Fans share feelings about MWC TV deal

• "I know you're a Utah-based publication, and I enjoy keeping abreast of BYU sports through your Web site, but there seems to be an assumption that Comcast is showing The mtn. to some significant extent. Here in Washington, I have the full, digital Comcast package with the added sports package — including CSTV and 3 Fox College Sports channels. No The mtn. It is so disingenuous — at best — of the school administrators, MWC and CSTV officials to pretend like it's the cable and satellite operators' fault when they were so small-time not to even demand that Comcast air it beyond the Utah area. No wonder it's mtn. — lower case. ESPN's gotta be busting up laughing!" — Scott Wiley of Sammamish, Wash.

• "Your point about who is responsible for this deal is an interesting one. As a BYU fan, it's hard to criticize the university's president (he is a (LDS Church) general authority), so it puts people like me in a particularly tough spot. But if that's where the blame belongs, perhaps people in the media can shift the discussion (although that puts you and your paper in a tough spot). If the university presidents start to feel the heat from this, then maybe they'll figure out a way to make this work. I've directed my e-mails on this topic to the athletic department. Maybe I'll send my next one to the university president's office.

"The threat of cancellation isn't very real for most BYU fans outside of Utah. Like many others out here, I subscribe to DirecTV to get BYU football and also so I can get general conference at home. So realistically I'm not going to cancel DirecTV regardless of what happens here. "Maybe over the long term, if these channels can survive, the deal will be good for exposure. But continuing to say that this deal is great for exposure doesn't really explain what's going on. The real reasons for this deal are more money and better game times. Those seem like legitimate reasons to shift from ESPN, but the conference and the university presidents look like a bunch of rookies when they say that this is a great deal for exposure. I always thought the ESPN exposure was good — I know people on the East Coast who would watch BYU games periodically, and ESPN endlessly hypes their own games more so than just an average college football game. I would think that recruits would be more excited at the prospect of being on ESPN than on CSTV." — Marc Magnum

• "Add me to the frustrated group of fans thinking that MWC now stands for 'Mighty Wimpy Cowards.' If the deal with CSTV was the best the MWC could do, it had better get a new team of negotiators. Keep up the good work of 'telling it like it is."' — Greg Allen of Haymarket, Va.