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Sports

UH is slowly gaining national exposure

Maggard said football may see more TV time in 2007

by CHRIS ELLIOTT
The Daily Cougar

In the college revenue sports -- football and basketball -- three things generally determine a university's success: televised games, attendance and merchandise sales among fans. 

UH Director of Athletics Dave Maggard came to the school in 2002 with aspirations of making UH athletics a force in Texas. That, of course, would require dethroning Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech. 

The Cougars aren't there yet, but Maggard said they've made huge strides, and as long as they can keep competing on the field and on the court, more TV contracts will be signed, attendance will increase and the fan base will grow. 

"It's a growing process," Maggard said. "We have to show that we can get to a certain level and maintain it. We need to show this year in football that we're not a blip. That's why it's important that we recognize that this program has to be solid and have continuity in order for us to have credibility.

"It all depends on a combination of things. It's recruiting, having good, solid players. It's having good coaches, and it's having the fan support."

Through Conference USA, UH has a television contract with CSTV. The football team had four televised games last season thanks to that contract. It also had two games shown on ESPN2 because of its success on the field. 

"The thing about TV is it's all about ratings. It's all about exposure. It's all about whether or not the folks in charge feel like people will be watching. That's what it's about," Maggard said.

UH and South Carolina met in the 2006 Liberty Bowl, which was televised on ESPN. According to Maggard, it had the best rating of all the televised non-BCS bowl games.

That could bode well for UH in the coming season as it looks for national exposure through ESPN and other networks.

"We play Alabama at their place. We play Oregon at their place. We play Colorado State here," Maggard said. "ESPN will look at the schedule. They'll look at how we finished the year. They'll look at who we have coming back, and they'll select games that they think will have good audiences."

Though the football team has recently been able to make its presence felt on a national stage, the basketball program, under the direction of head coach Tom Penders, has been steadily gaining respect and airtime.

It had a total of 12 televised games in the 2006-07 season, three of which were nationally televised. In the Cougars' three outings against Memphis, two games were played on CBS and one was shown on ESPN. The rest were shown through CSTV and Fox Sports. 

Maggard said UH's Feb. 25 regular season conference matchup against Memphis was a testament to how far the program has come and where he thinks it's going.

"The reasoning behind the CBS game was that both Memphis and Houston were both strong teams last year," Maggard said. "It's really dependent on the quality of your team as much as anything else over the long term. You may be able to get a game on television, but if you're not playing well consistently, they're not going to show you."

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