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Mtn. comes back to bite MWC

The BYU Fireside Team should see if they can get those Friday evening specials broadcast on the MTN so more people can see what the team is really like inside.

Football isn't what they specialize in, so I"d like to see what they are good at doing.

I have been saying this all year, it only hurts ALL MTN west team to not have their games seen by people all over the nation. Espn is not a sports network it is a business, when the leading story the day before the national championship game is a baseball trade there is something wrong.
The Mountain west should be going out of their way to get The MTN in every house of these voters, what would that cost? a couple of dishes across the nation
? then at least the first game they saw of Utah or TCU or BYU would not be in a bowl game.

The Mtn. TV deal is the worst idea they could've come up with. It's horrible.
Way to go Thompson and school presidents. Your fans hate the tv deal, but I'm glad you guys are happy.
That was a great idea to take the games I could catch on KSL or KJZZ and move them to a channel that many years later is not available from my satellite provider, Dish Network. I'm so glad you guys thought this through.
Thanks for looking our for me, the fan.

ESPN was giving love to BYU till they got killed by TCU. Here is the truth. You win a lot of games, and they will talk about you!

The Mountain: The worst thing to happen to the top-tier MWC teams (Utah, TCU, BYU) since the creation of the BCS.

It still cracks me up to think how awesome Kirk thought Fresno St. was. Remember that? What a bunch of homers.

presidents agreed to go with the Mtn because of the money and they did not want to play on Thursday. The conference presidents broke with ESPN not the other way around. Put the blame where it belongs. Pierce you are beating a dead horse. Slow news day??????? It is not going to change.
get used to it.

It's amazing how much talk continues about how the MWC TV deal has hurt the league since 2006. Yet, in 2007 and 2008, the MWC had its highest rankings and best recruiting classes..Hmmm....

How about Ball State. It's on ESPN tons and never moved ahead of Utah or TCU, yes a two-loss TCU team. Did anyone watch those games. No, if you look at the ratings. It's Tuesday for pete's sake. MWC fans have problems filling the stadium on Saturdays, let alone if they had to play on Tuesday or Wednesday night. ESPN's refusal to promote the MWC hurts, but it didn't promote the MWC when it was on the network.

Go Utes....#2!

Although I am no fan of the mtn network, it seems that the increase in revenue for the mtn deal over the previous ESPN deal is what has allowed teams to retain their coaches with higher salaries. Patterson just got $1.7mm/year, Whit is getting $1.2mm/year. This range of salaries was not fathomable when Utah was looking for a way to keep Meyer.

Did you hear Switzer after the OK-FL game? He was bitter that his former team (Oklahoma) didn't win. This guy is such a biased observer that I don't understand how anyone can give any credence to anything he says. What a loser when it comes to real analysis!

One of the facts that is always overlooked in the debate about the BCS format is that all the colleges have collectively agreed to the system. Having once agreed to it, there is no legitimate claim that will stand up -- either in public opinion or in the courts if challenged. Doesn't Shurtleff have a sense that it's dead on arrival at the courts? Once you agree to the rules up front there is little authenticity to whatever complaint you have after the outcomes occur. If everyone hates the format, then the only solution is to collectively come up with a new agreement. I hate it, every red-blooded fan hates it, and Utah proved it on the field with the only perfect record, but now that it's all over and everyone agreed up front that they would crown the eventual winner of the championship game, all the rhetoric in the world won't change the outcome.

RE:MTN Should Broadcast Firesides
First of all, this column had nothing to do with BYU and the firesides. Next: It seems a shame to me that there are always those who will disparage anything uplifting and good. Have you no shame at all?

I am Utah Man and as such I "yell for old crimson" i do not need to disparage any other team, stop flatulating from your mouth and have respect. Your a ... Your mind will fill that in with some negative thought easily.

The league has the number 2 AP team, the #7 AP team with 2 losses, ahead of all but two two loss teams and a third team in the top 25 for the first time. Hard to really see how we were hurt in the polls.

If we play on ESPN this year, does anyone really think Utah is in the national title game? C'mon.

Look, the Utes were HELPED, not hurt, by no one seeing them this year. No one saw them barely beat a bad UNM team by 3. No one saw them get dominated by TCU and pull out a win when TCU's kicker kept choking (same TCU team the Sonners beat by 4 touchdowns). No one saw them barely beat a horrible Michigan team by 2. If people had seen those games they would consider the 'Bama performance a fluke. Since they didn't they think Utah always plays that well.

I'm as impressed by their performance against 'bama as anyone - that was an unbelievable game - but the reality is if they played against 'Bama they way they did against Michigan or New Mexico or TCU, they would have lost by 30.

Congrats to the Utes on an amazing undefeated season, but don't buy into the nonsense that lack of exposure hurt. Lack of exposure is the only reason they are ranked as high as they are.

The conference should take some of the money they get from the Sugar bowl and pay to get out of the MTN deal. That network is awful! Pay Utah back for the money they pulled in and get us all a TV deal that makes sense. Cleary the MTN doesn't!!!

As cute, smarmy, and pithy you think you are, you really do not understand college athletics.

Most teams pimp out their players, have them work hard, give their all, risk injury for the good of the team. Often when they get in trouble or seriously hurt, they are kicked to the curb, and someone replaces them and the team goes on for the greater good of the program, using them to earn money for the school.

Bronco could use the time the night before the game having a nice meal, working, sitting in a hottub, etc Instead the firesides are an opportunity for the team to connect with their fanbase, work on character that will make them better fathers, husbands, and citizens during school and after they graduate.

Aside from all of that, it is their own time, volunteered because that is how they choose to use their time.

That being said, how does how they use their time affect you. Since they have began giving firesides, they have had three straight 10 win seasons, and it can't be measured how this has positively affected the team.

You don't have to understand it. Just try to be more tolerant.

BCS Reality: laws, ordinances, codes, agreements (binding or otherwise) are changed constantly and frequently. Court decisions, labor contracts, local, regional, federal, and international laws undergo revisions all the time.

This is nothing new. How do you think we got to the current BCS mess? Somebody changed the rules that everybody had agreed to previously.

The mtn has marginalized the MWC. For alums living outside the intermountain west, it's next to impossible to see a game. National attention comes from winning and winning generates national exposure. The mtn provides none of that. ESPN is king of all college sports. Lets' all get over accept that and make the mtn an offer they cant refuse.
For the conference presidents and craig thompson who saw the mtn as "sticking it to the man" - well, turn around and look who got stuck now.

And I'll be happy, and far more people east of CO will be able to take notice of the MWC.

As for ESPN, I used to be an avid watcher of Gameday. But now it's the same swan song to the same teams and players each and every week. Most weeks, being in the top 25 isn't even enough to be featured (but Notre Dame will get a 5-10 minute discussion even if they're winless).

They can't even get basic facts straight - the bowl preview special had BYU listed as second in the MWC, looking for its fourth straight Vegas Bowl win. As a Cougar, I wish that were the case! If they can't even check facts readily available on their own freaking website, why should I trust anything else they say?

It's not sports journalism anymore, it's business PR.