I am very pleasantly suprised to see the Bobcats getting lots of coverage in the Columbus market. Matt Barnes at Channel 4 is an Ohio grad and always shows Bobcat highlights. In addition, other stations are now doing the same. I picked up my Dispatch this morning to see the Cats on the front page of the sports section. This rarely happened in years past. All of the Bobcat alums asking for more coverage coupled with more Ohio alums in the media, and of course our stellar run in basketball and football have helped turn the tide.

All of this bodes well when we talk about Convo repairs and updates and Peden Stadium expansion. Naturally Columbus is a lot closer to Athens and many more alums than lets say the MAC rich area (Kent State, Akron) of Northeast Ohio and the Cincy, Xavier and UD strongholds of Southwest Ohio (Cincinnati and Dayton.) However, because of the Ohio State stranglehold on Columbus coverage, we rarely if ever got any publicity in Columbus. Perhaps we are entering uncharted waters for coverage should our success continue.

OHIO has 105,000 living alumni in the state. Dispatch is the largest paper in the state with a circulation of 199,524 daily, and 334,422 on Sunday. Also considering the fact Athens only takes 1hr and 15 minutes to get, and maybe quicker once the bypass is done and they shut off all traffic lights along US-33. 

It has totally nothing to do with the point of the thread, but talk to me about this "shut off all traffic lights along US-33" comment.  Are they planning to do that in Carroll, and around Canal?

Thursday's Dispatch had front page Sports section story w/big photo about the win over Buffalo. Today's Dispatch - box score, nothing else - nada. UC, Dayton, and Kent State did have highlight stories.... (Oh, and the slew of Heidelberg, Otterbein's etc w/bunch of recaps.....).

As well today a huge feature on Trey Burke, with the O$U/UM match up in town today. Seems they would have found it interesting to talk about how another OHIO team managed to shut him/them down recently.......

Only reason for uptick is entirely on the hiring of Matt Barnes with nbc4 and Mark Znidar with the Dispatch.  I guarantee if those two were not present we would not nearly have the same coverage.  Our continued success in Football and Basketball especially on the national stage has helped us for sure, but having those guys in the ears of their sports directors is the key to it all.

just for giggles, here is a note I sent to Ray Stein at the Dispatch after the paper failed to include even a word about the Bobcats' win in K-zoo.  The subject line of my email was Ohio v. Western Michigan...


 

Bruce's letter was printed in today's sports section with the required smarmy reply from Ray Stein. I'll be interested to see how much coverage theDispatch gives Ohio when it goes to it's new, smaller format in about two weeks. Mark Znidar does have an nice write-up of last night's game in today's paper.

Yea I saw it in the paper too! I hope there can be more interest for OU mens basketball.