More Proof That the Big Ten Network Must Die

(blogger's note: this was supposed to be up this past Monday, but my Internet connection has been limited. Hopefully that'll change over the next couple of weeks.)

Here’s what I wrote about the Big Ten Network about a month ago:

"I know it's unlikely, but say Akron or YSU end up fielding a really competitive game against the Buckeyes, similar to how Ball State played Michigan last season. Wouldn't you be glued to the TV set under normal circumstances, monitoring the action like a hostage negotiator? But now there's a chance you'd at the very least have to go extra measures to watch your team(s) play, regardless of how big the game is. "

Well, last Saturday, albeit not in Columbus, we didn't see just a "really competitive game," we saw the greatest college football upset in history: Appalachian State (HOT HOT HOT!) 34, Michigan 32. Awesome, baby.

So, after you saw the end of the game were you flipping out and calling all your friends as fast as you…oh wait, you couldn’t get the game, could you? Thanks a lot, Big Ten Network. Thank you for screwing over the common fan from watching the impossible happen. Thank you for failing to negotiate with local cable providers in time so that fans all across the Midwest would either have to make a trek to a bar or friend’s place (and what does that say about elder fans who may have trouble getting around?) in order to catch their favorite team.

Speaking from firsthand perspective, the Big Ten Network royally, royally pissed off people here in Columbus. Whether it was at my temp job, at OSU, or even mentioned by the pastor during his sermon at my church (seriously!), no one was happy about the predicament, and everyone agreed that the BTN was a product not of access, but of greed.

The worst thing about the BTN is it doesn’t seem that the Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney cares for fans not getting the game if their cable providers don't agree to terms with BTN. Check out this article where he points the finger at the providers--rather than the BTN for being a really stupid idea--for not having "mature" discussions about making the sports channel part of their package. (Much of his whining is directed at Comcast, who are having all sorts of fun up in Michigan with this crock of shit.)

I caught the OSU game and the finish to the App State/Michigan game at a public party on Lane Avenue. Thankfully the campus area carries the BTN and I didn’t miss a beat of pretty shabby commentary (although I flipped out at seeing former Chicago Bears quarterback Mike Tomczack in the booth) and endless, endless shots of fans in the stands. ABC college gameday, this was not. When the OSU game finished, not one Buckeye fan got up; everyone stayed glued to the giant projectors for the enthralling conclusion to the Michigan contest—and enthralling it was, I haven’t screamed that much at a TV since Martin Scorsese finally won an Oscar last spring. When it was over, the Buckeye fans screamed, and complete strangers began high fiving each other before calling all their buddies to say, “Did you just see that!”…

…well, there’s the problem, they didn’t see that. Around campus, where students and staff can access the Big Ten Network free of charge, the news spread like wildfire, but in Hilliard, Dublin, Bexley, Westerville, Reynoldsburg, and everywhere else in/around the I-270 belt loop, people were missing out if they didn’t weren’t connected. And it sure as hell isn’t their fault.

Time Warner Cable: do not give in to this bullshit. It’s a right, not a privilege, to watch your team on a regular, weekly basis, and the BTN doesn’t deserve a cent more of all the money it has already needlessly drained from consumers and cable providers. May the Big Ten Network die a faster death than Karen Holbrook’s legacy.