Football Mocs on TV? Priceless.

This fall has been the best of times in years for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team. The team's record stands at a respectable 6-4 and it is assured of its first winning season since 2005 whatever the outcome of Saturday's game with Alabama, the second-ranked team in the nation. Given the team's 1-11 record in 2008, the turnaround has earned the team a bit of national media attention.

Now, many of those who have no direct tie to UTC, but who have heard or read comments about UTC football, will have a chance to put a face with a name, so to speak, on Saturday. The Alabama game will be will be televised nationally on the SEC network (here, on Channel 11). The resultant audience is likely to be the largest ever to see a Mocs football game and quite likely will be the greatest to view any UTC sporting event. That's certainly a welcome prospect.

It's not the university's first brush with national television. Its teams have appeared on national broadcasts previously, most notably last year during the NCAA basketball tournament. The Mocs faced No. 1 seed Connecticut in the first round and the David-and-Goliath scenario caught the attention of late-night TV show host Jimmy Fallon. The result was a public relations bonanza.

Mr. Fallon mentioned the team frequently in the run-up to the game, hosted coach John Shulman in an on-air interview and invited Mr. Shulman and senior members of his team to appear on his show following the team's' 103-47 loss. It was a rare case of defeat proving as valuable as a victory -- at least in terms of name recognition.

Interest in the university -- as evidenced by inquiries to the admissions department and by a rise in the number of page views on UTC Web sites -- rose in the wake of the NCAA appearance and attendant publicity. There's every reason to expect the same will occur following Saturday's game.

Chancellor Roger Brown clearly understands the value of the national broadcast. "The national exposure that UTC will earn during the televised Alabama football game." he said, "is invaluable to us as a campus and is the kind of publicity that we could never buy. Any time we have a national stage, it brings awareness of the campus to an audience that might otherwise know very little about us. We are extremely grateful for this opportunity."

Dr. Brown, ever the optimist, continued: "And despite the predictions, we can always hold out hope for an upset." Stranger things have happened. Last year, Appalachian State, a member, like UTC, of the Southern Conference beat mighty Michigan in what some call the greatest upset in college football history. If UTC were to defeat Alabama on Saturday, the event would be, as the commercial says, "priceless." In any case, it should be a boon for the university and the community it calls home.