Coach Mulkey criticizes ESPN, and talks UConn | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Coach Mulkey criticizes ESPN, and talks UConn

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What Coach Mulkey, in particular, and fans of WCBB in general refuse to acknowledge is that money drives the bus in television and television drives the bus in the NCAA. WCBB isn't a revenue generator, and before all you Boneyarders begin with the obligatory attacks that come with anyone posting anything you consider the heresy of criticizing WCBB, I'm not making a value judgement here, merely pointing out a fact. The revenue generators in NCAA sports are CFB and MCBB, plain and simple. The people at Lehigh, Penn, Iowa and Oklahoma would like to see more college wrestling on ESPN, The PAC 12 schools would like to see men's and women's volleyball, The Big 12 would like to see more women's softball. My point is every conference and many sports have constituencies and to them the sports their institutions and conferences excel in always deserve the most coverage. As Coach Mulkey rightly described, the Baylor/UConn game tomorrow is a big deal nationally, but nowhere in the known universe is WCBB going to pre-empt CFB from any conference. Is it fair, no it isn't but always remember, fair is a place where they judge pigs....
 
CajunHusky said:
As several people mentioned, this all seems to licensing issues.

Almost all the games I watch I now use WatchESPN. WatchESPN has agreements with most sports channels like SNY, Big 10, SEC etc to make available their programming on ESPN3 as long as the user subscribes to that sports channel with broadcast rights. The TV I use is in my living room with a nice wood burning insert (ummm toasty). But I don't have a cable hookup so I use a ROKU to go to WatchESPN. I use my cable credentials on the WatchESPN app so I get anything I pay for on cable. Not everything listed on ESPN3 I can watch because some of these sports channels simply aren't available on Charter in Connecticut.

The UConn - FSU game was on ESPN2 and listed as an ACC on ESPN game so I am pretty sure there is some contractual deal that mandated that game rather than some other game (Does ESPN have some deal for the Big 12 on ESPN?)

We all know that SNY has rights to broadcast UConn games that they won in a bidding process over CPTV. Kim alluded to that when she said the Baylor UConn game is a SNY game and ESPN does not have rights to broadcast it on ESPN, ESPN2. Note ESPN does have an agreement to provide the feed on ESPN3 (WatchESPN). Whether or not they get to watch the game in Waco TX I don't know since I am pretty certain not a lot of people there are going to subscribe to SNY, or even if it is available on their cable provider.

But of course this does not assuage the feeling that no matter the fact that Baylor has been a Top10 program for many years they just aren't getting the national broadcast games.
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ESPN actually owns the rights to all AAC sports including Uconn WCBB (the Big East contracts never included women's basketball in days of yore.) They can choose to broadcast any Uconn games they want, but they also have a rights deal with SNY that allows SNY to broadcast those games ESPN doesn't want on one of their stations as long as SNY supplies the feed to ESPN for live streaming and archiving. )ESPN then blocks the live streaming from the SNY home market (mostly NY, NJ, and CT) as part of that agreement. Uconn/ESPN/SNY/AAC does not own the rights to OOC contests at away venues but if the home team does not have a contract to broadcast the game SNY/Uconn can try to negotiate a deal to broadcast the game. If there is a local broadcast in place, Uconn/SNY can try to negotiate a deal to pick up that feed to broadcast it more widely. That is why a few Uconn games might not be available on TV or may have local broadcast announcers rather than the standard SNY broadcasters.
 
iamcbs said:
What Coach Mulkey, in particular, and fans of WCBB in general refuse to acknowledge is that money drives the bus in television and television drives the bus in the NCAA. WCBB isn't a revenue generator ...
As Coach Mulkey rightly described, the Baylor/UConn game tomorrow is a big deal nationally, but nowhere in the known universe is WCBB going to pre-empt CFB from any conference.
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WCBB isnt a revenue generator for schools, true. But are you saying that ESPN isn't making money off the games it airs?

Plus ESPN has a larger concern - increasing interest in a sport where it airs all 63 tournament games. Airing quality games early in the season would help with that. And a UConn-Baylor game would do as well as most wcbb games. Would also be solid counterprogramming to the CFB game being aired.
 
vowelguy said:
WCBB isnt a revenue generator for schools, true. But are you saying that ESPN isn't making money off the games it airs?

Plus ESPN has a larger concern - increasing interest in a sport where it airs all 63 tournament games. Airing quality games early in the season would help with that. And a UConn-Baylor game would do as well as most wcbb games. Would also be solid counterprogramming to the CFB game being aired.
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The NCAA WCBB Tournament has a built in audience and no one watches the Women's 1 v. 16 match-up the way they watch the Men's as a point of comparison, the operative phrase here is revenue generator. To answer your question, no the average fan is not going to care in March that Baylor beat UConn in November, as both will be vastly different teams than they are now. Those who really want to watch the game will stream it online.
 
