer a decent on air product and you can tell the students covering the game care about their own body of work. For others, clearly the game is not a priority and it shows in substandard production values and poor to downright awful commentary. Not too many campus radio stations bother with OUA sports these days, and to my knowledge only Western and McMaster have their games full time on commercial radio. Wilfred Laurier has some games on commercial radio, but its not consistent. With the cutbacks in media, local TV still covers some of the games, but certainly that coverage has dried up to a certain extent. There are various well-meaning people out there delivering content and trying to pump up the game. Nationally, the rights belonged to Sportsnet but their profile is limited to football , basketball and hockey championship weekends. Last year CBC and CBC.CA picked up the slack and provided national championship coverage. There's nothing wrong with the game commentary and the production values but they are hampered by their own budgetary limitations. Rather than evolving with technology, media coverage of the OUA has become a little ragged , and inconsistent and from my perspective has not harnessed the potential that it exists.
The voices that cry out for more coverage of the game are really doing it without a basis in reality. Productions cost money. TV and radio stations will only invest in the product if there is a reasonable return on their investment in advertising dollars. Right now that simply is not there, which is sad because games are being played at an extremely high level . Football players are being drafted to and contributors to CFL teams. Basketball teams are beating NCAA programs with a regularity not seen 20 years ago. Plus, there are fledgling professional leagues growing in Canada and geared towards the Canadian athlete. The same goes for soccer. the new started in 2019 has already had a U Sport draft, which sadly, if you blinked you missed . U Sports hockey beat Team Canada in a tune up series last year and the game is littered with ex CHL players and even a few guys who dabbled at the pro level. While the game is in good hands, the media and promotion is not. With that said, and with my wide breadth of knowledge, here are a few modest suggestions to help grow the game and the sport.
1. Think locally before growing nationally. The model I spoke of before around the CHCH Game of the Week was great. Local coverage fed into national coverage and the ratings were good. I know CHCH does get reasonable numbers when they do cover football, so that's the first thing we need to get back. Who wants to step up and make a sizable investment. Finally CBC stepped up and delivered meaningful coverage which is nice to see. They have also invested in CEBL hoops and CPL soccer on top of their outstanding amateur coverage.
2. Tell the stories of the athletes in order to celebrate their excellence, and in some cases the hardships they overcome. I have an IPhone that I can use to shoot video in HD, record an interview and really tell a story. Tre Ford of Waterloo was the most exciting football player to come down the pipeline in years. He is a QB who can run , throw and he put up jaw-dropping numbers. Did you know about him? Probably not, because his story was not pumped enough and neither were his accomplishments, which if he were in the NCAA, would have been promoted to everyone. All these athletes have stories to tell, so tell them. TV networks love profiling people if their story is interesting.
3. Do not forget radio. McMaster, Western and Laurier have it right. They embrace radio coverage for their football teams. It's still a viable media entity despite everyone proclaiming its untimely demise. Is it the be all and end all? Of course not, but it can give the fans a connection week to week. McMaster also has a weekly dedicated show on TSN 1150 called Talkin' MAC, and it profiles people and tells the stories that need to be told.
4. Market your damn product and get creative with playoffs that are naturally tailored to the media product. Final 8's, Sweet 16's and other tournament style formats with creative branding can be packaged together to create an very enticing on air product. There are lots of great people talking about tweaking the football playoffs to avoid the AUS getting blown out of a national semi final which is an embarrassment for the sport and a black eye to parity and competitive balance. I think there is lots of room for a Final 16 type basketball playoffs that could bring the whole country together and maybe draw in some new media partners. I will let those in the know come up with the creative element but guys like Neate Sagar and Jim Mullin who know the nuances of U Sports are great resources.
5. Content, content and more content, but make it good content. Get an organized, blog, podcast or pitch a YouTube TV show or a local TV show if there is a budget and an appetite. Work with the university athletic department to profile players, coaches , trainers. Get highlights of the games, and in general let people know what is happening . Bug your local commercial TV station to show highlights, and show up to a game. It's not easy , I'll admit. Sports TV highlight shows are going by the wayside as budgets and broadcasters are being slashed at will.
6. Finally, and this is the tough part of the equation. All of the above take a cohesive, comprehensive, organized plan and they take resources, both financially and in terms of man power. Universities have not exactly been generous with the clash influx, but that has to change. Not committing the necessary resources had hoping to get the best coverage is small minded thinking. You really need to develop a cozy relationship with your university to make this happen.
Right now U Sport and the OUA (the conference I follow ) is spinning their wheels and thinking big when they really have no reason to think big. It's harsh to hear this I know, but just because a small group of fans thinks U Sports is the greatest thing since sliced bread, does not mean the big boys at the national level of sports media will automatically jump on board. Walk before you run. Build locally, and regionally. Don't eschew the traditional forms of media and make sure you leverage all the local radio , TV and newspapers that you can. Maybe then you can entice someone with a creative idea for the game of the week and and a creative way to crown your champion.
Steve Clark
Steve has been involved off an on with university sport since his 2nd year as a student at McMaster in 1993. He currently calls games for McMaster football on TSN 1150 and the Niagara IceDogs of the OHL on YourTV Niagara.
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