Syracuse students may still be able to watch the Orange football team play Wake Forest Saturday night.

Assistant director of athletics for communications Sue Edson said conversations between Syracuse and ESPN360 resumed Thursday after talks broke down on Wednesday night.

‘When I left last night I thought it wasn’t going to work,’ Edson said at 6 p.m. Thursday. ‘Today when I came in to work the tech people got together again and thought of some other ideas to pursue.’

The school has 24 hours to find a solution to make the game available to students while maintaining the security and stability of the SU network. Edson said it is too early to tell whether or not the game will be broadcast on the SU campus.

‘Everybody is working hard together,’ Edson said. ‘This is a very important initiative to make this game available for our students.’

At around 3 p.m. Thursday, ESPN spokesman Paul Melvin said Syracuse decided on Wednesday night to not continue with plans to make ESPN360 available on the SU campus. Melvin said the university expressed concerns about compromising the school’s network.

Still, Melvin expressed the offer to allow the broadband service on campus was still on the table.

‘We worked with Syracuse all the way through (Wednesday),’ Melvin said. ‘In the end the school said they were going to have to pass on the offer this time.’

Verizon DSL customers are currently the only people who have the opportunity to watch the game on Saturday. However, students and off-campus residents who have Verizon Internet service at home and have a Verizon e-mail account and password, can also log on to ESPN360 and view the contest.

The majority of Syracuse students interviewed Thursday said they wish they could watch the game but aren’t worrying about missing it — mainly because the Orange is coming off the worst record in school history.

Senior Eric Snyder said he couldn’t care less about the coverage of this week’s SU football game. He said he was a big SU football fan in his first year on campus but now he is far more excited about his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers than the Orange.

‘If it was the Steelers game that wasn’t on TV then I would be upset,’ Snyder said. ‘If they were a top 25 team and the game wasn’t on TV then I would care.’

Pete Cassara, a junior finance major, will be watching college football this weekend but he will not be watching the Orange in action whether the game is broadcast on campus or not. Cassara is looking forward to the Miami vs. Florida State game on Monday and does not plan to watch any Syracuse road games.

‘It’s probably the right thing that it’s not on TV because they sucked last year,’ Cassara said. ‘I’d rather watch other games.’

Junior John DeMauro was disappointed when he learned the game may not be broadcast in the Syracuse area. He thinks many fans are frustrated in the team’s poor performance in the past few years but said he would still love to watch the Orange play.

‘I would probably go to the Dome if they played it on the JumboTron like when they showed the Final Four games,’ DeMauro said. ‘It would be disappointing to have them win and not be able to see it live.’

Jonathan Faibus, a sophomore information technology and marketing major, was looking forward to watching the first game of the Orange’s season this weekend. He was disappointed when he found out the game may not be televised but he said the news would not throw off his weekend.

‘I’m upset because I’m a Syracuse student so I wish it was on TV, but I’m not losing sleep over it,’ Faibus said.

David Resnick, a freshman broadcast journalism major, can’t wait to go to the Carrier Dome to see the Orange live in action. He is angry about the game possibly not being available on campus but he doesn’t know who to blame.

‘I think it’s a very big deal,’ Resnick said. ‘After going 1-10 last year a lot of people are interested to see how the team responds and this weekend is the first chance to see if there’s going to be any turnaround.

‘I don’t really know who to point the finger at. I’m sure someone is responsible but that’s how things go.’

Melvin also said ESPN tried to contact Wake Forest about allowing Wake Forest students to watch the game live on ESPN360 but was unable to reach anyone from WFU.

Wake Forest associate media relations director Mike Vest said he had not spoken to anyone from ESPN as of Wednesday afternoon. He said barring any changes, students would not be able to watch the game unless they came to the stadium and watched it live.

‘We’re getting phone calls from folks asking how they can watch the game,’ Vest said. ‘I think it’s less of a big deal here because more than 30,000 people will be at the game, so they won’t be worrying about it.’

Published on August 30, 2006 at 12:00 pm