The almighty dollar is what controls our sports. The athletes that used to represent us now represent corporations. Case in point: I grew up in Utah and always got to watch BYU and Utah games on television. Now, I am not allowed to, because Comcast came through with big bucks to land the television rights to the games. I don't have the funds to pay Comcasts huge monthly fee, so all I get to do is listen to the game on the radio. Perhaps they should be called the Comcast Cougars.

Yes, that's right. Yawn.

If selling "unauthorized" doodads is the worst problem we have, then we have the world by the tail. It sounds as though what we really have is a gang of steroid-hooked lawyers who have won the right to refer to some otherwise ordinary people as "counterfeiters." That's enough right there to make me want buy their stuff. Give me a "C"! Give me an "O"! Give me a "U"....

re want to watch the game.. Even if you had the big bucks and lived outside Comcast's limited area you couldn't get the games. When "They" sold out to comcast "They" destroyed any hope of national and rural coverage. The exact opposite of what the goal of the conference was stated to be. The worst part is getting anyone to own up to their reasons for the sell out.

Atta boy/girl Jaycee..sockit to em!!!

On the contrary, jaycee. The reasons for the "sellout" are well documented and openly acknowledged by MWC commish Craig Thompson, who had FULL backing by the conference's university presidents. The ESPN deal was lousy. The CSTV/Versus/Mtn deal was much more lucrative and it allowed the vast majority of football games to be played on Saturdays, where college football games should be played. "They" recognized the risk that TV exposure *at the beginning* would be impacted, and "they" admit it's been quite a bit less than they had hoped to have by this point, but that doesn't change the fact that "they" fully admitted to why they made the deal in the first place. Yes, it's (mostly) about money, but the university presidents were after those $ signs just as much as anyone else.

And I would be too. When even our bowl game winners struggle to break even, and we see the Bc$ conference teams receiving muli-million dollar windfalls every year, the gap between the have's and have-not's was just going to get bigger and bigger unless something changed. Give "them" credit for trying to get out ahead of the curve.

Is there someplace local I can get this stuff. I really want to get some Ute and Cougar wear, but I would rather none of the money go towards paying for Craig Thompson's haircut.

Give 'em a break. What would you prefer the schools do to raise money...sell official merchandise to fans or raise tuition [and in the case of a state school, raise taxes] to keep the place operating properly?

A university's mission is not to grow football players or recruit a fan base, but to educate students. That takes massive amounts of money.

From the beginnings of the 20th century college football has always been a source of revenue. So what if they want to protect that rich funding source by only allowing authorized merchandise. That's a school's prerogative.

And it beats a massive tuition/tax increase.

Soooo... Your thinking they do this instead of raising tuition?

I'm guessing the money from licensing goes towards athletics, and not the heat in the classroom.