[Husker] 2005 NU Football Schedule Set

[Mike Jaixen]

I went back and listened to the archives.  The
contract essentially broke down due to the
renegotiation of the Conference USA-ESPN TV contract. 
With the membership of C-USA changing due to the reorg
of the Big East, that reopens their ESPN TV deal. 
Pederson was holding firm on the ESPN requirement, and
although ESPN was planning on televising the game,
this was not guarenteed until the ESPN/C-USA deal is
signed.

So, I see Dave Maggard's complaint.  Pederson was
holding the deal up waiting for the ESPN/C-USA
contract to be signed, and wouldn't sign it without
that committment.  I do see Pederson's concern that
C-USA could be dropped by ESPN, though the likelihood
of C-USA getting bumped to a second-tier digital
channel such as CSTV was probably pretty low.  And
with a Nebraska game as the opener, probably even
lower.

I remember the problems in the 1997 and 1998 when Fox
bumped Husker games to FX, and Pederson wanted to
avoid those problems.

Some of the details that below are probably true, but
they probably were symptoms of the core issue.

--- Kenneth McKillip <kmckillip at houston.rr.com> wrote:

> Very confusing.  I wonder why?
> 
> Maine and Houston were the opening date choices.
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mike Jaixen" <mikejaixen at yahoo.com>
> To: <husker at tssi.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2004 7:08 PM
> Subject: Re: [Husker] 2005 NU Football Schedule Set
> 
> 
> > Well, tonight on his weekly radio show, apparantly
> > Steve Pederson has finally shared his side of the
> > story.  I'll have to go back and listen again to
> the
> > archives, but here is my understanding of his side
> of
> > the story.
> > 
> > * Nebraska initiated talks with Houston back in
> > September.
> > * The verbal agreement was that the game was going
> to
> > be at Reliant Stadium on September 1st and
> televised
> > on ESPN.
> > * The contract after NU's deadline, and with no
> > mention of Reliant Stadium or ESPN.
> > * The contract had not been signed by Houston
> either.
> > * When the contract didn't meet the original
> > parameters, Pederson went to plan B, which was the
> > Maine contract.
> > 
> > It got very confusing when Jim Rose, the host,
> tried
> > to say that Wake Forest was really the replacement
> for
> > Houston, which didn't make any sense at all.
> > 
> > So now we have the counter-story...


=====
Mike Jaixen


		
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