Network Loaded with Playoff Action
November 3, 2020
By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
To say there’s a lot of great high school action in the coming week on the MHSAA.tv, MHSAANetwork.com and FOXSportsDetroit.com websites is an understatement.
More Girls Volleyball Tournament action than ever before runs throughout a week culminating with more than 50 Football Playoff games, the Boys Soccer Finals and two days of Cross Country Finals.
The Lower Peninsula Cross Country Finals will take place Friday and Saturday (Nov. 6-7) at Michigan International Speedway, with a modified format. There will be two heats in each division for each gender. The first race will include third-place Regional team finishers and individual qualifiers, with the second race made up of teams that finished first or second at Regionals.
The Cross Country coverage is enhanced this year with an additional camera on the back of the course to better capture the first 800 meters, and the 1.5-mile and 2.25-mile marks of the race. The traditional Finish Line camera also will cover the action, with commentary from a crew of announcers.
Here’s the schedule:
Friday – Nov. 6
Division 1 Finals - Boys at 9:30 and 10 a.m. - Girls at 11 and 11:30 a.m.
Division 2 Finals - Boys at 1:30 and 2 p.m. - Girls at 3 and 3:30 p.m.
Saturday – Nov. 7
Division 3 Finals - Boys at 9:30 and 10 a.m. - Girls at 11 and 11:30 a.m.
Division 4 Finals - Boys at 1:30 and 2 p.m. - Girls at 3 and 3:30 p.m.
On Saturday the Boys Soccer Finals will have live audio and video streaming of its championship games from Novi and Comstock Park High Schools. Two games will be played at each site with the game times set for Noon and 3 p.m. The finalists will be determined following Semifinal play on Wednesday (Nov. 4), with all four of those games being streaming live video on MHSAA.tv and live audio on MHSAANetwork.com.
Lots of Football Playoff games will take place beginning Friday evening with three featured games as part of the FOX Sports Detroit “Game of the Week” and the FOX Sports Prep Zone. All of these games can be seen on FoxSportsDetroit.com and on FOX Sports Go! for handheld and streaming devices like Roku. Here are this weekend games:
- Hudsonville at Rockford – Prep Zone – Friday, 7 p.m.
- Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central at Muskegon Mona Shores – Prep Zone – Friday, 7 p.m.
- Clinton Twp. Chippewa Valley at Rochester Hills Stoney Creek – FOX Sports Detroit “Game of the Week” – Friday, 7:30 p.m.
MHSAA.tv will play host to more than 50 District Semifinal Football Playoff games over the weekend, most produced by participants in the School Broadcast Program with traditional student crews or Pixellot units. The NFHS Network is providing bonus coverage of one additional game on Friday – Bath at Laingsburg. Here’s the complete schedule:
Friday - Nov. 6
Suttons Bay vs. Whittemore-Prescott - 6 PM
Whitehall vs. Coopersville - 6 PM
Montrose vs. Chesaning - 6:40 PM
Adrian Lenawee Christian vs. Mayville - 6:50 PM
DeWitt vs. Lansing Waverly - 6:50 PM
Lowell vs. Caledonia - 6:55 PM
Belleville vs. Northville - 7 PM
Birmingham Seaholm vs. Birmingham Groves - 7 PM
Brownstown Woodhaven vs. Dearborn - 7 PM
Cadillac vs. Alma - 7 PM
Cass City vs. Sandusky - 7 PM
Charlevoix vs. Mancelona - 7 PM
Corunna vs. Richmond - 7 PM
Detroit Catholic Central vs. Novi - 7 PM
East Grand Rapids vs. Holland - 7 PM
East Lansing vs. Portage Central - 7 PM
Fenton vs. North Farmington - 7 PM
Frankenmuth vs. Almont - 7 PM
Freeland vs. Midland Bullock Creek - 7 PM
Grand Rapids Catholic Central vs. Belding - 7 PM
Ithaca vs. Ravenna - 7 PM
Laingsburg vs. Bath - 7 PM
Madison Heights Lamphere vs. Sterling Heights Chandler Park - 7 PM
Manistee vs. Grayling - 7 PM
Maple City Glen Lake vs. Boyne City - 7 PM
Mason vs. Fowlerville - 7 PM
Millington vs. Mt Morris - 7 PM
Muskegon Mona Shores vs. Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central - 7 PM – FOX Sports Prep Zone
New Lothrop vs. Burton Bendle - 7 PM
Ortonville Brandon vs. Goodrich - 7 PM
Pontiac Notre Dame Prep vs. Detroit Country Day - 7 PM
Portage Northern vs. Battle Creek Lakeview - 7 PM
Redford Union vs. Livonia Clarenceville - 7 PM
Riverview Gabriel Richard vs. Jackson Lumen Christi - 7 PM
Rockford vs. Hudsonville - 7 PM – FOX Sports Prep Zone
Romulus Summit Academy North vs. Dearborn Heights Robichaud - 7 PM
Saline vs. Ann Arbor Huron - 7 PM
South Lyon vs. Walled Lake Western - 7 PM
St. Joseph vs. Battle Creek Harper Creek - 7 PM
Traverse City Central vs. Swartz Creek - 7 PM
West Bloomfield vs. Troy - 7 PM
White Lake Lakeland vs. Howell - 7 PM
Zeeland West vs. Middleville Thornapple Kellogg - 7 PM
Rochester Hills Stoney Creek vs. Clinton Twp. Chippewa Valley - 7:30 PM – FOX Sports Detroit Game of Week
Saturday - Nov. 7
Traverse City St. Francis vs. Harbor Springs - 12 PM
Hemlock vs. Bad Axe - 1 PM
Kinde North Huron vs. Peck - 1 PM
Kingsley vs. Gladwin - 1 PM
Midland vs. Midland Dow - 1 PM
Pewamo-Westphalia vs. North Muskegon - 1 PM
Reed City vs. Kingsford - 1 PM
Stevensville Lakeshore vs. Coldwater - 1 PM
Mount Pleasant vs. Marquette - 2 PM
Girls Volleyball District Semifinals and Finals take place Wednesday through Saturday (Nov. 3-7). Separate releases will be issued with detailed Semifinal and Final coverage.
