OUA In The Huddle - Week 3

If you, like me, took your favourite spot on the couch Saturday hoping to catch the slate of games on OUA.tv, then you probably noticed the site was experiencing technical issues that prevented viewers from live streaming the action for a considerable chunk of time.

So what happened?

"There was a firewall server malfunction," explained OUA Executive Director Bryan Crawford. "It affected all of our provider's servers and essentially created a rolling blackout for a period of about 90 minutes."

The service was restored in time for Ottawa and Windsor fans to witness their team's incredible comeback victories, but a good portion of the second half was missed. The problem didn't lie with the OUA, but with Stretch Internet, the service provider for OUA.tv and many other web-streaming portals in Canada and the U.S. Crawford said "the interruption was rare for the company who has a very strong record of service."

"It's the first time they've had an interruption in service like this," Crawford told In The Huddle. "They have taken all the necessary steps to correct the issue and we feel confident that our fans will not experience any future technical malfunctions."

Having a successful web-streaming portal is tremendously important for OUA after being dropped from Rogers Sportsnet's coverage after the 2013 season.

(Full disclosure: I work for TSN radio and write for TSN.ca.)

Crawford said OUA and Sportsnet met after the end of the 2013 football season, where the television network voiced concerns with how OUA's product aligned with its future broadcasting plans and strategies. Later winter meetings revealed that the network was not interested in carrying the regular season games, but was still considering the playoffs.

The numbers on Sportsnet weren't great, taking a step backward from previous seasons with some 34,000 viewers per game for a product that was seen nationally. Crawford considered several factors that may have led to poor ratings.

"We only had one (televised) game decided in the fourth quarter," he said. "We had plenty of exciting games that season, but unfortunately the ones that were broadcast weren't the most competitive and weren't compelling to viewers."

Playing on a network known more for broadcasting sports on a professional level, where production values, ratings, and viewership are much larger, also may not have been the best fit.

"When our games were broadcast on The Score television network, OUA football was one of the highlights of their live-programming roster," said Crawford. "We simply can't compete with the NHL or NFL, whose content costs much more to broadcast and will be more heavily promoted on the network."

Without a home for Saturday afternoon OUA football, the conference investigated other potential alternatives.

"We looked to the CBC, but they were scaling back their sports coverage," said Crawford. "TSN was not interested in providing their opposition's property a lead up to the Vanier Cup."

By May, all other options had played themselves out. Enter OUA.tv.

To be fair, OUA.tv was not a property that was thrown together at the last minute to bail out the conference.

"OUA.tv had been in the works for a year and a half," said Crawford. "We had been planning it for a while and gained membership approval for it last October. It's fairly lucky timing actually."

It's been a successful venture so far, despite a modest initial viewership of about 2,000 per game. From a sponsorship perspective, the conference's major backers of a year ago have signed up for the new undertaking, which is not limited to just football.

"This season is the first year all of our schools will broadcast every football game, as well as every men's and women's basketball,"' said Crawford. "Other sports that our schools broadcast will also be on OUA.tv, including a large number of hockey and volleyball games along with some soccer and rugby broadcasts as well."

It's an ambitious undertaking that has required working through some unforeseen issues on the fly, but as more viewers, especially in younger demographics, turn to the Internet for live sports broadcasts, it could have a high payoff down the road.

The O Zone: As a VP for the Football Reporters of Canada, I can tell you that there's a lot of talk going on about the new CFL alternate jerseys. All nine radio play-by-play announcers across the league have agreed to file a formal complaint about the jerseys, which feature logos on the front, much like a hockey sweater. It's virtually impossible to call a game without being able to see numbers on the front. It's also tough for officials, statisticians, teams studying game film and most importantly, fans in the stands. If you can't identify the player, why wear numbers in the first place? Queen's wore those jerseys on Saturday. I hope it's a one-time occasion. I'm not a guy to point to the NFL simply for the sake of doing so, but there's a rule that mandates the size of numbers on both side of the jersey. There's major push back against the CFL for the same issue...

It was no doubt a long week for the Queen's Gaels and Laurier Golden Hawks. Queen's led Ottawa 30-16 with fewer than nine minutes left in the fourth quarter, but CIS Offensive Player of the Week, Derek Wendel, led the Gee-Gees to three straight TDs, including Mack Tommy's two-yard run with just 16 seconds left. That was the winning score in a spectacular 37-30 game at Richardson Stadium in Kingston. Wendel threw for over 400 yards and rushed for over 100 more. Queen's looks much better offensively than expected this early in the season and could be a force by the end of the year...

Meanwhile, Laurier led 33-16 at Windsor early in the fourth quarter, but the Lancers staged a more incredible comeback. Down 34-33 in the last minute, and facing a third-and-18 from their own 52 yard line, the Lancers were in dire straits. Somehow Evan Pszczonak, one of OUA's best receivers, got open deep on a seam route. His TD catch gave Windsor an improbable 39-34 win. It was his fourth TD catch of the season. In that game, Laurier's Dillon Campbell rushed for 177 yards. He has a mind blowing 470 yards after just two games, which is well over half of his OUA-leading total of 867 yards a year ago. The Hawks' Ronnie Pfeffer had a poor 2013 season but is averaging 45.1 yards per punt and is 6/7 on FGs, including a CIS-long 49 yarder...

OUA quarterbacks have been impressive with their TD/INT numbers. James Fracas is 5/0, Marshall Ferguson, Billy McPhee and Austin Kennedy are all 5/1, Derek Wendel is 7/2, and Will Finch is 3/0...

Guelph trailed Toronto 18-17 late in the third quarter before putting up 33 straight points in its 50-18 win. The Gryphs' Ryan Nieuwesteeg had an incredible game on special teams. His 62-yard punt return for a TD turned the game in Guelph's favour. He also had punt returns of 38 and 48 yards, as well as a 52-yard kickoff return. Guelph RB Rob Farquharson missed the game due to a charley horse. Llevi Noel had his second consecutive 100-yard receiving game for the Blues...

McMaster racked up 647 yards of offence against Waterloo, with its backups seeing a lot of playing time...

Western bettered that with a 676-yard display in its dismantling of York...

The two most interesting games this week feature traditional rivals No. 3 Western and unranked Queen's in Kingston, while No. 7 Guelph visits No. 8 Ottawa.