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ESPNU's Hockey Coverage

M

montreal

Registered User
Just heard that comcast is adding espnu in the fall in my area (philly) how many games did they show this past season and don't they have the rights to the ECAC playoffs? How many ECAC games do they show.

I get a bunch of WCHA games on tv through the comcast sports pack with FSN's + nhl network and cstv plus the local comcast shows some games. But in the past I have not been able to watch much of the ECAC so I'm hoping that will change with espnu.
 
Re: ESPNU's Hockey Coverage

Dirty said:
You're a dick.
Click to expand...

:p

Do I or do I not speak the truth?

Do I have to mention the lacrosse debacle from this past year? The lack of hockey coverage on any ESPN (including the U, until very recently)? The fact that the only reason ESPN (and the Duece) show the Frozen Four is because that's the only way they get contracts for the "real" college sports?

It sucks, but it's still the truth. :mad:
 
Re: ESPNU's Hockey Coverage

Speak the truth? Who? What? Did you say something? I was just saying that you're a dick.
 
Re: ESPNU's Hockey Coverage

Dirty said:
Speak the truth? Who? What? Did you say something? I was just saying that you're a dick.
Click to expand...

My apologies. That much is sorta true. I prefer to think of myself as a sonuvabeech, though.
 
Re: ESPNU's Hockey Coverage

montreal said:
Just heard that comcast is adding espnu in the fall in my area (philly) how many games did they show this past season and don't they have the rights to the ECAC playoffs? How many ECAC games do they show.

I get a bunch of WCHA games on tv through the comcast sports pack with FSN's + nhl network and cstv plus the local comcast shows some games. But in the past I have not been able to watch much of the ECAC so I'm hoping that will change with espnu.
Click to expand...

They don't broadcast hockey until the NCAA playoffs. The only reason they broadcast it then is because they buy the rights to the NCAA Championships in bulk and hockey happens to be in the bulk. Otherwise ESPN would avoid hockey altogether.
 
Re: ESPNU's Hockey Coverage

I think we got about 2 games all year. And one of them involved Bowling Green. Greeeaat advertisement for the sport (no offense to BG fans, but can't we get some big names and consistent powerhouses, please?).

They covered the ECAC semis and the final (but not the 3rd place game), and then the NCAA tournament. Don't expect anything great. It's actually pretty terrible, and the quality of the video is subpar as well (no HD available, at least not on Cox or DirecTV).

On the other hand, if you're a big fan of basketball, football, and lacrosse, you're in luck! They also replay a lot of pro and college sporting events. For instance, yesterday was ESPNUSA day (hooray for not-so-witty puns), so they played the US soccer wins over Egypt and Spain in the Confederations Cup, as well as the US-Canada rugby game from earlier that day (which was a terrible and boring game by the way; no offense whatsoever. A terrible advertisement for a sport that desperately needs some press here).
 
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Re: ESPNU's Hockey Coverage

Brenthoven said:
:p

Do I or do I not speak the truth?

Do I have to mention the lacrosse debacle from this past year? The lack of hockey coverage on any ESPN (including the U, until very recently)? The fact that the only reason ESPN (and the Duece) show the Frozen Four is because that's the only way they get contracts for the "real" college sports?

It sucks, but it's still the truth. :mad:
Click to expand...


Well, the lacrosse thing is due to a contractual agreement they have to finish any live event before going to the next one. A similar situation occurred a couple weeks ago, as the MLS game of the week was delayed an hour and a half so we could watch Arkansas and Virginia play one of the most boring games in the history of the College World Series (which is a huge testament to the game's boringness, because I cannot cite any game in the Series that has not been at least slightly boring). I stayed up late to watch that game, as it kicked off at 7 Seattle time and I live on the East Coast, so I was extremely angry. But, ESPN has to honor its contract.

The question is that why don't they move the games to different channels? They have about 16. I remember there was nothing going on during the hockey game that was significantly important, and don't get me started on the MLS game that I missed most of. ESPN had Sportscenter, ESPNClassic had Golf from 2008, ESPNU was showing a replay of the US-Italy Confed Cup game from the previous day (which was torture enough, as the US blew a halftime lead and lost 3-1, on 2 goals by an American-born player with dual citizenship who chose to play for Italy as a giant FU to the US), and ESPNews had the same ESPNews show it shows 20 times a day.


So, I guess the point of my nonsensical rant is that ESPN does not care about the little sports like soccer and hockey. For some reason, they have taken an interest in lacrosse, and you can bet that if the roles had been reversed that day (hockey game in 7 ots, lax game starting), they would have found room to pencil in the lax game on another network. But not for hockey or soccer. Nope, nobody cares about two of the most popular sports in the world!
 
Re: ESPNU's Hockey Coverage

kdiff77 said:
Well, the lacrosse thing is due to a contractual agreement they have to finish any live event before going to the next one....

...The question is that why don't they move the games to different channels?
Click to expand...

Most, if not all, of us knew about the first part, and none of us know why they didn't do the second part. Welcome to wacky ESPN reasoning. (although they did do a dual channel later that night when the one game went to OT).
 
Re: ESPNU's Hockey Coverage

montreal said:
Just heard that comcast is adding espnu in the fall in my area (philly) how many games did they show this past season and don't they have the rights to the ECAC playoffs? How many ECAC games do they show.

I get a bunch of WCHA games on tv through the comcast sports pack with FSN's + nhl network and cstv plus the local comcast shows some games. But in the past I have not been able to watch much of the ECAC so I'm hoping that will change with espnu.
Click to expand...