Just peeked at tomorrow's programming and saw that this game will be aired on ESPN2 and now sling has added the ACC network so most of their games will be available as well.
 
noirwestern said:
Just peeked at tomorrow's programming and saw that this game will be aired on ESPN2 and now sling has added the ACC network so most of their games will be available as well.
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I think you must mean ESPN3, because I checked the listings just now and it's not showing on ESPN2 or any of their regular cable channels.
 
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That's odd. A few hours ago it was listed on ESPN2 and not 3. I checked both but now you are correct and it's on 3. Sling TV, what can I say?
 
noirwestern said:
That's odd. A few hours ago it was listed on ESPN2 and not 3. I checked both but now you are correct and it's on 3. Sling TV, what can I say?
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I wish you were still right! ...although I will enjoy hearing Bob Joyce call this game. I'm happy for SNY, they deserve to get a game of this magnitude for once.
 
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LadyVols9 said:
Kim is a total clown. She ducked many teams after Griner left. She only wants to be on TV because she believes they will beat UCONN. No class at all...sorry just my opinion.
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Jealousy is an ugly thing. If I were you, I would be worried about your coach, who probably won't last more than another season or two, unless Tennessee is OK with having double digit losses each season.
 
the truth hurts buddy. we have all seen the schedules since Griner left. Baylor will likely beat TN this year. I have no problem in saying that.
 
LadyVols9 said:
the truth hurts buddy. we have all seen the schedules since Griner left. Baylor will likely beat TN this year. I have no problem in saying that.
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Of course you won't have a problem with that because you have become accustomed to losing.

I've always been a fan of Tennesse women's basketball, but now I am starting to get a true sense of why UCONN fans have such disdain for Tennessee. I'm not here to argue with a UT fan.
 
The UCONN/FSU game was televised probably because of national TV ratings. UCONN is a better brand to showcase than Baylor or UCLA. JMO
 
Kevin G said:
The UCONN/FSU game was televised probably because of national TV ratings. UCONN is a better brand to showcase than Baylor or UCLA. JMO
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It was also specifically scheduled (as was the TX/Stanford game) to coincide with the ESPN college basketball kick-off - the tip times for both of those games were at odd hours on Monday so they could start their 48 hour extravaganza with two quality WCBB games one at 6PM on the east coast and the other at 5 PM on the west coast. The fact that they led off their college basketball coverage with two women's games should be seen as a positive. They were both top 15 ranked teams squaring off. That the Baylor/UCLA and SC/Ohio State games were overlapping both games meant they could also give some live updates from those two games during breaks/half time.
Who knows what went into that scheduling, but it is possible that they contacted the other teams about having strange start times for their games and could not get agreement from the four teams involved or from the venues in terms of schedules. They did end up with two good and meaningful games. And yes Uconn especially with a 75 win streak on the line was probably the most marketable game of the four.

As for todays game - ESPN doesn't produce their own WCBB programming that frequently that they were likely to devote two days in the first week of the season to games. Thursday night is a football night for them. And the scheduling for two colleges seasons and a network is not a simple thing - other possible broadcast dates for ESPN may have confli8cted with commitments either Baylor or Uconn already had in place.

Finally - the fact that ESPN had the option of four marque WCBB games on the first Monday of the season is a great change in WCBB scheduling across the country - through the end of this week there will have been 8 games played between ranked teams, and a number of additional games between ranked and high quality unranked teams in the first week of the season. That is a step up by programs across the country.
 
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easttexastrash said:
Of course you won't have a problem with that because you have become accustomed to losing.

I've always been a fan of Tennesse women's basketball, but now I am starting to get a true sense of why UCONN fans have such disdain for Tennessee. I'm not here to argue with a UT fan.
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aren't you getting just a tad worked up? lol i just said mulkey ducked playing top teams after griner left, which is true. i'm not here to argue either. good luck tonight.
 
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easttexastrash said:
Jealousy is an ugly thing. If I were you, I would be worried about your coach, who probably won't last more than another season or two, unless Tennessee is OK with having double digit losses each season.
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come on ETT you know its the truth... you just dont like that a LV is mentioning it
 
LadyVols9 said:
aren't you getting just a tad worked up? lol i just said mulkey ducked playing top teams after griner left, which is true. i'm not here to argue either. good luck tonight.
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they didnt have enough of it
 
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