LAWRENCE, Kansas – On a cold January night in Eastern Kansas, the heated rivalry between the Kansas Jayhawks and Missouri Tigers was reignited inside Allen Fieldhouse. The gates opened and the students poured in, decked out in their crimson and blue, filling the highly-sought-after student sections to the brim.

Meanwhile, outside the venue in the 53-foot-long high definition production truck for ESPN’s first night of “Student Spirit Week,” temperatures were also rising beneath the collars of some of the telecast’s key production personnel. As has become the custom at KU, countless students donned their royal blue “Muck Fizzou” t-shirts, displaying the now-trite spoonerism reflecting the student body’s hatred for the Tigers. And, while ESPN may be on cable, it still has standards for what it will and won’t allow on the air. The t-shirts did not make the cut.

Often the case – as with the Fieldhouse’s TV-unfriendly layout – since the school won’t change, the network must. The result: director Ken Dennis and his team of camera operators must be constantly vigilant to keep the shirts off the air. So, no matter how brilliant the paint job is on your face, if your torso is covered in a “Muck Fizzou” shirt, don’t count on getting any air time. To complicate matters further, since the game is in high definition, Dennis must be aware of the wider frame that HD allows, ruling out even more shots.

Think about it. ESPN comes to one of the most storied arenas in all of college basketball, with one of the best atmospheres, to kick off a week dedicated to student spirit, and they can’t even show most of the students in the crowd. They wanted to, but the students’ attire gave them no choice. Even reporter Holly Rowe had to ask a student wearing one of the shirts to move out of the shot before doing an in-game report from the student section.

The Jayhawk faithful go crazy when they’re on television, and it’s an even bigger deal to be on a national telecast. (I still fondly recall my cameo during “The Star-Spangled Banner” before Game 5 of the 1991 World Series.) Why then would students sabatoge their own efforts to be shown on TV and, perhaps more importantly, a director’s attempts to capture – for the entire country – the tremendous atmosphere that epitomizes the very essence of Jayhawk Basketball?

As cameras panned Allen Fieldhouse for shots of students, Dennis said of one fan, “You’ll never get on the air with that t-shirt, Sparky!” Maybe fans will remember that the next time they’re searching through their closets to pick an outfit for the game.

Filed under: College, Opinion/Editorial, Sports TV, Television