Indiana opens its season at home against No. 2 Ohio State tonight in a game that serves as an "unprecedented opportunity for IU to sell itself in a national marketplace -- college football -- that rarely acknowledges it," according to Gregg Doyel of the INDIANAPOLIS STAR. The game is sold out and ESPN's "College GameDay" will air from the school for the first time, making it quite possibly the biggest IU football game in the "last half-century or so." It likely will be "more electric than any game in the history of IU football." ESPN will implement its Megacast for the game, which will see the game "broadcast on seven different ESPN platforms." After ESPN "told IU two weeks ago that it would broadcast this game on its parent network and six others," IU has "scrambled for enough generators to accommodate such amperage." By Tuesday afternoon, workers were "snaking thick electrical wires all over the cement columns supporting Memorial Stadium." IU has processed 608 media credentials, meaning coverage "will be unprecedented." To capitalize on the moment, Doyel writes IU does not "have to beat Ohio State." Doyel: "If the game is competitive ... and if Indiana plays an entertaining brand of football ... and if the atmosphere is bonkers ... then Indiana wins, even if Indiana loses" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 8/31). In Ft. Wayne, Reggie Hayes writes if IU makes it a "real game," it "wins in the court of public opinion." That "spreads to energizing potential recruits" and "catapults them in terms of morale and confidence." The schedule is also "more favorable after this week" (Ft. Wayne NEWS-SENTINEL, 8/31).
SIGN OF A BIG GAME: In Indiana, Michael Reschke in a front-page piece notes ESPN "wants to broadcast the singing of the National Anthem," which will include jets flying over Memorial Stadium (Bloomington HERALD-TIMES, 8/31). Doyel notes IU for years had "tried and failed to get a military flyover for a game." However, it is an "expensive undertaking for the government ... and it is one buried beneath multiple levels of red tape." IU Senior Associate AD Jeremy Gray said, "We’ve tried, but we’ve never gotten past stage one. As soon as we mentioned Thursday night and College GameDay being here, the request got to the Pentagon, and we got that signature” (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 8/31).
