DaytonDailyNews.com

I'm not going to pull out my stopwatch and time our local news shows to see how evenly they treat the University of Dayton and Wright State men's basketball teams, but I could.

Maybe later in the season, especially if both teams are as successful as they were last season.

Besides, if judging by the feedback we get at the newspaper is any indication, the folks at the television stations are hearing plenty.

This is a unique situation in Dayton, which is in nearly the same situation as Cincinnati. While most cities have only one team in Division I, Dayton and Cincinnati have two — our UD and WSU and Cincinnati's UC and Xavier.

There are only one Reds and one Bengals, one UD football team and one UC football team. There are only one Dragons and Bombers and Cyclones.

A city with two Division I basketball teams is not rare, but it's not the norm, either.

Here, UD has most of the fans — at least now — but played more than 60 years of basketball before WSU was even built. Still, our local television stations say they try to present the teams evenly.

Mike Hartsock, sports director at WHIO (Ch. 7), hears from the fans, but says they see only what they want to see. Understand, WHIO is sort of the flagship for UD and carried its games well before WSU was born.

Hartsock also hosts the "Coach Brian Gregory Show," so if any station is going to be perceived as having a UD bias, WHIO is it.

But Hartsock says he strives to even up the coverage, pointing out weekend anchor Margaret Brosko's Sunday night show during the season highlights Gregory and WSU's Brad Brownell.

At WDTN (Ch. 2), Jack Pohl, says the same.

"It's a perception level," Pohl said. "And if one team is hotter than the other, it will get more coverage. It's like a high school team. The better it is, the more coverage it gets."

At WKEF (Ch. 22)/WRGT (Ch. 45), Nathan Baker says he hears it a little differently: "If you don't cover UD thoroughly, you get e-mails and phone calls. That doesn't happen with Wright State. UD is perceived to be the hottest school."

On Thursday, Oct. 16, both schools invited the media out for a preview, and all the cameras were in place.

It's time to start the stopwatches.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.