With a number of FAMU students in hotels due to poor planning by apartment management and building contractors and many others suffering delayed financial aid, it’s hard to imagine that anything else could go wrong at Florida A&M University.
However, Saturday’s football game against Alabama State and its resulting broadcast take the cake. If you didn’t make the trip to Detroit you were forced to experience the game via second-rate programming unworthy of an NCAA Division I-A university.
FAMU’s five-year, multimillion dollar deal with the Urban Broadcasting Company hopes to bring exposure as well as much needed funds to the only historically black university in the division. Unfortunately, if Saturday’s broadcast is an indication of what will be seen for the remainder of this contract, FAMU can forget reaching its revenue goal of $24 million.
For those of you lucky enough to miss the debacle premiered on channel 26, the following problems were only the most noticeable: The fist quarter was plagued by bad tracking, high school-quality sound and incorrect score reports. Once the problem with the score was corrected, the wrong team mascots remained next to the scores for the rest of the game.
A few mistakes are to be expected on the inaugural broadcast, you might be thinking. Nonetheless, you can be sure that Florida State and University of Miami settle for nothing but the best for their sports coverage and neither should we.
If FAMU is serious about its move to division I-A it must not tolerate anything less than excellence from the companies hired to represent it. On that note, if UBC airs another game of the same degrading quality of Saturday’s, perhaps FAMU should consider looking for a station dedicated to providing the quality we deserve.
Marie Frasier for The Famuan