Red River Rivalry broadcast interrupted due to 'sun outage'

As if Oklahoma vs. Texas wasn’t crazy enough on Saturday in the Red River Rivalry, fans noticed some issues with the broadcast. The camera appeared to cut in and out on both the ABC feed and the ESPN2 “Field Pass” broadcast with The Pat McAfee Show, which appeared due to technical issues.

As it turns out, it has nothing to do with the cameras. It’s a satellite issue.

According to Front Office Sports, the Earth and Disney’s satellites are in direct line with the sun. That will cause “sun outages” and the signal will cause some issues with the broadcast feed.

According to @FOS, the Earth and Disney’s satellites are in direct line with the sun, causing this to happen on your TV:pic.twitter.com/W7WCOzQRX6

— On3 (@On3sports) October 7, 2023

ESPN later said the issues were related to a power outage at the Cotton Bowl.

“There was a brief power issue at the Cotton Bowl that impacted our field equipment and on-site generator early in the game,” ESPN said in a statement, via Sportico’s Jacob Feldman. “It was quickly resolved.”

Amid the broadcast problems on ABC, fans saw an entertaining first five minutes of the Red River Rivalry between Oklahoma and Texas. In that time, there were two interceptions, a converted fake punt and a blocked punt as both teams scored out of the gate.

Following Quinn Ewers’ second interception of the game, Oklahoma was backed up in the shadow of its own end zone. Three plays later, the Sooners were forced to punt.

Then, the Longhorns got back into it with a blocked punt for a touchdown as Kitan Crawford blocked and scooped it for the score to tie things up at 7-7.

Both teams enter the game undefeated for the first time since 2011, making for an incredible atmosphere at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. With that, though, Steve Sarkisian wanted Texas to take a “business-like approach” to the game as the Longhorns try to make their case for the College Football Playoff.

He thinks his team did just that.

“I think something that we’ve done all year, and I credit our leaders throughout the offseason, we’ve got a real business-like approach,” Sarkisian said on ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday morning. “Our guys are focused on the task at hand. They’ve focused day to day. It wasn’t so emotional. It wasn’t so this is personal, this and that. It was more, ‘What do we need to do coach? How do we need to do it? Let’s go practice it and then let’s go execute it Saturday.’”

For Oklahoma, Brent Venables knows the Sooners have an opportunity to make a statement.

“There’s pressure in the moment, Venables said. “Pressure is a privilege. And so, again, dominate this moment. The greatest opportunity in the world is today. Be present in this moment, embrace all the chaos of GameDay. It doesn’t get any better than this.”

On3’s Nick Kosko and Alex Weber contributed to this report.