Northwestern University Athletics
Murphy's Mark: Night Game Set for Ohio State
9/29/2004 12:00:00 AM | General
Sept. 29, 2004
Ohio State Game
Saturday night's game against Ohio State should have an electric atmosphere. Ohio State brings in a team that is undefeated and ranked in the top 10 nationally. The start time has been set at 8 p.m., and the game will be televised nationally on ESPN2. It should be a great atmosphere for college football -- the kind of game that players love to play in. In 2002, Ohio State's undefeated, national championship season, our game vs. Ohio State (we played hard, but lost 27-16) was the highest-rated game on ESPN2 that season. I think our team will play well again against the Buckeyes. A strong performance would jump-start the team for the rest of the season.
We're expecting a near-capacity crowd for this game, so fans are urged to arrive early on Saturday.
Student Ticket Policy
I anticipate that we will have a tremendous student turnout for the Ohio State game. In an effort to increase student attendance, we changed our ticket policy this year. Students no longer have to purchase tickets for games. They just have to show their ID to enter the stadium.
We saw the first positive results of this new policy at the Kansas game. Although classes hadn't started yet, approximately 3,000 students attended the game. The students brought so much enthusiasm to the stadium that our team went over to the student section immediately after the game to sing the fight song and show their appreciation.
Instant Replay
The Ohio State game will be the first time that fans at Ryan Field get to see the use of instant replay. It could have been used at the Arizona State game, but Arizona State decided they did not want to use replay (nonconference teams have this option). Since the Kansas game was not televised, replay was not available. The Big Ten replay system is different than the NFL system. A technical advisor in the press box watches the television feed of the game and calls down to the officials on the field if he thinks a call needs to be reviewed. Through the first four weeks of the season, instant replay has been used in 18 games. In those 18 games, there have only been seven stoppages of play to review calls, and three of those calls were overturned. The system is designed to correct the obvious mistakes, particularly those that could have an impact on the outcome of the game.
A reminder to fans that the TV feed used for our video board is different than TV, and cannot be used for replay purposes.
