Sid provided the list with an excerpt from a Boston paper which I'd like to comment on. >deserved better and the NC$$ knows it. "We're thinking about the hockey >situation" Phil Buttafuoco of the NC$$ said from Kansas City yesterday. >(yeah sure...about wether or not to push hockey back to 3 am tape delay --Sid) >"We have some options." One would be to escape the ESPN contract with four >years to run and put the title game on Prime Network live or on tape at the >discretion of the outlet(which is NESN in New England). ESPN began to televise >the hockey championship on Saturday nights in 1985 to avoid the basketball >Final Four which was then on CBS in the afternoon and early evening. When Is the NC$$ brain dead (kind of a rhetorical question.) Why are they trying to emulate the brilliant strategy of the NHL, which took its TV from a primary national cable outlet (ESPN) to a secondary/regional network (Sportschannel)? The NHL succeeded in destroying a good piece of its national audience--and they wondered why no one in the Sun Belt cared about their product? ;-)The problem is not the broadcaster, it's their schedule. Mike M's suggestion of a Friday night/Sunday afternoon tournament avoids going head to head with the men's basketball Final Four. I would doubt that PRIME has significant national cable penetration. In fact I could easily see our local cable outlet, Troy Newchannels, not even picking up the feed thus depriving one of the better :-C college hockey markets of the Big Game. Why don't they put the women on Saturday night against the men...a kind of network battle of the sexes? :-J >basketball shifted in 1988 to the current schedule ESPN put the Wisconsin >-Colgate title game on seven-day delay. (YEECCHHH! --Sid) I agree Sid. What a terrible time for Dave Gagnon to have an off-night! _ "NYS // Hockey" Go 'Gate // Brian Morris Go RPI // Albany, NY ______// [log in to unmask] (______/Go Islanders. New York's Real Team. ************Hey ECAC and NCAA! Let Albany be your host in 1994.*********