[NU Sports] The Big 10 monster

[Mike Nolan]

> I dunno why more people on the list aren't
> enthusiastic about this - it's going to be in the
> basic programming package on DirecTV, so it seems to
> me the other cable companies are the ones deserving of
> the ire for dragging their feet. 

DirecTV is _not_ a cable company, it's a satellite company.

Those of us who don't live within shouting distance of Big 10 country 
(at least half of the subscribers to this list) don't stand a ghost of 
a chance of the BTN being available on our cable companies.  

Heck, our cable company (TimeWarner) just finally added ESPNU, 2 years
after they first promised it was coming 'soon'.  Of course, given the 
jerk-around our cable company has given us the last half year with their 
near-daily 'upgrading' of our cable box software to fix one problem
while breaking two more things and messing further with our TIVO (all of 
which has finally attracted the attention of our City Council and Cable
Advisory Board), this could give me an excuse to ditch TW, or at least 
scale down to a lower tier of service.  

I might have to do some rewiring to handle both satellite and cable, but
fortunately during construction we pulled two or more cable lines to 
about 20 places around the house, anywhere we thought we might want to 
have an A/V unit at some point in the future.

I had already decided I wasn't going to get ESPN Game Plan this season 
after the crappy service (and diminished schedule) they had last year, 
so maybe I'll just stick with WGN's webcasts this fall.  

In general, I think sports fans are getting lousy treatment from our 
money hungry teams, college and pro.  I can't remember the last time I 
watched a Cubs game on WGN, since it seems so few of them are on anymore.  

I'm still not paying $29.95 to watch Nebraska beat up their non-conference 
creampuffs.  (The only really good game on the entire schedule is against 
USC, and I expect the Huskers will find a way to lose that one 
embarassingly.)
--
Mike Nolan

PS.  Yeah, I'm here, I'm just incredibly busy these days.