MAC Football Media Day in Detroit

9:25 a.m. -- You are looking live at Ford Field in downtown Detroit. After a number of technical difficulties, I (Mike Cihon, athletic communications) have finally been able to get internet access here in the Ford Field press box. Several of us athletic communications types are here, along with head coach Dave Clawson, linebacker Champ Fells and running back Willie Geter.

Coach Clawson, Fells and Geter are in the midst of BGSU's electronic media portion of the festivities. Each of the three has already done multiple radio and television interviews. The East Division schools are in the electronic media area until 10 a.m. At that time, the print media folks will get their chance to speak to the BGSU contingent.

Even though it took me seemingly forever to get onto the web this morning, Assistant AD Jason Knavel has been hard at work sending out some updates on Twitter and posting video links. You might have seen his tweet from last night, which contained the link to a sneak preview of the new football commercial. I'm biased, but I think the commercial is great. You can view it here. I won't spill the beans re: who did the voiceover, because I think Jason will be sharing that info sometime later today. I will say, however, that I believe it was the first-ever voiceover work for the mystery voice, which rules out Tim Conway. Back in a few...

9:40 a.m. -- And, as I check the BGAthletics twitter feed, I see that Jason Knavel has announced the identity of the mystery voiceover man. It is none other than our own Champ Fells. Nice job, Champ! By the way, if you're not already following BGAthletics on Twitter, you should do so immediately.

10:15 a.m. -- The electronic media portion of the morning has ended for the MAC East schools, and the BGSU group has headed over to meet with the print media. A lot of NW Ohio media members are on hand, and Coach Clawson, Champ and Willie each did a ton of TV and radio interviews. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that most, if not all, of the Toledo TV stations will have interviews on their sportscasts tonight.

10:28 a.m. -- Let's try to upload a few of the videos from this morning, shall we? Apologies in advance, because the voiceover guy on these videos is nowhere near the caliber of Champ Fells. Here are two brief videos from BGSU's electronic media portion of the morning festivities ...





10:41 a.m. -- A few other things going on here in Detroit ... the MAC announced a regional television agreement with SportsTime Ohio. In the first year of the agreement, the MAC will have a few football games, but will have a minimum of 33 basketball games aired on STO. You can read the release at the MAC site here.

Additionally, the MAC and ESPN Regional Television have announced a regionally syndicated football package that will air in 24 television markets. The package will consist of six weeks of MAC conference and non-conference matchups, beginning Saturday, Sept. 18.

BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock and ESPN's Desmond Howard are on hand here in Detroit, and have done their share of interviews as well.

10:51 a.m. -- Here's the latest in the award-winning (??) series of expertly-shot, but poorly-narrated videos ...



10:53 a.m. -- I don't know about you, but this morning's events have me ready for some Falcon football! Here's some information from the "Things You Already Know" file: the 2010 season begins on Saturday, Sept. 4, at Troy. After a game at Tulsa the following Saturday evening (Sept. 11), the Brown and Orange open the home portion of the schedule against Marshall on Saturday, Sept. 18. Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. at Doyt Perry Stadium, but you already knew that.

11:00 a.m. -- As you probably already read at BGSUFalcons.com, the Falcons were picked to finish fourth in the East Division by the league's media members. In some other preseason polls, BGSU was picked to place anywhere from second through sixth. The Falcons were picked to finish second in the East by the Sporting News, third by USA Today, fourth by Lindy's, fifth by Phil Steele's and sixth by Athlon. Temple has been the consensus choice to win the East, while Northern Illinois is atop the West Division in the bulk of the polls.

11:43 a.m. -- Things are wrapping up here in Detroit, as the players and coaches are conducting a few final interviews prior to the luncheon. At some point later today, we will post a few videos of Champ and Willie interviewing each other. It'll be well worth your time to check back sometime in the near future.

1:15 p.m. -- And, here are those videos ... we've got Willie interviewing Champ ...



... and Champ interviewing Willie.



Thanks for reading, and Roll Along!