This afternoon we got word that FOX will not be matching ESPN's very substantial $500 million bid for the BCS bowl games. While the deal is not official (the BCS needs to accept it first) there is no doubt that the BCS will be moving from free TV to cable.
While a large number of people do indeed get ESPN there is no reason that sporting events should be moving to pay television. There is no reason to deny people who love college football a chance to watch the biggest games of the year. It is bad enough that some teams (Yankees) and conferences (big-ten) have moved a large majority of their games to cable networks but now ESPN is establishing themselves among the biggest sporting events of the year. They recently gobbled up the British Open and will show the event exclusively on their network. Two major championships have made their way to cable. With increasing profits continuing to pour in for the network we could be looking at an ESPN hosted Super Bowl or World Series.
Again and again the BCS slaps college football fans in the face. It is all about the money and they can never say anything more. Screw you for even trying to pretend that its not. What has the BCS done with their previous 80 millon per game that they need so much more. One thing is for sure they have not made any revisions to the system. But surprise surprise the university presidents saw a chance to pick up even more blood money and spit on the fans that once walked their hallowed campuses.
Sports and especially championships should be available to anyone who wants to watch them from the comfort of their own home. As much as I dislike Fox's terrible broadcast team and useless shots of the college bands and all that nonsense ESPN does not represent a significant upgrade. There is no such thing as good sports broadcasting. More importantly though this is not an elitist event open only to those that have decided to purchase cable. If I were you I would root for the Utahs and the Boise States so the same 10 schools don't get richer and richer.
4 comments:
My 83 year lod mother loves to watch college football and her beloved LSU Tigers and has never had or wanted cable TV I had it installed several years ago and she had me remove it and now with this crap of ESPN wanting all the BCS(Should leave the C out of BCS)games she will no long get to watch the good bowl games. THAT SUCKS BIG TIME
A little histrionic there, my friend? The fact is that broadcast TV sucks, that cable puts out better programming, and that eventually we're all going to be forced to have cable anyway, so why not jump on the bandwagon? I'm all for the broadcast stations but as I said, they suck, I hate Joe Buck, and Fox is a just a republican mouthpiece so unless NBC puts up the $$ I'm happy to see Fox lose out on this one.
the mets have SNY too, so don't all hate on the yanks for having YES. if you're going to criticize, be fair.
The Yankees are the premier sports team to move to cable television... I'm not going to waste peoples time and name every sports team that has moved over to cable. The YES network was the pioneer and most glaring example hence why I included it. Don't try and be slick and clever.
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