Today ESPN and the BCS reached a deal for ESPN to take over sole broadcasting rights to all BCS bowl games (including the championship game) from 2011 through 2013. The Rose Bowl will remain on ESPN's broadcast partner, ABC, through 2010.
From 2011-2014 ESPN will broadcast 15 Bowl Championship Series games.
How low college football has sunk.
Earlier last week I wrote an article begging the powers of the college football world to reconsider selling their souls just so they could make an extra $25 million more than what Fox Broadcasting was offering.
They chose the $25 million extra after Fox withdrew what they called, "a fair offer," because the powers that be would not budge.
Today, they hopped on the ESPN bandwagon.
So if you don't have cable, say goodbye to watching the biggest college football games of the year on Fox, NBC, ABC, CBS—unless it's the Rose Bowl of course—through 2010.
Pretty soon, ESPN will be broadcasting the Super Bowl, too.
Whose fault is this? The college presidents and the commissioners of the BCS conferences who would rather make a few extra bucks than say, "Hey, maybe we will reach a bigger audience on national TV. Everyone should be able to watch us, anyway."
They made their decision. Today, Nov. 18, 2008, those who control the game of college football officially decided that this is no longer a free game. That the American people do not deserve and are not entitled to watch a sport on a national broadcasting network.
These millionaires decided they don't care about you, the people. If you want to watch them, better get cable.
The argument that everyone should have cable is ludicrous. In today's economy, a) don't even go there and b) I know a lot of people who don't watch anything besides the news, soap operas, and sports. The latter was once always on national TV.
The days of sports being a "national pastime" are all but over. This signals the end of an era.
The era of greedy, moneymaking millionaires, people affiliated with colleges and education (how sad), is in full force. And the era of the NHL Playoffs, Monday Night Football, and now the BCS Bowls on national TV are officially over.
Like I said, next is the Super Bowl, NBA Finals (most of the conference finals games are already only on ESPN or TNT already), and World Series (Major League Baseball is creeping closer to that as well since making a deal with TBS to broadcast games up until the World Series begins).
It's a sad day. Sports used to be for the love of the game.
Now, as college football told us today, and the other sports (to a lesser extent) before them, it's not about the love of the game, but the love of the money in their already fat pockets.
We're going to send you the most entertaining College Football articles, videos, and podcasts from around the web.
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