The Big Ten Network’s Northwestern week ends tonight. If you tune this evening you can see NU beat Iowa (always awesome) in hoops 51-48 from 2006 (Thanks to great play by Vedran and Evan Seacat's single biggest moment) and NU beat MSU in football 27-26 (Victory Right Part II) in 2001. Both those are good games, though, they’re a little slow until till the final moments. I did enjoy many of the games the BTN put on this week, but they’re the games we always see and always talk about. At one point I talked with a member of the Big Ten Network’s staff about showing some lesser known “Greatest Games” and he said basically that they get suggestions virtually everyday for what games to show, but getting rights to rebroadcast them isn’t always easy. For example, ESPN still owns the rights to the 1997 NU-MSU football game in which Anwawn Jones blocks the Spartans final FG and every once and a while puts that game on ESPNClassic. Look for it this fall.
Obviously, games that aired on the BTN would be easier to show repeatedly. Considering that, I think the Big Ten Network missed out a couple fairly recent “Greatest Games” involving NU. I’ve mentioned this before, but if I were the BTN I’d constantly rebroadcast football games form the 2007 season and basketball from the 2007-08 season because the BTN had such small distribution that virtually nobody saw those games anyway. They do show NU-MSU from 2007 a lot, but there is much more. For example….
On October 13th , 2007 Northwestern beat Minnesota in double overtime 49-48. Here’s a link to NUBears You Tube highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dylzr0a0j7I&feature=player_embedded
Earlier that year NU scored in the final seconds to beat Nevada and avenge a loss to the Pack in 2006. Once again here’s a link to the highlights (I love the locker room speech from Fitz which starts the highlight)…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtXM4klllE0&feature=player_embedded
Looking at recent basketball history, every NU fans enjoys seeing the ‘Cats upset #7 MSU in 2009, but the ‘Cats also pulled off a great road win at Purdue that year…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VznrhSbbgKc&feature=player_embedded
Finally, going to very recent history, NU’s upset in hoops over the Fighting Illini this year is one of my favorites and likely will remain so for years to come…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDuZ0gg9NSQ&feature=player_embedded
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I'm not sure I'd call the win over the Illini an upset, but I'd agree. It's one of my favorites, as well.
More greatest games is my biggest wish for the BTN. ESPN Classic airs very, very few NU games and most are ones that aren't uncommon (Outback Bowl, '96 Rose Bowl, etc.). I was lucky enough to catch that airing of the 1997 win over Michigan State a year or so ago, though.
There are no basketball implications, but I believe the Big Ten Film Vault is supposed to return this fall with more classic football footage. I was rather surprised that they only had about 10 years over the last month or two and not a single episode re-aired at any point. I'm pretty sure the footage is coming from NU archives, so perhaps they just need more time editing the material to air.
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