I recommend getting the sports package from your cable provider.
Last season, I got like four FSN channels, ESPNU, plus a couple more channels that are escaping me right now. Every Fri/Sat night I was watching college hockey.
 
Re: ESPNU's Hockey Coverage

I just got Dish Network. Should have done it a long time ago (and so should any college hockey fan). ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPNU, CBS College Sports, Big Ten Network, NHL Network, ESPN Classic, All the FSN and Comcast regional channels (FSN North for Gopher games, FSN Rocky Mtn for Denver games) NESN for Hockey East, plus all those (minus the U) in HD... Basically, I would have gotten EVERY GAME listed here:

http://www.collegehockeylive.com/chl/default.aspx?p=y

last year, if I had switched at this time a year ago...

Moose
 
Re: ESPNU's Hockey Coverage

montreal said:
Just heard that comcast is adding espnu in the fall in my area (philly) how many games did they show this past season and don't they have the rights to the ECAC playoffs? How many ECAC games do they show.

I get a bunch of WCHA games on tv through the comcast sports pack with FSN's + nhl network and cstv plus the local comcast shows some games. But in the past I have not been able to watch much of the ECAC so I'm hoping that will change with espnu.
Click to expand...

The only ECAC game I remember was Dartmouth-Harvard in January. My "research" shows ESPNU with four more games on top of that.
http://www.ecachockey.com/men/broadcast/Television_Schedule

And no, the B2 networks had the ECAC opening rounds while the NHL Network had the championship, and except for the latter maybe going the wrong direction, I don't see that changing.

And while I may be biased as a "competing" entity, but I didn't think the regular season ESPNU broadcasts were the greatest- the problem being they haven't seen the players on a regular basis.
 
Re: ESPNU's Hockey Coverage

moose97 said:
I just got Dish Network. Should have done it a long time ago (and so should any college hockey fan). ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPNU, CBS College Sports, Big Ten Network, NHL Network, ESPN Classic, All the FSN and Comcast regional channels (FSN North for Gopher games, FSN Rocky Mtn for Denver games) NESN for Hockey East, plus all those (minus the U) in HD... Basically, I would have gotten EVERY GAME listed here:

http://www.collegehockeylive.com/chl/default.aspx?p=y

last year, if I had switched at this time a year ago...

Moose
Click to expand...


Got the same here, love it...many a weekend night was spent with college hockey on the tube and the kid's games on b2...
 
Re: ESPNU's Hockey Coverage

ESPNU has a broadcast deal with Hockey East. They broadcasted in the earlier part of the season before NESN started doing broadcasts.
 
Re: ESPNU's Hockey Coverage

Generally, ESPNU broadcasts college hockey games in a window on Sunday afternoons at 4 pm. I'd say as you see new schedules coming out, if team's are playing games at that time, those games are probably on ESPNU.

From looking, I believe Dartmouth has two games scheduled for that time slot, one against Harvard and one against Yale. It's obviously not a guarantee, but I wouldn't be surprised if that is scheduled to accommodate ESPNU.
 
Re: ESPNU's Hockey Coverage

kdiff77 said:
So, I guess the point of my nonsensical rant is that ESPN does not care about the little sports like soccer and hockey. For some reason, they have taken an interest in lacrosse, and you can bet that if the roles had been reversed that day (hockey game in 7 ots, lax game starting), they would have found room to pencil in the lax game on another network. But not for hockey or soccer. Nope, nobody cares about two of the most popular sports in the world!
Click to expand...

I always find it funny that the rise in lacrosse coverage on ESPN coincided pretty much directly with the Duke case. I know that the Duke kids were (very likely, and we can't really prove otherwise anyway) innocent. But still... its that kind of thing that gets ESPN interested.

I don't think its anything personal that ESPN has with soccer or hockey. Its just that ESPN seems to have this need for self-promotion. If they have lots of broadcast contracts with a particular sport, or a particular league, they'll pimp the bejeesus out of it. If there's a competitor that has major broadcasting rights to anything, they'll push it back as much as market demand allows for.

It doesn't matter if ESPN also holds some of the rights, ESPN's appearant policy on self-promotion dictates that they will scale back any promotion/reporting on anything that could benefit a competitor. If MLS' deal with ESPN was exclusive, you'd see more than an occasional MLS highlight during a top ten reel. If the NHL didn't have Vs. or NBC, you'd see a ton more hockey highlights on SportsCenter than you currently do.
 
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Re: ESPNU's Hockey Coverage

alslammerz said:
The only ECAC game I remember was Dartmouth-Harvard in January. My "research" shows ESPNU with four more games on top of that.
http://www.ecachockey.com/men/broadcast/Television_Schedule

And no, the B2 networks had the ECAC opening rounds while the NHL Network had the championship, and except for the latter maybe going the wrong direction, I don't see that changing.

And while I may be biased as a "competing" entity, but I didn't think the regular season ESPNU broadcasts were the greatest- the problem being they haven't seen the players on a regular basis.
Click to expand...
Because the ECAC championship is on a Saturday, the NHL Network (USA Version) did not show it live. Instead it showed Hockey Night in Canada.

The ECAC needs to REALLY step up the marketing. But then again, it IS the ECAC.
 
Re: ESPNU's Hockey Coverage

ExileOnDaytonStreet said:
I always find it funny that the rise in soccer coverage on ESPN coincided pretty much directly with the Duke case. I know that the Duke kids were (very likely, and we can't really prove otherwise anyway) innocent. But still... its that kind of thing that gets ESPN interested.
Click to expand...

wasn't that the lacrosse team?
 
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