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Official 2012 NCAA hockey regionals SYNDICATED games info thread..

Re: Official 2012 NCAA hockey regionals SYNDICATED games info thread..

I sent my angry email today to the NCAA's Media Department, wondering if I will get the courtesy of at least a "canned reply" but would rather have someone actually acknowledge they're paying attention to the mess they've made by doing long-term business with ESPN, a network that clearly doesn't care about promoting the sport at the college (or any) level right now. The mess of playing Lucy with the football on the regional networks (apparently in particular if they had a Fox label) is only compounded by making ESPN3 restricted to their favorite son cable providers. Those of us living in rural areas had no recourse at all. I did, at least, enjoy listening to the WMU radio crew stream their broadcast of the Western-NoDak game and could take some solace in listening to a broadcast team more knowledgable than several that ESPN put on the boob tube this weekend. Hockey is still a stepchild of the NCAA and its broadcast "partner" (clear misnomer), with this past weekend stellar proof of that.
 
Re: Official 2012 NCAA hockey regionals SYNDICATED games info thread..

MichPieGuy said:
I sent my angry email today to the NCAA's Media Department, wondering if I will get the courtesy of at least a "canned reply" but would rather have someone actually acknowledge they're paying attention to the mess they've made by doing long-term business with ESPN, a network that clearly doesn't care about promoting the sport at the college (or any) level right now. The mess of playing Lucy with the football on the regional networks (apparently in particular if they had a Fox label) is only compounded by making ESPN3 restricted to their favorite son cable providers. Those of us living in rural areas had no recourse at all. I did, at least, enjoy listening to the WMU radio crew stream their broadcast of the Western-NoDak game and could take some solace in listening to a broadcast team more knowledgable than several that ESPN put on the boob tube this weekend. Hockey is still a stepchild of the NCAA and its broadcast "partner" (clear misnomer), with this past weekend stellar proof of that.
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Can you post your email and the address so we can all send a unified thought?
 
Re: Official 2012 NCAA hockey regionals SYNDICATED games info thread..

Connelly's article is absolutely dead on. ESPN's interest in televising our sport is clearly being reduced (hell ESPNU doesn't even show a regular season game anymore), and the NCAA is apparently content to let it happen. Frankly if ESPN cares so little, and the ratings are so miniscule as they keep telling us that they are, they should come to an agreement with the NCAA to let someone else sublicense the rights. NBC Sports Channel is trying to become the de facto home for hockey (of all kinds) in general, and CBS College shows regular season games every week. They'd surely care more and give it more of a proper presentation to the tournament.

I do not believe some people's explanation that lacrosse is this big national sport. It's no more of a national sport than college hockey is, yet ESPNU gives it more promotion with their regular season lax games. Would like to see the ratings on those.
 
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Re: Official 2012 NCAA hockey regionals SYNDICATED games info thread..

just don't always jump into the conspiracy theory as the first option
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ESPN's bad relationship with Fox isn't a conspiracy theory though. It's well known. :)
 
Re: Official 2012 NCAA hockey regionals SYNDICATED games info thread..

I called the NCAA and left a message for Mark Bedics(sp?). Who I believe runs the tournament. Not necessarily the media guy. It will be interesting what he says, he has always been gracious enough to return my calls in the past, hope that continues
 
Re: Official 2012 NCAA hockey regionals SYNDICATED games info thread..

My e-mail was to FOX Sports North. While surprised to even get a response, it didn't shed much light on the situation, other than what I already discovered to be the basic reason.

Mr. WeAreNDHockey:

Hello.

We're sorry to hear that you were not able to view the NCAA hockey games televised on FOX Sports North over the weekend.

The reason you were not able to view the game(s) is because of your location in IN. The three hockey games were actually produced by ESPN, therefore per ESPN syndication, only viewers within FOX Sports North’s 5-state region. (MN, WI, SD, ND & IA) were able to view the telecasts. Viewers outside of the five-state area were restricted per ESPN guidelines.

