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Big 10 Network to show Superior Dome Showdown featuring Northern Michigan University men’s basketball team

MARQUETTE — Northern Michigan University gets to showcase its indoor football venue to a national audience on Oct. 13.

Even though the Superior Dome normally hosts games on the gridiron, this telecast of the Superior Dome Showdown on the Big Ten Network will feature the Wildcats’ men’s basketball team in its much-publicized exhibition game against the Michigan State Spartans.

Of course, a portable basketball floor will be moved to the floor of the dome just for this special event.

BTN, which has a national audience well outside its schools’ regions, will have announcing icons Bill Raftery and Lisa Byington calling the action at 1 p.m. that Sunday in Marquette.

Raftery has served as an analyst and color commentator for CBS Sports’ college basketball coverage since 1983, as he in recent years has become a celebrity in TV commercials, with catchphrases during the games he announces that include “Onions!,” “Send it in big fella!,” “With a little kiss!” and “a little nickel-dimer!”

Byington has called games not only on BTN, but also Fox Sports, FS1, CBS, Turner Sports, ESPN, the SEC Network and Pac-12 Network. She is a downstate Portage native who in 2017 became the first female play-by-play announcer to call a college football game for BTN.

In 2021, she joined the Milwaukee Bucks and became the first woman play-by-play announcer for a pro men’s team.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.

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