Redhawks AD: SEMO on ESPN 'exposure that you can't even pay for'

Southeast Missouri State players celebrate winning the FCS Kickoff against North Alabama on Saturday, Aug. 24, in Montgomery, Alabama.

Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

The television ratings for the FCS Kickoff matchup between Southeast Missouri State and North Alabama were recently released by Sports Media Watch, showing that 672,000 people viewed the Redhawks' debut on the "Mothership".

The last time the Redhawks were on national television was their 2022 FCS Playoffs appearance at Montana on ESPN2.

It was revealed during the Redhawks Kick-Off Luncheon last month that SEMO athletic director Brady Barke originally had to do some convincing to get buy-in from head coach Tom Matukewicz to play North Alabama on a neutral site at Montgomery, Alabama, rather than playing the Lions at home.

The Redhawks got the best of both worlds, as they won the game and got the national television exposure the program never had before.

"It's exposure that you can't even pay for," Barke said. "You can't buy that exposure if you want a three-and-a-half-hour slot that you can be on national television, that's not something you just go and buy as an asset. For us to have that type of experience where our student-athletes get to kick off the college football season at the same time that you're able to showcase your university."

Barke said it still may take a while to truly see the economic impact of SEMO playing in jewel events. Sports typically is a university's greatest form of advertising. Being in the Ohio Valley Conference, the Redhawks don't get many opportunities to showcase themselves on national television. Since 2022, it's been the FCS playoffs, NCAA Tournament, and FCS Kickoff.

Where SEMO can immediately point to is web traffic and potential increase of applications and enrollment.

"I'm sure when we get a chance to see the numbers and you see the upticks in web traffic, how many people come to our university or athletics websites to learn more about us while they're watching the game," Barke said. "Those are, I think, really critical pieces to us being able to use athletics to kind of build the brands for the university. That's probably where the impact is."

Athletics are a point of pride not just for current students but alumni as well. Games on national television attract the attention of the alumni, who also come to populate the tailgate scene all around Houck Field.

"I know from alumni engagement, it's been significant," Barke said. "We've had a lot of alums that have reached out that were watching the game and people we haven't heard from in 10-15 years that watched the game and all of a sudden have started to engage with us. So I think we'll see some impact from that too."

North Alabama will come to SEMO in 2025, as well as rivals Southern Illinois and Lindenwood. That, combined with three conference games, and the Redhawks will have six home games for the first time since 2019. SEMO will travel to Arkansas State and North Dakota State to round out next year's non-conference slate.

"That's a really tough schedule but a really exciting one for us too," Barke said.