SpringfieldNewsSun.com

SPRINGFIELD — The question of whether Wittenberg football is ready for prime time won't be answered this week. But how about 2 p.m. on an NFL Sunday afternoon?

The Tigers' 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25, game against Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh will be televised 24 hours later on ESPNU. Carnegie Mellon paid to have its homecoming game aired on the network.

"I think it's always a good thing when you can get yourself seen by an audience like ESPNU," said Wittenberg coach Joe Fincham, whose team will seek to bounce back from a 13-10 loss to Wabash (Ind.) on Oct. 18. "I'm not sure if the people in Ohio can pull themselves off the Browns and the Bengals for the afternoon. Hopefully, they'll be able to, and hopefully, we'll go up there and play well."

Wittenberg fans trying to keep up with the Tigers when they can't make it to the game have plenty of options this year.

For the first time, Wittenberg is broadcasting all home football games live on its Web site. The radio broadcast plays with it.

Wittenberg uses Ustream.TV, which on its Web site describes itself as a "live interactive video broadcast platform that enables anyone with a camera and an Internet connection to quickly and easily broadcast to a global audience of unlimited size."

Wittenberg pays Stretch Internet about $3,500 a year to air audio broadcasts of athletic events on the Internet, said sports information director Ryan Maurer, but the video broadcasts are free. Bob Rafferty, Wittenberg's director of new media, tested the live video feeds at a Witt Nation event in August.

"We thought it was too good to be true," Maurer said.

In addition to the five home football games this fall, Wittenberg broadcast four volleyball games in September and will air two more matches Saturday when the Tigers play Hiram and Capital.

Last year, Wittenberg had live video feeds on Stretch Internet for the regional volleyball tournament at the HPER Center. Maurer said they plan to broadcast 12 men's and women's basketball games this winter.

"Is it as good as we want? Maybe not," Maurer said. "But it's on its way to being what we want. It's something more that we can offer people. If it means a mother from Michigan whose kid is deciding between three schools takes note of the fact that she can watch or listen to every game, maybe that'll be a turning point."

In the North Coast Athletic Conference, Wooster and Wabash also offer live video feeds of their football games. The Oberlin-Wooster game on Nov. 8 will air on tape-delay on SportsTime Ohio, which is available on DirecTV and the Dish Network.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0351 or djablonski@coxohio.com.