Mountain West football fan?

Frustrated? Angry over the lack of TV coverage? Wonder if The mtn. network will ever be offered on Dish Network or DirecTV?

Live in St. George and feel left out? Find yourself in parts of Ogden, Farmington and Bountiful and still no Comcast Cable? Are you a Comcast subscriber and still unable to get The mtn., the network exclusively dedicated to coverage of the league? Are you in Arizona and feel left out? How about San Diego, and it's not on your Time Warner cable?

It's a big club, this membership of the enormously ticked off.

One year after the launch of The mtn. network, the league's TV deal is still somewhat confusing, although more than a million people have access to the fledgling network.

Fans now await word on negotiations between owners of The mtn. and satellite providers. Is it something that might be announced this coming week heading into the kickoff of the college season?

"Nothing would surprise me in this business," said Kim Carver, general manager of The mtn.

Compared to previous years where fans could tune in to ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPN regional broadcasts on local Salt Lake City stations, the new MWC football deal is kind of like alphabet soup. Wading through it is a major public relations nightmare for the league.

For instance, you might have the proper TV connections and subscriptions, but some fans who are not familiar with their programming may not know if access to games is on their system.

This is true for some older folks, who are used to having just four stations on their TV and just hooked up with a dish or cable company.

What is Versus? What is CSTV? What is The mtn.? On what channel are these stations found? Well, it depends on what platform you subscribe to.

"There is a lot of noise out there," said Carver of increased channels dominating subscription services. She advises that if people have a question, they contact their provider or go to the Internet at www.themtn.cstv.com, click on the "where to find" button or send a message through the feedback button, and information on where to find Versus, CSTV and The mtn. will be sent to them.

At least 17 different cable companies are hooked up to deliver Mountain West football this fall. Comcast, the country's largest cable distributor, is part-owner of The mtn.

But Comcast subscribers outside of the MWC footprint (where league schools are located) may not have The mtn.

Depending on what kind of subscription you have on either cable or dish, you may already have Versus or CSTV. If you just have rabbit-ear antenna on your TV, you're in jail.

The mtn. just kicked off a campaign targeted to pressure DirectTV into picking up the leagues' TV network.

Commercials on radio and in newspapers will use the drawing power of former BYU and Utah All-Americans Ty Detmer and Alex Smith to point out the folly by DirectTV to carry Big Ten sports in the Rockies without an offering of The Mountain West, said Carver.

So, what are the odds of this thing getting fixed before kickoff of the season later this week?

I'd say about 8 to 1.

We are told these negotiations take time. Even Rome wasn't corrupted in a day.

The mtn. is a good network.

It's just sad most of the fans around the country cannot receive the signal.

---

E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com