Mat Action Abounds on MHSAA TV
March 3, 2020
By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
The mats in Grand Rapids and Detroit will get a workout this weekend with live streaming video on MHSAA.tv both Friday and Saturday (March 6-7), with NFHS Network coverage of the MHSAA Girls Competitive Cheer and Individual Wrestling Finals.
This will be the second of five straight weekends of Winter championship activity, which also will include more than 100 District games from the Girls Basketball Tournament and the final week of the regular season in boys basketball.
The Competitive Cheer coverage on MHSAA.tv begins at 6 p.m. Friday from the DeltaPlex in Grand Rapids. Here’s the complete schedule:
Friday – March 6
- 6 PM – Division 1 - Brighton, Grand Blanc, Hartland, Lake Orion, Plymouth, Rochester, Rochester Adams, Utica Eisenhower
Saturday – March 7
- 10 AM – Division 2 - Allen Park, Cedar Springs, Charlotte, DeWitt, Gibraltar Carlson, Muskegon Mona Shores, Southgate Anderson, Walled Lake Western
- 2 PM – Division 4 - Addison, Adrian Madison, East Jordan, Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian, Hudson, Munising, Pewamo-Westphalia, St. Charles
- 6 PM – Division 3 - Berrien Springs, Comstock Park, Croswell-Lexington, Escanaba, Paw Paw Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, Onsted, Richmond
At Ford Field, there will be 20 mats providing 1,680 bouts over two days from the Individual Wrestling Finals. Here’s the round-by-round schedule:
Friday – March 6
- 11:30 AM – First Round – Championship Bracket
- 2:45 PM – Second Round – Consolation Bracket (Round may begin earlier if time allows)
- 4:15 PM – Third Round – Quarterfinal Bracket (Round may begin earlier if time allows)
- 6 PM – Fourth Round – Blood Round-Consolation Bracket (Round may begin earlier if time allows)
- 7:30 PM – Fifth Round – Semifinal Round-Championship Bracket (Semifinals will not begin early)
Saturday – March 7
- 9 AM – Sixth Round – Consolation Bracket
- 10 AM – Seventh Round – Consolation Bracket (Round may begin earlier if time allows)
- 11 AM – Eighth Round – Medal Round – Consolation Bracket (Round may begin earlier if time allows)
- 3:30 PM – Ninth Round – Finals – Championship Bracket (Finals will not begin early)
Over the remainder of the Winter season, MHSAA.tv will have live final round coverage of the following:
- Ice Hockey Semifinals & Finals – March 12-13-14
- L.P. Boys Swimming & Diving Finals – March 14
- Girls Basketball Quarterfinals & Semifinals – March 17, 19-20
- Girls Basketball Quarterfinals & Semifinals – March 24, 26-27
You always can reach a list of the upcoming tournament games by Clicking Here. Fans can purchase a Month Pass to watch on the NFHS Network for $10.99.
Subscribers will have access to all live video across the country for 30 days. All content becomes available for free, on-demand viewing 72 hours after being shown live.
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.