Brian writes:
>CCHA games are on PASS and Hockey East is on NESN.
 
Also, some WCHA games are on Prime, but that appears to be limited to
Denver games (plus the playoffs, which I presume Prime will show again).
 
>But why not petition ESPN to cover some games. Their college hoops
>broadcasts are only during the week with a rare weekend game. Why couldn't
>they cover the coll. hockey game(s) on Friday (no hoops then either) or
>Saturday instead of drag racing or surfing? They covered the final
>last year between BU and NMich., why don't they expand their
>coverage? Perhaps, if enough of us (and other hockey fans) let ESPN know...
 
But if you remember the posting of the most popular sports survey done by
that Texas firm, drag racing and surfing are more popular in the USA than
college hockey. That aside, the reason you see so much drag racing, auto
racing, surfing, etc. on ESPN is that they draw much more advertising than
college hockey would.  Companies that make automobile products, surfing
gear, etc. will advertise and advertise heavily on ESPN during these shows
because they know that's the best time to reach their target audience:
the people involved in or participating in these sports.  Watch one of
those early-morning car racing shows sometime and see what most of the ads
are about.
 
ESPN used to cover the championship semifinals and finals, now they only
do the finals - and I'm not sure that they even want to.  I think that part
of the agreement that ESPN and CBS entered into (separately) with you-know-who
requires them to televise the championships of "smaller" sports.  They had to
agree to this to get to show the championships of the BIG sports.
 
In short, chances of seeing college hockey on ESPN other than the final, in
the future, do not look any better than none.  That leaves satellite and
cable, and unfortunately not everyone has access to these.  (Of course,
there are also local stations that cover some teams' games.)  BTW I'm not
positive of the deal that Hockey East has with NESN, but if it's similar
to their previous deal (100 games over 3 years for about $100K/year, I
believe), then it looks like HE is doing a better job of marketing itself
than the NHL.
 
NESN should also be applauded for showing not only HE league games, but
also games between HE and ECAC teams; 8 of the 12 ECAC teams will make
appearances on NESN in 1991-92 during the regular season.
 
 
- mike