Tech’s season opener is going high-tech

Georgia Tech athletics director Dan Radakovich admits he has never watched a football game on a … computer.

Which is the only way, other than being in Bobby Dodd Stadium, fans will be able to watch the Yellow Jackets’ opener against Jacksonville State on Aug. 28.

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Elissa Eubanks/eeubanks@ajc.com

Paul Johnson will make his debut as the Yellow Jackets’ coach in the Aug. 28 season opener that will be carried only by computer.

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The game will be shown live on ESPN360.com, a broadband sports network that is available free to subscribers of participating Internet service providers. About one-third of U.S. households with high-speed Internet connections have access to ESPN360.com programming, ESPN officials said.

Apparently, the Radakovich household is among them.

“I’ll tell you, my boys at home” — a Tech freshman and a 14-year-old — “have figured out how to get the computer on our plasma,” said Tech’s AD, who, of course, will watch the game in person. “So you could sit in our basement and flip this game on through however they did that.”

Unlike ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Classic and ESPN News, ESPN360 is not a cable TV channel. It is a Web site that this year will carry about 2,500 live sports events from around the globe. Some are simulcasts of events on TV. Some, like the Georgia Tech-Jacksonville State game, are events bypassed by TV.

“When you watch this game,” ESPN360 vice president Damon Phillips said, “it will be like any college football game on ESPN.” There will be a play-by-play announcer and color analyst — yet to be named.

One big difference is who can watch. ESPN360.com programming is available to about 24 million U.S. households whose Internet service providers pay a fee to carry it. Those providers include AT&T, Verizon, Charter and about 20 others. In addition, free access is offered to college campuses and military bases.

But many Internet service providers, including Comcast and Time Warner, don’t have deals to carry ESPN360.com.

And that often leads to confusion and complaints.

In a recent newsletter to Tech fans, Radakovich warned: “If for some reason you cannot be in attendance [at the Tech-Jacksonville State opener] and wish to view the game on your computer … go to ESPN360’s Web site in advance of the game to see if your network is compatible.”

Phillips said restaurants and bars can show the game if their Internet service provider (ISP) pays to carry ESPN360 — and if they, like Radakovich’s sons, plug their computers into TV monitors.

ESPN said it plans to stick with its business model of charging ISP’s for access to ESPN360, rather than trying to sell the content directly to consumers. The content — up to 12 events can be shown simultaneously — runs the gamut from college sports to global soccer, from Grand Slam tennis to open-wheel racing.

“What we see now is that consumers make their choice for an ISP based on price and speed,” Phillips said. “But what we see changing over time is that content is going to be one of the differentiating factors.”

For now, compared to TV, online programming carries little clout in college football.

While most Thursday night games are scheduled for the benefit of TV, Tech-Jacksonville State was not scheduled for the benefit of ESPN360, Radakovich said. Tech decided to play the game on a Thursday, he said, before knowing it would be carried by computer.

Tech doesn’t receive a separate rights fee for the cybercast; ESPN had rights to the game under its TV deal with the ACC.

Radakovich said Tech’s main reason for playing the game on Thursday night Aug. 28 — rather than, say, Saturday afternoon Aug. 30 — was to give new coach Paul Johnson two extra days to prepare for the next game, the ACC opener at Boston College on Sept. 6.

Alabama and Clemson will play Aug. 30 in the Georgia Dome, just down the street from the Tech campus, but Radakovich said that wasn’t a factor in deciding to play the Jackets’ opener on the 28th. He said the Alabama-Clemson crowd will consist mostly of the two teams’ season-ticket holders, “so those people weren’t going to be at our game,” anyway.

Tech’s opener appealed to ESPN360 because it marks the debuts of Johnson as the Jackets’ coach and former LSU quarterback Ryan Perrilloux as Jacksonville State’s QB. Also, ESPN’s Phillips said, “Georgia Tech is so tech-savvy that this is the right platform for [its] students and alumni.”