Big Ten passing leaders illinois' Kurt Kittner coulJ spell trouble for Michigan this Saturday. GC on the Daily Sports Website to investigate. michigandaity.com /sports Uf t iut ID a SPOfrS THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 21, 2000 8A I STEPHANIE OFFEN Coaches like 'M'. to claim CCHA No suinse: Olympi'c ratings down i US am going to be completely honest here. I have only seen one Olympic event all week. I flipped on the television in my room just in time to see Brooke Bennett and Diana Munz, both United States natives, Win the gold and silver medals, respec- tively, in the 400 meter freestyle event. Four years ago - when the Olympics were in Atlanta - I remember watching for hours each day. I remember seeing the women's gym- nastics team strike gold and whiny Ken-y Strug hitting her vault routine on only one good ankle, then being lifted up by coach Bela Karolyi to receive her gold medal. I remember those melodramatic documentaries featuring odd athletes with stranger lifestyles. I remember Tom Dolan fighting allergies to win the U.S.'s first gold medal of the games, edging out fellow Wolverine Eric Namesnik in the 400 individual medley. Four years later Karolyi is still screaming on behalf of the women's gymnastics team, the melodramatic doc- umentaries receive more airtime and Dolan continues his success with two more gold medals - or so I've read. It seems one could relive that excite- ment from the Atlanta games all over again this year,r ight? Wrong. A more accurate assessment of this year's games is most Americans are just like myself. The Olympics are taking a backseat. .The ratings for the Olympics have dropped 32 percent from four years ago when the games were held in Atlanta. What's worse is this year's ratings don't even measure up to the extremely low approximation made by the NBC Sports Chairman before the Sydney Olympics began -- which was still 25 percent less than the Atlanta ratings. Advertisers on NBC must be furious that 2 million fewer people are tuning in for the Olympics than originally promised when they signed the deal. I knew this would happen. Anyone could have predicted this. If you didn't predict this, I'll let you in on a little hint jor the future. There are three ways to tell if the Olympic ratings will flop. Reason No. 1: 1 will restate the obvi- ous. Not a single competition has been held live on NBC. The network chose to tape delay everything in order to height- en its ratings. This obviously didn't work and actually forced avid Olympic viewers to turn away from NBC and towards CBC - channel 9 on most televisions - for live coverage. There is not one person who would rather watch a taped sporting event than one live. It would be like sitting through that agonizing Michigan-UCLA game again after knowing the outcome. Reason No. 2: This one is almost as obvious - its fall, not summer here in the U.S: It may be summer in Australia, but the 90-degree temperatures are long gone here. And so are the days of limit- ed televised sporting events. During our summer, fans consume themselves with baseball -- its all that's on. There are the occasional golf and tennis matches, and the WNBA has its two-month stint, but baseball reigns king among summer sports. Now, college football reigns king on college campuses, baseball enters the playoffs and the NFL is in full swing. To sum this one up, the summer forces people to watch the Olympics - other than baseball, its all that's on. Reason No. 3: This one is a little less obvious. The women's gymnastics team, falling to injury, failed to medal this year. That should come as no surprise. I remember the hype around the Atlanta squad with Shannon Miller, Dominique Moceanu, Dominique Dawes and unfor- tunately, Kerry Strug. And the drama that went along with that team made the sport almost a soap opera. Now, the women's gymnastics team is unknown, and rightfully so. It finished a distant fourth, and Michigan recruit Elise Ray topped the U.S. qualifiers for the individual all-around at No. 14. When the women's team won gold in Atlanta, NBC received its highest view- er ratings in that Olympics. For some reason, Americans love their female gymnasts. And if you can't watch them succeed, why watch them at all? -- Stephanie Often can be r1-ached at sOff fenl(U~umich. edu. r' Y BRANDON SEDLOFF/Daily Michigan State freshman Amy Sibbernsen wards off a Sarah Behnke spike last night at Jenison Fleidhouse in East Lansing. ' ikesBlue In 5-game battle By Joe Smith Daily Sports Wter DETROIT - The preliminary hear- ing is over, and the opening statement of CCHA coaches is ringing loud and clear. For the sixth time in the last seven years, Michigan is the favorite to repeat as CCHA Champions, after receiving I 1 of the 12 possible first-place votes in yesterday's annual coaches' preseason poll. The Wolverines then flip-flopped with Michigan State, as they finished a close second