The Sports Fan’s Cable/Satellite TV Paradox

I love cable (or satellite, in my case) TV; on the other hand, I hate satellite TV. I know, it's a quite the paradox to grapple with, but I'll try to explain what I mean.

I love satellite TV because of the choices it offers to whet the insatiable appetite of the general sports fan. There are channels with baseball, basketball, hockey, football, news, historical games, and events — name it, you can find it. You can watch an NBA playoff game on one channel, the NCAA men's lacrosse semifinals on another channel, and Major League Baseball on a different one. Heck, ESPN Classic is even showing old "American Gladiators" episodes!

I'm a huge fan of that network and CSTV, the all-college channel run by CBS. Since I am such a sports history freak, where else can I watch a 1979 Woody Hayes documentary, the 1935 Army/Ohio State football "game of the century," or the 1982 North Carolina/Georgetown basketball championship? Man, I love satellite TV!

But I also hate satellite TV. Here's why.

A few weeks ago, I'm scrolling through the channel guide when I notice an event on ESPN-U titled "college football." I'm thinking, "Oh, goody! Another classic game to check out!" So I hit the button that pops up the description, and it's the Alabama spring game. What? They're televising a spring scrimmage? I look ahead in the programming week and see that CSTV also is showing a spring game (can't remember which school — might have been Florida). Now I'm thinking it must be a slow time of year if they're showing scrimmages — they'll put just about anything on TV. A lot of people harp about the NFL making a big deal of preseason games, but at least they're playing a different team!

The point is, there are now so many specialized networks on cable/satellite TV that executives are forced to find anything, and I mean anything, to fill their programming schedules. It's bad enough that they have to show replays of the Army/Rutgers soccer match 17 times during the week, but now they're resorting to throwing scrimmages on national TV. As another example, the NFL Network has televised cheerleader tryouts. And with more special events being created by leagues and associations to help market their teams and players, there appears to be no end in sight.

One question I have about televising scrimmages is who makes the decision which school to cover? Why did they pick Alabama? Florida's was also televised, and its spring game drew more than 90,000 fans. How much did knowing that the game was going to be on TV factor into that large of a crowd? At my alma mater, Washington State, they'd be lucky to draw 9,000 for their spring game, let alone filling Martin Stadium to its near-40,000 seat capacity.

Now I know the SEC is football crazy, and it's probably not as big a shock to see that many people in the stands for a scrimmage, but — in my opinion — having as many fans in the stadium as there would be for a conference game doesn't really warrant national exposure. Do they think that many people in Washington or Texas or Ohio care that much about seeing the Crimson Tide in action against itself? I like Alabama football, but I'm not going to watch their spring game (nor did I when it was televised).

If anything, televising these scrimmages could give other schools a slightly unfair advantage in the scouting arena. I'd bet every school on Alabama's schedule TiVo'd the game to find out what talent they have and what their offensive and defensive schemes will look like come September. It's a heckuva lot cheaper than flying a guy to Tuscaloosa to take notes in person. But what about the other schools? I'm kind of surprised that the schools televised agreed to such a thing. They don't get to see their rivals' spring games (except for Florida, in Alabama's case). Is that fair?

Anyway, there's only one direction this can take cable/satellite specialty channel programming: further into the abyss of nonsense. Next thing you know, the NCAA will create some glitzy letter-of-intent signing day similar to the NFL draft. I can see it now. The top 100 blue-chippers are flown to New York, Los Angeles, or Miami for a convention center event. There, the head guy of the NCAA will announce that "Joe Smith of Bethel High in Wichita, Kansas is on the clock." (The preceding name and school are fictitious, as far as I know.)

Then, after a taking a few calls on his cell phone, Joe whispers his school of choice into his head coach's ear — who has accompanied him on the trip — and the message is relayed to Mr. NCAA head guy. He then walks back up to the podium and announces that "Joe Smith of Wichita Bethel has selected to attend Oklahoma University." There are cheers and tears; Joe poses holding his new Sooners jersey while cameras flash all around, then heads to the ESPN-U booth where he's interviewed and reveals his dad was a big Billy Sims fan, which is why he chose Norman over Nebraska and Texas.

Don't laugh — it could happen, especially in this day and age of big money and machine gun-like promotion. Don't think that one of these specialized cable/satellite networks won't promise the NCAA a couple hundred million dollars if they organize some event like this. Think back a couple decades — the NFL draft used to be something that was read about in the newspaper the next day; same with the Heisman Trophy. Today, they're as big a television event as the Academy Awards or the Grammys.

Another factor that could lend to the creation of such an event is the amount of attention given to high school athletes nowadays. The ESPN "family of networks" occasionally shows high school football and basketball games; and the first round of the Major League Baseball draft, consisting of a number of high school players, will be televised this summer. Don't think for a moment that the NCAA won't want its highest-touted football prospects given the same chance for exposure.

Of course it all boils down to the question of whether people will actually watch such a show. I haven't talked to too many people that even knew the Alabama spring game was on TV. Had they known, they probably wouldn't have watched anyway. This brings me back to my initial statement — I love satellite TV. If I don't want to watch "signing day," there's always something else more interesting on a different channel. Click!