We haven’t checked the NCAA men’s basketball tournament brackets in depth, but we’re pretty sure the chances of the Cleveland State Vikings actually playing THE Ohio State University Buckeyes in the tournament are very, very small.
But there’s a face-off between the Buckeyes and Vikings on TV in the first round of the tournament, with both teams’ games scheduled for Friday night. And in Cleveland…the Buckeyes apparently have the upper hand.
Our friends over at CursedCleveland.com (“Losing everything since 1964”, a slogan that doesn’t need any explanation to Cleveland sports fans) report that Raycom Media will air the Ohio State Buckeyes’ first round contest on CBS affiliate WOIO/19…shuttling the Vikings’ tournament opener to MyNetwork TV sister station WUAB/43 “My 43”.
CC quotes WOIO/WUAB’s Lisa McManus, who says WUAB will join in with the CBS coverage on time at 9:30 PM Friday night, though the actual CSU game won’t start exactly on time since it’s dependent on the previous contest.
As the blog says, it’s no surprise that the Vikings are getting the move even in Cleveland State’s hometown.
Cleveland is indeed “OSU North”, and Buckeyes action is very popular among viewers in Northeast Ohio. (And listeners, as Good Karma sports WKNR/850 “ESPN 850” carries THE Ohio State University Buckeyes basketball radio network coverage.)
Cleveland State’s story is that of Cinderella, and Horizon League teams generally aren’t considered major contenders.
As CC properly noted, we did inform them that WUAB/43 does have HD capability. We don’t know at this point if the Cleveland State game will be in HD. We’d guess “yes”, since it’s live off of the CBS satellite feed, which is already in-house at Reserve Square.
And WUAB surprised us before. When the local MyNetwork TV outlet picked up Fox’s coverage of a baseball playoff game last year – bounced from WJW/8 “Fox 8” due to a local telecast of a cable/satellite Cleveland Browns game – it was in HD.
It could be worse for the Vikings and their fans. WOIO could have bumped the game to digital subchannel 19.2, otherwise known as “WeatherNow”. As is, the WUAB side will have to figure out what to do with the preemption of at least part of MyNetwork TV’s most popular show by far, “WWE Smackdown”…
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