The 2014 Homecoming football game at Fort Lewis College will be aired on CBS Sports on Thursday, Oct. 16, and will be the first National College Athletic Association game in the school’s history to be aired live on national television.
How FLC was Chosen
Each year, the NCAA chooses 10 Divison II football games to air on CBS Sports as a part of their television contract. This year, the NCAA chose to include FLC’s Homecoming game on the list of televised games, Lynne Andrew, the associate director of athletics at FLC, said.
This opportunity came about after Dene Thomas, the FLC president, and Gary Hunter, the FLC athletic director, made a case to the NCAA President’s Council that the FLC campus would be a beautiful place to film a game, which helped influence the council’s decision to feature FLC on television, Andrew said.
This will be the first official televised NCAA game for FLC in the school’s history, Andrew said.
National Exposure
Having CBS televise a home football game will be excellent exposure to FLC and the football program, John Smith, the FLC head football coach, said.
“It’s going to give our program a level of exposure that you can’t really buy because when they decide to do the game, everything that you get from that is free, so we’re really excited because we hope that will put Fort Lewis on the map as a bigger spot than we are right now,” Andrew said.
The exposure will include a commercial for the school that will air during the game as well as features during the game about the school’s president, athletic director, head football coach and some players, she said.
The school, the city and certainly the football program will benefit from the exposure, Smith said.
FLC originally scheduled the game for Saturday, Oct. 18, but President Dene Thomas helped move it to Thursday, Oct.16, to accommodate CBS, he said.
Support
FLC students and Durango citizens will need to help support the football team to cheer them on, Smith said.
With a win against CSU-Pueblo, the FLC football team is looking forward to the chance to play televised, he said. The game will be a challenge, but the players are looking forward to it, he said.
“Show up. Show support. We need your help,” Smith said.
Internal links:
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Skyhawk Football Page: http://www.goskyhawks.com/index.aspx?path=football
External links:
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CBS NCAA FB: http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball
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NCAA Division II Televison Schedule: http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/press-releases/dii-announces-2014-football-television-schedule