Best Free Streaming Games this Weekend?
- Thread starter crusader_of_90
- Start date
Aren't all playoff games streamed through NFHS or is that not until the quarters or so?
Not sure on this game. I don't see any home games on YouTube for Sycamore.
I believe schools have to pay a fee in order to stream their games in the playoffs. And it gets progressively more expensive the further you advance.
Yes, NFHS has a monopoly on the broadcasting of IHSA playoff games. I was going to make the trek down to St . Rita tomorrow but I’m working a bit late so I’ll start my NFHS subscription tomorrow. As the playoffs grind on they are your only option until Championship weekend. As I hope and pray every year, that the product will be better but NFHS never fails to fail me. Here’s to a better product this year. Not holding my breath while hoping.
I don't see any TV for Sycamore vs. Morris listed at NFHS or YouTube. Don't be tempted to click on the fake link at YouTube.
The thing I hate most about NFHS is the wild inconsistency of the streaming. I assume that they merely provide a pass- through service and that the actual production is by the home team . You have beautifully filmed games with.no commentary, no scoreboard and no score. You have games where the running commentary is picked up from a stadium announcer and barely audible, others where they pick up a local radio broadcast and the audio is up to a minute or more either ahead of ir behind the video action. Camera operation is often spotty or amateurish, I once saw a game where the lone camera was behind a post in the press box, others where fans are constantly walking in front of the camera. Or the HS kid doing the filming constantly loses the action on the field. The most maddening of all are where the stream keeps dropping out, presumably due to inadequate bandwidth at the stadium end. I swear I once saw a game where they were using an early smart phone as the broadcast carrier.
As much as I complain about it it’s still better than seeking radio feeds of games back in the day. Or as was mentioned in another thread waiting to see the papers in the morning.
It is the home teams feed. The stream dropping is an NFHS issue and the most infuriating part for me. As maddening as the feeds may be I have a hard time criticizing too much as 9 times out of 10 it is a student run operation and depending on the school the budget for broadcasting games will vary widely. As much as we all want to see as many games as possible or at least our favorite teams with the best quality possible I can't get too upset over a production crew consisting of 14-18 year old kids.
It is not on the radio. WJOL is airing the Providence game. JCA's games are typically on youtube and/or facebook live
JCA football
The schools that invest in their broadcast with both time and money usually have good broadcasts. They have the people, equipment, and knowledge to know what goes into a good broadcast. When they have issues, someone is right there to correct them or contact the right people who can fix them.
NFHSNetwork markets their Pixellot system to the schools that can't invest as the solution is completely automated. Even the scheduling of the games is somewhat automated because they can pull the game data from Arbiter when officials are assigned. The problem then becomes that because the solution is completely automated, the home school doesn't necessarily check on the system before/during/after each game to know if its having issues. Nor do a lot of schools have any concept of making sure they have enough bandwidth to have the broadcast succeed. As a result, NFHS often gets a bad rap, but its probably misplaced frustration. When I've talked to the NFHS people, I've brought up some of those issues and they're working on it. They actively monitor the systems now and alert the AD or designated person when the system goes offline. Obviously, if the box is unplugged, NFHS can't do anything about it, but at least the school knows there's an issue and they can work on it. Bandwidth is always tricky because it can be fine one minute and saturated the next. They'll do a test when the stadium is empty and everything works fine, but then its game day and everyone's on the wifi and suddenly the internet sucks.
I always go back to this. Something is better than nothing.
