John Forsyth writes:
>If the NHL isn't smart enough to capitalize on their new national
>TV contracts at a time when the only major sport on the dial is
>football, and thats only 3 days a week, then maybe those venerable
>people at the NC$$ can work something out to get more coverage for
>college hockey...
 
For college hockey, it seems that any national deal such as the Prime
deal last season, the apparent deal this year and anything in the
future needs to be negotiated by the conference reps themselves - not
the NC$$ directly.  The NC$$ itself really has little to do with
college hockey other than as an overseer and running the tourney every
year.
 
This is something that I can tell you is being seriously looked at.
The powers that be in college hockey (i.e. conference commissioners)
have been trying for a while to increase coverage of the game and
they've talked with ESPN among others.  As the game gets more popular,
it sounds as if ESPN gets more interested, and I think it is only a
matter of time before we see some sort of deal.  But it certainly
would not hurt for fans to make their opinions known, and I would
encourage it.
 
I have heard that there is a good chance that ESPN (or ESPN2) will
start carrying the NC$$ semis again, perhaps as soon as this season.
This could lead to coverage of the regionals, too, in future years.
 
Also, although I hope that the NHL strike doesn't happen, it's
possible that NESN may look to expand its coverage of hockey in that
event by picking up many more HE games.  But since HE doesn't really
get into full swing until late October, that would mean there would
have to be a lengthy strike underway already for this to happen.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93
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