ESPN: Penn basketball soon may be in your face

Penn basketball fans have wondered about it at one time or another this season. The scenarios formulated are different in many ways, yet they are basically the same. Some imagine Bill Raftery analyzing a Matt Maloney layup in traffic: "Maloney using the bounce and penetrating for the soft kiss off the glass?and the deuce!" Others think about Clark Kellogg in awe of a Barry Pierce three-point play: "Pierce grabs the orange and takes it strong to the rack! Come fly with me! He gets it and the foul -- mark it up!" And then there are those who can hear Dick Vitale praising a spectacular Jerome Allen dunk: "Hello! Look at him elevate! Are you serious, baby, are you serious? Jerome Allen, he's awesome baby, with a capital A!" Yes, Penn fans have pondered the question: What if a Quaker game was televised nationally on ESPN or ESPN2? Very few realize just how close such thoughts were, and still are, to becoming a reality. The Penn basketball team almost found itself on the all-sports network this year, and may indeed wind up making an appearance next season. · Tom Odjakjian, the director of programming at ESPN and ESPN2, is the man responsible for deciding which teams and which games the networks will televise for millions of college hoops fans everywhere. Everything is done before the season tips off in December. And Penn fans can rest assured the Quakers' success has not gone unnoticed. "It's not like college football where you pick the games each week," Odjakjian said. "We pick all the games ahead of time, so if a team surprises people, like Saint Louis, you can't do much. But Penn isn't a surprise. When you have an NCAA Tournament team with everyone back, that's not a chance we wanted to pass up. I'm definitely aware of how good Penn is, and I did want them on this season." Despite this interest, however, there are many obstacles in the path of an ESPN appearance. These obstacles primarily involve the contractual obligations and commitments that determine much of the network's schedule. Most of the stronger basketball conferences have television contracts requiring a certain number of games be shown each season. Of the conferences that remain, most have a postseason tournament, with ESPN airing the championship game. "We have multi-year contracts with all the major conferences as well as middle-man packages with Raycom and Creative Sports," Odjakjian said. · But the Ivy League doesn't have a contract or a tournament. And so an Ivy team most likely would have to fit into a non-conference matchup. Odjakjian was able to work out such a situation with Princeton a few times when the Tigers held a firm grasp on the rest of the Ancient Eight. "We can do non-conference games because we can count them for other conferences' contracts," he said. "For example, we've had Princeton on against North Carolina State and Rutgers, and those games counted as ACC and Atlantic 10 games. It helps a lot more with these games if it's a road game for the Ivy team. Penn was in fact offered two such road non-Ivy games by Odjakjian before this season. ESPN owed a game to once nationally-ranked Alabama-Birmingham and decided the Quakers would make for an intriguing contest. So a game was proposed for January 22, a day Penn was off. But Penn coach Fran Dunphy had just lost a home game when Navy backed out of a contest at the Palestra, and he felt his team already had too many away games. "Navy dropped us in late summer or early fall, and we spoke to Tom Odjakjian," Dunphy said. "He asked us if we had any interest in going to UAB that Saturday. I told him we only had nine games, three of which are when our students aren't here, and that if UAB would like to come to Penn we would be honored to have our game on ESPN. At that point I couldn't justify going on the road another time when there were still some possibilities we could get that 10th home game, hopefully in that area when we could have our students see the game." There is still some question as to whether the January 22 game was offered as part of a home-and-home series, with the Blazers coming to West Philadelphia next year. Odjakjian and ESPN claim it was, but Dunphy has stated he would have accepted such a package. In any case, Penn turned down the game, and the issue was dead. Soon, however, Holy Cross entered the mix. Penn asked the Crusaders to move their game so the Quakers could accommodate the Big 5 schedule. But Holy Cross followed Navy's lead and dropped Penn completely. Dunphy now found himself desperately needing a game -- any game -- and he asked Odjakjian if the deal was still on the table. It was not. ESPN had already filled the hole by getting Rhode Island to visit Birmingham. It was after this conversation that the Penn coach scheduled his team for a game at Buffalo. The the UAB proposals showed network contract difficulties can be overcome if an opportunity presents itself. But at the same time, it shed light on another trend which could make things tough: scheduling problems. · Penn continues to gain respect with its impressive performances on the court. The Quakers have dominated the Ivies and consistently represented themselves well outside the league. They have flirted with the AP Top 25 and could break in by March. But now that more teams fear the Quakers, less teams want to play them. If an established team thinks Penn could present problems, it will search elsewhere. "One of the things about scheduling is that it's difficult, and the better you get, the less opportunities you have to schedule games," Dunphy said. "When we were 9-17 a couple years ago, the phone was ringing off the hook. Now, we don't have quite the same allure for people." One person Dunphy doesn't have to convince is Princeton coach Pete Carril. When Carril's Tigers had a monopoly on the Ivy crown, they were constantly portrayed as giant-killers. Very few teams jumped at the chance to face Princeton, and even less were willing to face them at Jadwin Gym. Coaches saw close games against Georgetown, Arkansas and Villanova in the NCAA Tournament. Now those same coaches look at Penn and see close games against Massachusetts, Temple and Ohio State. "Right now Penn's going through the same problems we had, and that is they're very good so they're going to have trouble with the schedule," Carril said. "Who's going to want to pay Penn when they're so good? We had that trouble ourselves. That's why so many of our games are on the road. We've averaged 16 away games over the last five or six years, with only 10 home games. That's ridiculous, and one year it was only nine. "So now if a big team thinks Penn is good enough to beat them, they're not going to want to play Penn. So that's where you're headed." · The Ivies certainly aren't alone in lacking a contract with ESPN. Other conferences solve the problem during Championship Week. Of the 30 conferences with automatic NCAA bids, 27 have postseason tournaments. ESPN televises all the finals during Championship Week in early March. "All of this is because there is no Ivy League tournament," Odjakjian said. "If there was one, we would definitely televise the championship game. But the league has its reasons for not doing so." Regardless of the drawbacks, many feel the tournament idea may be worth looking into. Dunphy, despite his team's present dominance, is among them. "I would love an Ivy tournament," he said. "I think it keeps everybody involved all year long. The non-tournament situation is good for one team. The tournament is good for seven teams. It's been discussed, but it's not the Ivy philosophy." · Whether it's in a tourney or during the season, there are few who would argue the impact ESPN coverage can have on a school's program. Most would agree that national exposure for the Quakers would be a significant event for the program, the fans and the University as a whole. "I think whenever we can get on, whether it's a league game or not, it's important for us to at least try," Dunphy said. "Is it the end of the world? No, but it's good for our kids, both players and students. I would hope they would ask us next year, and maybe even get us a home game because I don't think there is any better college basketball facility than the Palestra in the country. I think our kids would really get into it, students and players. We're always looking. We just need some help from the ESPN people in that they have to view us as a solid league." Odjakjian and his staff have taken notice. And with most players returning, and the Quakers competing in the preseason NIT next year, an ESPN appearance may be in the cards. "Judging on how good they'll be next year, we'd definitely like to get them on ESPN1 and ESPN2," Odjakjian said. And so all of those Penn fans with vivid imaginations should be ready. The Quakers may be in your face.