For the life of me, I can’t understand why Pitt is playing at Utah on a Thursday on a channel no one gets. As I understand it, ABC/ESPN can’t touch MWC home games, but doesn’t the MWC have a deal with Versus too?

CBS College sports network is actually becoming more readily available.

My friend has Verizon cable and he gets it with his regular package, my sister has satellite and she gets it as well.

On most local providers, it’s part of a sports package that only costs about $5 per season and gives you about a dozen other sports-related channels (including the Big Ten network, future home of YOUR Pittsburgh Panthers… I kid, I kid).

So do the math, if you’ve ever ordered a game off of ESPN it costs about $25 for 3 1/2 – 4 hours of programming. For $5 you get a bunch of channels (for a month at least if you choose to just cancel it), as well as getting to watch the Pitt game.

Sorry if I sound like a sales rep for CBS here, but it’s really not that bad.

You also can just order the package for the day of the game and then cancel…in which case only costs pennys for those counting.

Colin Cowherd said it? Crap, then I know it isn’t happening.

Colin Cowherd said today on ESPN that “The Big ten will add Pittsburgh soon.” Very interesting declaratory statement.

unh has won 5 straight against 1-a teams

ConnU’s site has the game on Wednesday November 10th…

id rather it be on that cbs channel. if you have direct tv you get it free, but they dont get versus anymore…
Looks like they are expecting the Dec 4th game to come down for the BE championship again.

Hey Chas ‘Don’t outthink the room’ Isn’t that Cowherd’s favorite statement? … despite the fact that he comes up with the most outlandish theories all the time.

I have the dish network and that CBS channel has been on it for some time.

The Utah game being on CSTV makes perfect sense with the MWC being partnered with CSTV. It is interesting that CSTV decided to air this game on a Thursday Night. Clearly, they see it as a big draw. Looks like they want to go against ESPN. I wonder which game will be on ESPN that night.

where did pitt’s 2010 recruiting class end up? top 25? top 35?

scott, I’ve seen anywhere from 16 to 31, and either 1st or 2nd (to WVU) in the BE.

Note that these ratings are based on signing the top players … I also heard a scout on the radio stating how well Pitt does in recruiting players that fit their system, and how many of them have really good upsides. Time wll tell.

16th: Scout

31st: Rivals

(In other words, what wbb said.)

Oh, and I meant that the sports package was $5 per month, not season. Still a hell of a deal. If you’re a puck fan, that’s worth it for the NHL Network alone.

BTW, off topic, but the 2nd best deal in cable television is the one where you get like 8 Encore channels for 5 bucks.

Well, I guess I was mistaken on the CBC-CSN channel. Thanks for setting me straight! I think the Navy game in ’08 was on that channel as well and Comcast gave it to everyone in Pittsburgh for free for that day. Although, if memory serves, it didn’t come on until the game had started.

As for the recruiting class, I think that this class will produce several multi-year starters along the lines. I also think this Myers kid has the potential to be a star. From his highlight videos, he looks to have a cannon arm and fairly accurate. We’ll see if he can read a defense, though.

At the signing day event at Heinz, Andre Givens (RB) really looked impressive. VERY quick and shifty. I’m not sure what his level of competition was in high school, damn he looks fast.

Chas:
Yep, Herd said it as if he knew it over a foregone conclusion. Then he went on to discuss how the Pac10 does not have really good options like the ACC/Big Ten does. I heard he said for the Big Ten to choose anyone but Pitt would be extremely shocking and out of character b/c Pitt fits the profile and no one else really does….FWIW.

HTP!

Why is the New Hampshire game not at night?

Without looking or any facts. I blame the Pirates

If you have comcast, call and ask about the channel and ask if you could try it for a small time. They should let you try it for a month free.

Ahhh, the free sample technique. I like it Luke!

“Colin Cowherd said today on ESPN that “The Big ten will add Pittsburgh soon.” Very interesting declaratory statement.”

If you think about it, it’s hard to argue with that opinion, not matter who said it.

