Last year when I heard about the Big Ten Network I thought it was a pretty cool idea. Even though we'd be losing ESPN + coverage on football and basketball, we'd be getting all those games plus some of the less mainstream sports (I would love to see Big Ten swimming and diving as well as tennis and soccer covered). But now the hammer's pretty much dropped on that idea, because it's only available on DirectTV. They're basically flat out refusing to put it on basic cable, even in the college towns.

Basically, the Big Ten just stuck it's middle finger up at every campus and the alumni of all these institutions. No one is going to cover Illinois football games unless they're against Ohio St. or Michigan, so there goes most of the season. Basketball is the same story, there's not going to be coverage of the early season games unless we're talking about the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

Grr.