Here in Boulder, Colorado -- 30 miles from Denver, 80 miles from C-Springs
-- *all* the games broadcast on Empire were blacked out, and only the
Denver-BU matchup came through on MSC. Tape-delay games on PASS worked
fine, but nothing live.
 
The only local coverage was for the Denver-BU game, which, given MSC's
joining the game in progress and leaving after the second period, made
MSC's feed basically useless.
 
What it boiled down to is with a DirecTV DSS dish/feed, I was able to watch
only one of the games -- the one that was broadcast locally, on a channel
that normally runs nothing but infomercials. Even the Minnesota/Michigan
State game was blacked out on MSC. (or, as DirecTV corrected me repeatedly,
"spot beamed")
 
A number of people at DirecTV, including managers/supervisors, told me that
it was MSC's decision to enforce the blackout. Of course, they're idiots to
begin with -- when I called to ask about the UVM/DU game, I was asked
"well, what are the team names?" After I told them "the Catamounts and
Pioneers" (and put on hold for 5 minutes) the woman came back on and told
me "well, that's the problem. You only get Avalanche games." I told her
that these were COLLEGE teams -- to which her response was "well, you don't
subscribe to the NHL Center Ice package."
 
That's why I ask for supervisors.
 
Additionally, it sounds pretty silly that the NC$$ was "unaware" of the
blackout for the entire weekend -- MSC claimed they were unaware of any
blackouts whatsover, and DirecTV did not know which games would be blacked
out until a few hours before game time. According to DirecTV's schedule,
they had not been informed of the blackout for the Gopher-Spartan game
until early Saturday morning. This would mean someone from the NC$$
enforced the blackout on Saturday, and again on Sunday (as DirecTV did not
know until Sunday morning whether the games would be blacked out or not)
 
 
 
At 12:00 PM 3/25/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Today I had a conversation with Dennis Poppe Director of Championships at
>the NCAA. He was unaware of the blackout issues that arose over the weekend.
>It was the NCAA decision to enforce the 200 mile rule.  It should not have
>extended beyond 200 miles.  He has asked me to write up my concerns over the
>current policys in place. If anyone has any comments with what happened with
>the blackouts, please email them to me and I will try to encorperate them
>into the response that he has asked me to send back to him. He did seem
>surpised to hear of the nation wide blackout policy and felt that the hockey
>committee needed to hear from a groups like ours to improve the product in
>the future.
>
>One additional note, I asked him about a 16 team tourney.  He said that it
>is a serious issue that he is well aware of.  He believes for the success of
>the sport a rounded event is much better, be it 8 or 16 teams.  He wants to
>do away with the buy.  It is his hope that with the split of powers in the
>NCAA at this time it may happen, and that if it was his choice, or a money
>issue, he would do it in a minute.
>
>HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
>[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.
>
______________________________________________
Jason Kekoa Greene
[log in to unmask]
Animator, Multimedia Designer, & P.B.
Leopard Communications: http://www.leopard.com
Boulder, Colorado
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.