[November 20, 2009] The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City, Mel Bracht column: Oklahoma high school football fans left in the dark during playoff time Tweet Nov 20, 2009 (The Oklahoman - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- High school football fans were spoiled during the regular season as Cox Communications and KSBI-52, Thunder TV, combined to show 36 games. With the arrival of the playoffs -- and even greater importance for the games -- the coverage has evaporated. For the second year in a row, neither company plans to show any playoff games. Although Fox Sports Oklahoma owns the rights to the playoffs -- and plans to show three state championship games from Stillwater -- they have made the other games available to television stations and cable systems for a nominal fee. For example, a Class 6A game is available to a broadcast station such as KSBI for $500 and to a large cable system such as Cox for $400. The fee varies according to class size, OSSAA assistant director Amy Cassell said. When contacted by The Oklahoman, officials with Cox and KSBI admitted some surprise that the games were available. The same arrangement existed last year, although it was handled by a third party, Youth Sports Marketing LLC. "When we planned the year with the understanding that we wouldn't have rights to the games, we allocated our resources to other projects," Cox spokesman Christine Martin said. Cassell said the OSSAA does not publicize that the games are available for telecast. "People can call and ask, and when they do, we honor their requests," she said. "We don't get the money. The rights fees money goes to Fox." KSBI president Brady Brus said some advertising restrictions, including prohibiting use of a "presenting sponsor," make the telecasts economically unfeasible. "It's a bad business decision in many ways, as we would not be able to cover necessary costs for all the games we would have planned to do if we are limited in advertising," Brus said. Sour grapes also might be a factor as KSBI and Cox lost out to FSOK when the OSSAA awarded the network a three-year television deal in 2008. The lack of playoff coverage could play a role when bids for a new contract are received next year. Last week, Altus at Shawnee was the only game televised in the state, and that was on tape delay, Cassell said. Shawnee CTV aired the game Monday night, and plans to show the Bixby at Shawnee game this Monday night. Fox Sports Oklahoma spokesman Ramon Alvarez said his network planned to air three state final games from Stillwater -- 7 p.m. Dec. 4 and 1 and 7 p.m. Dec. 5 -- but the classes are yet to be determined. The Dec. 4 game will air on Fox Sports Plus, including Cox, because of FSOK's commitment to a Thunder telecast that night. Cox also will produce and air another state final game in partnership with FSOK, Alvarez said. FSOK plans to show the highlights of the 2A and A finals in an "OSSAA Championship Spotlight" show in January. To see more of The Oklahoman, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsok.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]