Sunday afternoon’s dual wrestling meet between No. 1 Minnesota
and No. 2 Iowa State will be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network,
network officials announced today. The meet will be held in Williams
Arena on the University of Minnesota campus and will begin at 2 p.m. It
was previously scheduled to air via tape delay on Dec. 7.
“It doesn’t get any bigger than No. 1 vs. No. 2,” Big Ten Network
President Mark Silverman said, “and we’re honored to bring a live
telecast of this event to national audience of more than 30 million
people.”
The Cyclones (5-0) were runners-up behind the Golden Gophers (3-0) at
last year’s NCAA Championships, finishing with 88.5 team points to
Minnesota’s 98. J Robinson’s Gophers also got the better of Iowa State
in two regular season dual meets, winning 19-13 in Ames last Dec. 8 and
24-11 at the National Duals in January of 2007. The Gophers are 17-33-2
all-time in meetings with the Cyclones but have won the last three dual
meets between the two schools. Both schools are defending champions of
their respective conferences (Big Ten and Big 12).
Minnesota enters the match with a perfect dual meet record following
convincing victories Saturday against Northern Illinois, Northern
Colorado and North Dakota State at the Northern Quad in Rochester,
Minn. The Gophers have now won 23 consecutive dual meets dating back to
Nov. 25 of last year.
Tim Johnson, a veteran of over 150 college wrestling dual meet
broadcasts for Iowa Public Television (IPTV), the Fighting Illini
Wrestling Network, ESPN and Real Pro Wrestling, will be providing
play-by-play. Jim Gibbons is a former All-American and national
champion wrestler and coach at Iowa State and will be providing color
commentary for the telecast.
This event marks the first of 10 wrestling meets to air on the Big Ten
Network this season. The full schedule will be announced once
dates and times are finalized. Stay tuned to bigtennetwork.com and
gophersports.com for more information.
The Big Ten Network is dedicated to covering the Big Ten Conference and
its 11 member institutions and is currently available in Minnesota on
Dish Network (channel 439) and DirecTV (channel 220). The BTN is also
tentatively scheduled to broadcast the finals of the 2008 Big Ten
Championships, to be held in Minneapolis at Williams Arena March 8-9,
2008.