to the Spartans in the media poll - just seven points shy of the defending CCHA tournament cham- pions. This isn't anything new for the Wolverines, as high expectations and Michigan hockey go hand in hand. The program has won more national titles than any other school (nine) and has reached the Frozen Four in six of the past nine seasons. But Michigan coach Red Berenson knows that the trial hasn't even begun with the season still more than two weeks away. "We're flattered to be ranked that high with the coaches and media," Berenson said. "But the team that ends up in first place has to do more than look good on paper - they really have to put it together on the ice every night." The players echoed their coach's opinion after practice yesterday. "Once the first puck drops in the first game of the year - that's when it starts and when we find out who's going to be first in the league;" captain Geoff Koch said. I really don't think it has any real bearing except for being a nice flattery." Facing the largest and longest sched- ule in team history, the Wolverines are without the option of a plea bargain - every team in the highly-competitive CCHA will be gunning for the Maize and Blue. The Wolverines must go to war with last year's top three teams - Michigan State, Northern Michigan, and Lake Superior - four times a piece. The Lakers proved last season that no team in the CCHA is a pushover. Predicted to finish eighth, Lake Superior proved everyone wrong by beating the Wolverines twice and then sweeping Northern Michigan on the CCHA Coaches Preseason Poll 1.Michigan (11) 143 2.Michigan State (1), 132 3.Nebraska-Omaha 106 4.Lake Superior 97 5.Notre Dame 92 6.Miami 79 7.Ferris State 74 8.Northern Michigan 71 9.Bowling Green 49 10.Ohio State 44 11;Western Michigan 34 12.Alaska Fairbanks 15 CCHA Media Preseason Poll 1'. Michigan St.(19) 467 2. Michigan (20) 460 3. Lake Superior 350 4. Northern Michigan 343 5. Nebraska-Omaha (1)315 6. Notre Dame 270 7. Bowling Green 222 8. Ferris State 202 9. Miami (1) 183 10. Ohio State 163 11. Western Michigan153 12. Alaska Fairbanks 70 Coaches' choice 0 0 By Richard Haddad Daily Sports Writer EAST LANSING - Last night, the biggest rivalry match in the Big Ten coincided with the conference opener. It was promoted as the night to "jam Jenison," and 2,096 Spartan faithful did just that, packing Jenison Field House to see No. 23 Michigan visit No. 17 Michigan State. The vast majority of those 2,096 - the ones dressed in green and white - left Jenison satisfied. The Spartans outlasted the Wolverines in a five-game marathon, 15-11, 11-15, 13-15, 15-6, 15-5. Michigan was out- hit (.243 to .165) and outblocked (16 to 2). Michigan started the match promisingly. The first three games went back and forth, and the Wolverines scored four straight points to take the first game on a Sarah Behnke kill. The second game played out simi- larly, with the conclusion providing the contrast. This time, Michigan State jumped ahead after a tic at seven. Michigan put up a valiant attempt, and Shannon Melka dove for the ball at game point in an effort to survive, but the ball went out of bounds with Michigan's hopes for a win. Game three saw a streak of surges. After Michigan scored the first two points, the Spartans reeled off six straight before a vicious kill by Michigan's Nicole Kacor ended the Green-and-White rally and spurred Michigan to roar back with a vengeance, going up 13-8. But the Spartans stopped making the long hits and weak blocks that had allowed Michigan to come back, and State proceeded to close out the game without letting the Wolverines chalk up another tally. Michigan did- n't play State's final serve, thinking it was too far, but the ball landed pre- cisely in the corner of the court, pro- viding a bitter ending to a game that Michigan should have won. See STATE, Page 13A final weekend to take third place. "There's a fine line between a team finishing eighth and a team finishing fourth," Berenson said. "It could be just one point, one game, one injury or even just one break that decides it. That's how competitive this league is" Only time will tell for the Wolverines,@ who start their trial next Friday with an intrasquad exhibition game at Yost Ice Arena. The Wolverines will then have one week to prepare for the Ice Breaker Tournament, with Michigan hosting perennial powers New I Hampshire and defending national champion North Dakota. When the season is over and the final verdict is in, many coaches agree that Michigan has enough firepower wit their returning representatives to be o# top - even without last year's leading scorer Mike Comrie. "I think Michigan will be outstanding this year," Lake Superior coach Scott Borek said. "They're less predictable now without Comrie, which makes them even more dangerous. I expect Michigan to be in the top three in the country from the preseason poll all the way up to the end. h.. Y. ;