ESPNU will be a big channel to tune into once the college football season starts, but we’re getting ESPN8: The Ocho for one day only before that happens.
For all the fans of the movie Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, you’re in for a treat once Aug. 8 rolls around if you’ve been dreaming of ESPN8: The Ocho showing up on your televisions.
While fans have been clamoring for a sequel to the legendary movie, it looks like ESPN is looking to capitalize on that audience in a different way, as they will pull off a nice little gimmick for one day only.
ESPN announced on Thursday that they would be changing their ESPNU channel for 24 hours only, in honor of 8/8, to ESPN8, showcasing some non-traditional programming for the entire day.
In the movie, ESPN8: The Ocho showcased an entire dodgeball tournament, in addition to sports like soccer with a ball on fire, lawnmower racing and tons of other crazy “activities”. In the same fashion to stay on track with the movie, the channel will put on 24 hours of sports that aren’t normally televised, rather than the usual collegiate programming that ESPNU puts on.
Sports like disc golf, trampoline dodgeball, ultimate frisbee and roller derby will all get some air time, which will be good news for some, and bad for others. The move will definitely upset some, with the college football season just getting started, and not many will tune into the channel to check out random other sports to make up for their collegiate fix.
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Unfortunately for Dodgeball fans, Cotton McKnight and Pepper Brooks won’t be making any appearances throughout the day, and we won’t be getting any golden quotes from Brooks on commentary for any of the sports.
In the words of Brooks, however, this channel transition is certainly “a bold move, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off.”