Fans shouldn't carp about MWC's TV slate

It's not exactly news that fans are looking for reasons to complain about the Mountain West Conference's television deal, but sometimes the carping gets a bit ridiculous.

At least a few fans are claiming that this fall's football schedule represents some kind of betrayal. Because one of the justifications for the MWC leaving ESPN for The mtn., CBS C and Versus was so football games could be played on Saturdays.

There are a few games on days other than Saturday this fall. And by a few, I mean three. All on The mtn.

The Utah State-Utah game is on Thursday, Sept. 3; the Utah State-BYU game is on Friday, Oct. 2; and the Wyoming-Colorado State game is on Friday, Nov. 27.

Let's back up a bit here. The MWC (and the WAC before it) didn't have a problem playing Thursday-night games. Or the occasional Friday-night game. The problem with ESPN was that it wanted the MWC to play games on Tuesdays, Wednesdays — maybe Sundays and Mondays.

And when you look at the three non-Saturday games, Utah-USU is the season-opener on a Thursday; BYU-USU was moved to Friday because of LDS General Conference; and Wyoming-CSU is on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

As always, I'm not suggesting that the MWC's football deal is even close to ideal. But if you're going to criticize it, don't be ridiculous, OK?

BYU AND UTAH will each have all their games televised this fall. The Cougars are on The mtn. seven times; Versus twice; CBS C once; and ESPN2 once. (The BYU-Oklahoma game will be on one of the ABC/ESPN channels.)

Utah will be on The mtn. six times; CBS C twice; Versus twice; ESPN once and ESPNU once.

The two local teams, along with TCU and New Mexico, are the only conference members who will have all their games on TV this fall. Air Force will be blacked out once; Colorado State twice; Wyoming twice; UNLV three times; and San Diego State three times.

Of those 11 games, seven are against non-FBS (formerly Division 1-A) foes; three are non-league games against FBS foes; two are away games (for which the MWC does not hold TV rights); and one is a matchup between conference foes — UNLV at Wyoming.

The blackouts do include three games involving teams from Utah, however. Weber State's games at Colorado State and Wyoming will not be televised; neither will Southern Utah's game at San Diego State.

THIS IS ONE area when you can look back at the Mountain West's TV deal and complain.

Remember when we were promised that every game would be televised?

Ah, well, As I've been told repeatedly, it's fans in Utah — both Red and Blue — who do the most complaining. And all the Ute and Cougar games are on TV.

E-mail: pierce@desnews.com