For once the Pirates can’t be blamed on the New Hampshire game being an early game. They are out of town, so there isn’t any reason for the early start.

why would they play a div 1 AA team at night. I have no problem with the 1:00 KO. save the night games for the big time games, not the 1aa walkovers.

make the new hampshire game at 3:30 nice tailgate, home reasonable time.

I don’t know who the Big 11 will choose, but one thing I do not believe is that they will take 12-18 months to decide. That could possibly push their coveted championship game out three seasons…I don’t think they’ll do that. They want a championship, and they want it now. Every year that goes by without one represents millions in lost revenue….On and OSU Blog I noticed a post linked to an Ohio newspaper story about the
Big 11 possibly expanding by 5 teams to go to sixteen. If the ACC decided to do the same, then the Big Ten and ACC could each take four of the BE football schools (with MU being the 5th in the Big Ten). I’ve said this before, I think the super conference is where we are headed. After you get to twelve teams, and you have your conference championship game, and TV says no mas, and your ticket prices and seat “donations” already piss your fans off…how do you increase revenue? You increase the size of your league.

“After you get to twelve teams, and you have your conference championship game, and TV says no mas, and your ticket prices and seat “donations” already piss your fans off…how do you increase revenue? You increase the size of your league.”

HbgFrank, I’m a little dense this morning. (OK, all mornings.) OSU makes $X with 12 teams in the league. Now the league suddenly has 16 teams comprised of non-traditional rivals having smaller-sized stadiums. How does that put more money in OSU’s pockets?

HbgFrank, I agree with your analysis. I expect the Big 10 (11) to expand by more than one team. 3 or 5 seems right to me.

It puts more money in OSU’s pocket because of the lucrative nature of the Conference Championship game.

“It puts more money in OSU’s pocket because of the lucrative nature of the Conference Championship game.”

I think I got it. In this scenario, Pitt is not one of the 12 teams in the newly expanded Big 10. Michigan plays OSU on national TV during the regular season. Pitt fans have a mild interest in watching the game. Next, Michigan plays OSU in the conference championship game, Pitt fans have only a mild interest. Pitt then joins the Big 10 along with 4 other teams making it a 16 team league. Now Michigan plays OSU in the conference championship game. The TV audience increases by more than the 33% increase in the number of teams because Pitt fans are now enthusiastic about watching Michigan play OSU. After the Big 10 divides the TV revenues among the 16 teams (instead of 12 teams), OSU has more money in its pockets. Makes perfect sense to me now.

i could care less about the big1- they play some boring football. Hopefully the BE can stand strong and maybe bring a few schools to there conf. some of the big 1- have big stadiums and thats it.
Pitt has a great shot of winning the conf every yr in the be and going to the bcs, while in the big 1-, there chances are much slimmer due to the number of teams.

link to espn.go.com

BigGuy, what I was trying to say is that if you want more $ from TV, then you have to offer them more than you do now. The Big 11 expanded to 12 teams gets them the revenue from the championship game and that is about it. But if they expand to 14 or 16 teams, then they would have the leverage (expanded markets) they need to seek more money from TV. Plus some increase from the resulting additional bowl tie-ins. It is no accident that when the ACC expanded, they went after the 3 biggest TV markes in the Big East: Miami, Boston, and New York. They did not get New York (Syracuse) in the end, but that was the goal. They wanted those markets to leverage the best possible TV deal they could get.

Well, HbgFrank, the people who run the Big 10 are smarter than I am, and they appear to agree with you. I think that there may be a message hidden in there somewhere.

Why is there no talk of the BE expanding instead of the Big Ten? I dont know the logistics, but I would go after some of the Big Ten schools that get slighted and have them come into the BE. Sure the rev sharing may not be as lucrative but the realistic chance of a BCS game has to be appealing.

School potentials – Mich State, Wisconsin. Add ECU & Memphis & a couple others and you would have enough for a conference championship. It only helps the hoops conference too.

Of course, if the NCAA really had the best intentions of all the universities in mind, they could just let conferences with 10+ schools have championship games and avoid all of this mess!