This week, more 250 events at all levels in a variety of sports will be available on the NFHS Network/MHSAA.TV. Monthly subscriptions are $10.99. Click for a complete list of upcoming games, and for a complete list of on-demand games.
Fans also can type their school name into the search field on the MHSAA.tv page to search for events. Varsity games being streamed also have links from the MHSAA Website’s Score Center, and from the schedules on individual school pages. Clicking on the green TV set icon listed next to an event will take you directly to a game. You can also watch on Roku enabled devices.
Now in its 12th year, the School Broadcast Program gives members an opportunity to showcase excellence in their schools by creating video programming of athletic and non-athletic events with students gaining skills in announcing, camera operation, directing/producing and graphics. Pixellot – The NFHS Network’s automated streaming solution – is used by schools wishing to live stream games, but lacking the ability to staff the events. The program also gives schools the opportunity to raise money through advertising and viewing subscriptions.
NFHS Network subscriptions begin at $10.99 a month. Subscribers will have access to all live video and streaming statistics across the country. All content becomes available for free, on-demand viewing 72 hours after being shown live. A portion of every subscription sold by an SBP school goes to benefit its program.
A complete list of participating schools can be found on the School Broadcast Program page of the MHSAA Website.
MHSAA.tv Live Postseason Views Approach 1 Million for 2020-21
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
July 14, 2021
Live postseason events streamed on MHSAA.tv during the 2020-21 school year were viewed nearly 1 million times, with 15 events drawing more than 10,000 live views apiece.
The final championship weekend of the Spring – featuring Girls Soccer Finals and Baseball and Softball Semifinals & Finals, all across four divisions June 17-19 at Michigan State University – saw nearly 70,000 live views on MHSAA.tv despite record attendance of those events at Old College Field.
The Division 2 Softball championship game – which ended with Owosso claiming its first Finals title in any sport, drew a weekend-high 5,677 live views on the network. The previous weekend, the Division 1 Girls Lacrosse Final won by Rockford on June 12 led the way with 4,284 live views.
The total number of live postseason views on MHSAA.tv for 2020-21 was 962,371. The most-viewed live tournament events were the Individual and Team Wrestling Finals, which with all rounds over all four divisions combined drew 244,044 live views. Among individual games broadcast solely by MHSAA.tv, the Division 3 Boys Basketball Semifinal matching Iron Mountain and Schoolcraft (15,393 live views) and the Division 1 Volleyball Semifinal featuring Novi and Lowell (13,484) ranked among the most watched.
MHSAA.tv is a partner of the NFHS Network. Postseason events streamed on MHSAA.tv included most sports’ Finals, and Semifinals and Quarterfinals for some – especially sports where multiple concluding rounds were hosted by the same tournament site.
MHSAA.tv also ranked second among NFHS Network contributing states with 18,973 live events (postseason and regular-season combined) streamed during the 2020-21 school year. That total of nearly 19,000 live postseason events was an increase from 7,710 events streamed live during 2019-20 and 3,900 during 2018-19, and placed Michigan behind only Illinois.
The School Broadcast Program is responsible for nearly all production of regular-season events. Having now concluded its 13th year, the SBP gives members an opportunity to showcase excellence in their schools by creating video programming of athletic and non-athletic events with students gaining skills in announcing, camera operation, directing/producing and graphics. Rockford – one of the state’s largest schools with nearly 2,500 students – broadcast 242 events, drawing an SBP-high 74,437 live views and 89,604 total with on-demand replays included. Much smaller Pewamo-Westphalia, a school of 300 students, received the second-most views of SBP members in 2020-21 with 56,009 including live and on-demand. Marquette, Lake Orion, Cedar Springs, Montrose and McBain also were among top SBP providers.
In addition to bringing local events on air nationally, the School Broadcast Program gives schools the opportunity to raise money through advertising and viewing subscriptions. NFHS Network subscriptions begin at $10.99 per month. Subscribers receive access to all live and on-demand video from across the country. School Broadcast Program participants receive a portion of every subscription sold by a school to benefit its program.
Broadcasts from the majority of Michigan schools – especially those lacking the ability to staff events for production – are streamed using a Pixellot automated camera. Michigan schools have 774 Pixellots in service, third-most in the country behind only Texas and California. Most Michigan schools have one camera at an outdoor stadium and a second at the main indoor gymnasium.
A complete list of participating schools can be found on the School Broadcast Program page of the MHSAA Website.