Only time will tell if CSTV succeeds

There's one thing I can tell you for certain about the Mountain West Conference's big announcement that, starting in two years, it will part ways with ESPN and sign on with fledgling CSTV — it wasn't big news in New York, where I was vacationing at the time.

Having had a week to examine the deal, ponder its ramifications and come to a conclusion about whether it was a wise decision on the part of the MWC, the answer is . . . I dunno.

And anybody who tells you they do know is kidding you. Or themselves.

Like the decision to expand the old WAC to 16 teams or to break away and form the MWC, only time will tell whether this works.

On the one hand, it's hard to argue with the decision to take $82 million from CSTV over seven years, up about $4.8 million a year over the seven-year deal with ESPN that expires in 2006. Even when you add a ninth team — TCU — to the league, that is more than an extra half-million bucks per year per league member.

(But to put that in some perspective, the ACC just signed a seven-year deal with ESPN valued at $258 million.)

On the other hand, College Sports Television is a fledgling enterprise that's currently seen in only 8 million homes. In Utah, the only way to see it today is to subscribe to DirecTV.

CSTV's own optimistic projections have it in maybe 40 million homes by 2006. That's compared to about 90 million for both ESPN and ESPN2. The MWC is giving up exposure for money.

And not just exposure on ESPN but on all its related networks, including ABC.

You've got to wonder how that will affect recruiting. Will top prospects be swayed by schools whose games air on ESPN who can derisively say, "What, you want to be on CSTV? What's CSTV?"

Of course, you could also argue that the MWC wasn't getting much exposure on ESPN. Certainly not from 10 p.m. Monday basketball games — games that aired at midnight back East.

The prospect of playing football and basketball games on days and times that make sense is a huge bonus for fans.

With CSTV, the Mountain West will be a priority. With ESPN, it was an afterthought. A stepchild to be kicked around. (Football on Tuesday or Wednesday? You've got to be kidding.)