FanPost

Iowa BB not being on TV makes me very grumpy



I get the idea of the BTN: you can show all Big Ten all the time, and that includes such magnetic draws as NW field hockey, PSU volleyball, OSU soccer, and Iowa softball. And those are just the women's sports! Oh--and they're in HD, too, which is great if you have a big screen and male hormones and women's volleyball is on. Personally, I'm too old and too married and too "low-T"-ish to take full advantage of that, but if I were 21 and single.....

Oh yeah, and they have coaches shows up the wazzoo, even horribly contrived and boring ones like that of our own beloved KF. And they have shows that highlight the academics of the universities, and they have endless highlight shows in football season, and pre-game shows and Tailgate 48, and history shows like "Big Ten Icons", and so on.

But what they decidedly DON'T have is Iowa Basketball, at least not much of it. Which is a problem for me, because I have decided--after so many years of apathy towards the program--to try and become an Iowa Basketball fan again. I remember the days of John Johnson and Freddie Brown (but barely, I admit), grew up with the days of Ronnie Lester and Vince Brookins, delighted in the days of Kevin Gamble and BJ Armstrong, and even tolerated the days of Luke Recker and (early) Steve Alford.

And then they lost me. But hey, I WANT to come back! Please forgive me, but Fran seems to have a good thing about ready to go on, and I'm here again, knocking at the door! But the door isn't open; in fact, no one is at home at the BTN, because a shit-load of the games are only available (for a price, as many things are only available) on-line or in some other place that sure as hell ain't my Big Ten Network.

So what the heck is the point of the BTN and its many alternate channels if they won't show Iowa Basketball games? It's ridiculous. Hell, even in the dark Alford days you could find games on my local CBS station all the freaking time, even against the most ridiculous of patsies. I sure as heck know that ISU games were on all the time, invariably pre-empting some actual TV program that I actually wanted to see instead.

Anyone else kind of pissy about this? Call me naive, or cheap, or a fair-weather fan--and yes, in many ways when it comes to Iowa BB I am probably all three--but answer me this: Why does the BTN exist as a cable television network if NOT for the expressed purpose of showing every Big Ten major-sport sporting event, no matter what? I don't get it, in so many ways.

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