Once again, we’re sorry to learn about your situation. Hopefully this email cleared up some of the confusion? Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,

FOX Sports North Staff
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The NCAA probably could pursue this a bit more than they likely will. Somewhere in the 1000s of pages of contracts they have with ESPN someone from both sides missed something I'm sure. There are provisions and clauses that mentions availability of programming ESPN purchases, live versus tape delayed coverage, what happens if they sell the programming to a third party, what happens if it is branded differently, or what value they are allowed to place on programming they sell.

Speculation about Notre Dame hockey ending up with such a sweetheart deal on the NBC Sports Network has centered on NBC's decision to migrate at least one Notre Dame football game per season to the former Versus. Since the contract called for home games to be broadcast on "NBC" Notre Dame was not happy about games ending up on what, even with the name change, is still an obscure cable channel that not everyone is aware of or has access to. The contracts were grey enough that maybe the bone thrown ND's way was hockey telecasts. I'm sure our lawyers are no better than the NCAAs (of course if we can get the kind of $$$ we are getting for Notre Dame football maybe they are...) so if they wanted to, they could find a way to force ESPN to at least make these games available to people on traditional multi-channel pay TV on a nationwide basis and leave the pizzing matches out of it.
 
Re: Official 2012 NCAA hockey regionals SYNDICATED games info thread..

No notre dame football game this coming year on the former Versis
 
Re: Official 2012 NCAA hockey regionals SYNDICATED games info thread..

billmich88888 said:
No notre dame football game this coming year on the former Versis
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NBC has already confirmed that NBC Sports Network will be showing games. Jack Swarbrick admitted as much as well when speaking with the South Bend Tribune over the summer. It is only left to be worked out what games and when. It's quite possible a game originally slated for NBC when a schedule is released will be moved to NBCSN. Maybe this year, maybe next.
 
Re: Official 2012 NCAA hockey regionals SYNDICATED games info thread..

So apparently women's college basketball gets better ratings than off season football talk, while the off season football talk trumps men's college hockey.

When the LAX game went long (24 minutes long, it turns out) they figured oh well, hockey fans will just have to miss almost an entire period. But when one women's basketball game goes long (and the final is in zero doubt for the last 2 minutes of game time) WOW suddenly ESPN News is more than available to show us the first minute or two of a game. What in the @@&* was so important on Saturday afternoon that one lousy half hour of ESPN News couldn't be preempted? I freeking hate ESPN. And the NC$$ isn't far behind.

God help us if Tim Tebow gets a hang nail on April 5th because if that happens, you can kiss the Frozen Four goodby. Wall to wall coverage on every available ESPN outlet. Including ESPN Deportes with English subtitles I'm sure. Yeah, yeah, I know, ten years ago none of those regional games were on TV. But if they can do if for women's hoops, they can sure as hell do it for men's hockey.
 
Re: Official 2012 NCAA hockey regionals SYNDICATED games info thread..

They had used ESPN news/classic in the past. Disappointing they didn't do so this year. It may be written into the contracts. I know for sure that every single bowl game is shown in its entirety using ESPN news last year on many occasions. Maybe NCAA hockey didn't (re) negotiate this…
 
Re: Official 2012 NCAA hockey regionals SYNDICATED games info thread..

billmich88888 said:
They had used ESPN news/classic in the past. Disappointing they didn't do so this year. It may be written into the contracts. I know for sure that every single bowl game is shown in its entirety using ESPN news last year on many occasions. Maybe NCAA hockey didn't (re) negotiate this…
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If the NCAA had to choose between being migrated to ESPN News for a short period at the beginning of a game, or not having the game shown at all until the previously committed to event has ended, that's a no-brainer. If they chose the latter, I could negotiate a better contract. I could probably negotiate a better one anyway.

ESPNU and ESPNews are available in virtually the same number of homes (72MM for U and 74MM for News) but since different providers stick them in different tiers, it's not completely clear how many homes actually receive each channel. Were U to be subscribed to by substantially fewer homes than News, it may be that ESPN wanted to pay less $$$ to agree to migrate the telecast, even for a short period of time. Incredibly stupid decision by the NCAA if they were given the option and passed, especially since this has become a mostly annual problem.

ESPN wields considerable clout and power. But it's because entities like the NCAA saw those dollars dangled in front of them as ESPN was growing by leaps and bounds in the 80s and 90s that they have become too powerful.
 
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