Big Ten Network: Good or Bad

As an alumnus of a Big Ten University, I am thoroughly upset with the Big Ten Conference and its decision to align themselves with their own television network. The Big Ten was featured on the ESPN family of networks including ABC as well and was nations most nationally exposed collegiate athletic conference for football. Between ABC and the ESPNs, there were at least 4 to 5 conference games on national TV each week, and the remaining game or two was available on regional coverage through ESPN Gameplan or on a local station. Now, with the Big Ten Network, fewer Big Ten Football games will be available nationally to the fans that want to watch. In addition, the Big Ten Network is having difficulty getting cable operators to sign on for it. I understand that the schools in the conference may have been upset with ESPN relegating a few games last year that would have been part of regional coverage to ESPN 360 with a web only broadcast but this is not the solution. The Big Ten Network is being offered in Cable Companies in the immediate region at $1.10 per subscriber to be on a optional sports tier of programing and it is being offered to the rest of the country at $.10 per subscriber. The NFL has not even gotten full national distribution of its signature network but all games the NFL Network are required to be made available for broadcast on free television channels in the local markets. There is no such requirement for the Big Ten and not the national appeal of the NFL. It will be interesting to see if the Big Ten network can expand overtime to get more national distribution or struggle and weaken this once most powerful athletic conference.