Fang's Bites

Grinding Out Some Monday Links

Let’s do some links on this Monday.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Game has become a showcase for upcoming NBA talent.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News writes that NBC Sports Network will get a lion’s share of coverage for the London Summer Olympics.

Brian Stelter of the New York Times reports that no-talent hack Ryan Seacrest has signed a new contract with NBCUniversal that also gives him a role on NBC’s Olympic coverage. I shudder at the thought.

Chris Ariens at TVNewser says NBC is putting former Today Show co-host Meredith Viera on the Olympics Opening Ceremony with Bob Costas and Matt Lauer.

Joe Posnanski talks about leaving Sports Illustrated for a new venture with MLB Advanced Media and the USA Today Sports Group. Disclosure: Fang’s Bites is an independently-owned site affiliated with USA Today Sports Group and had no prior knowledge of Posnanski’s move nor of the joint venture with MLBAM.

ESPN.com’s Kristi Dosh, a.k.a. The Sports Biz Miss handicaps the upcoming MLB TV rights deal negotiations.

King Kaufman at the Bleacher Report explains why the site will never do April Fools’ parodies.

Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing has some readers’ suggestions for CBS’ Jim Nantz to close out tonight’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship including one from yours truly.

The great Maggie Hendricks of Yahoo’s Cagewriter has some suggestions on how FX and the UFC can improve the new Ultimate Fighter reality show.

Today is World Autism Awareness Day. You may know a parent, a friend, a relative or a neighbor who is affected by Autism in one way or another. Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball writes in his SportsBash site on how he has been personally affected.

My good friend (despite her being a Yankees fan) Alison Faye in Tales of a Rocket Scientist also writes about her experience with her son who has Autism.

And Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal tweets that he’ll be wearing a bowtie to benefit Autism Speaks.

Brandon Costa of Sports Video Group notes that CBS’ courtside cameras give the network some signature shots for the Men’s Final Four.

Brandon also looks at CBS’ studio set and Super Slo-Mo cameras at the Superdome for the Final Four.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks at the new Broadway play focusing on Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post mourns the passing of New York Cosmos great Giorgio Chinaglia.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union notes that the Final Four received its best ratings on CBS in a decade.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette writes that the local cable news network will cover Union in the NCAA Frozen Four this week.

Ken McMillan at the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says a local radio station will cover high school sports.

Jim Wiliams of the Washington Examiner talks with Jim Nantz about his unique double of calling the Final Four and The Masters^® in successive weeks.

Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times reviews the weekend in sports television.

Tom also talks with the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball crew.

Sam Pennington of Suthern Gameday remembers the late Hall of Fame voice of the Kentucky Wildcats, Caewood Ledford.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle notes two personnel moves at one local sports radio station.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel explores the average age of those watching various sporting events.

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post says the first week in April is a literal smorgasbord for the sports fan.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News explores the reasons why MLB clubs are so gung-ho on regional sports network rights fees.

Tom has your sports calendar for this week.

Raju Mudhar of the Toronto Star has what writers outside of Canada are saying about the Blue Jays.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail was amused by a verbal sparring match aired in Canada over the weekend.

Barry Petchesky at Deadspin looks at one April Fools newspaper column that went published without being properly vetted.

Sports Media Watch says ratings for the NBA on ABC saw big increases.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media says the NHL on NBC also had a good number.

And Joe Favorito says Fenway Park is ready to celebrate its Centennial.

We’re done.

Late Monday Night Links

As promised earlier today, I’m giving you more links. I was out earlier today and I’ll be out again tomorrow so it’s going to be a bit crazy for me. So let’s get to the linkage right now.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch looks at the media circus that was the Tim Tebow press conference at the New York Jets practice facility on Monday.

Speaking of Richard, he and CNBC’s Darren Rovell were locked in Round 2 of their Twitter feud. This was fun while it lasted as Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing recaps.

Matt notes that Al Trautwig of MSG Network had a slip of the tongue.

And Matt is gleeful that ESPN’s Jonathan Coachman also had a similar slip.

Christina Settimi of Forbes looks at baseball’s biggest local cable TV rights deals.

George Winslow of Broadcasting & Cable says ESPN has promoted an executive to handle its international digital media efforts.

Sam Laird of Mashable notes that the Boston Bruins have launched their own social media portal, believed to the first in pro sports.

Todd Cunningham at The Wrap says with Tiger Woods win this past weekend, CBS now looks forward to having masterful ratings for The Masters^® in two weeks.

Dale Buss of Brand Channel writes that Jockey brand underwear welcomed Tim Tebow to New York as only it could.

Kevin Kaduk of Yahoo’s Big League Stew has one of the funniest on-screen graphics pulled by Fox Sports Midwest during a St. Louis Cardinals exhibition game.

Jesse Sawyer of the Avon (CT) Patch says ESPN’s Kenny Mayne has sold his Connecticut home over half a year after he moved his family to Washington State.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post hates everybody.

Breaking the Bob Raissman ban to note that the New York Daily News curmudgeon feels Tim Tebow is already a pro at handling the Big Apple media circus.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union notes that the ratings for the NCAA Tournament this past weekend took a huge hit thanks to Tiger Woods.

Greg Connors of the Buffalo News writes about ESPN’s three month-long initiative to celebrate Title IX.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call talks about the departure of local native Meredith Marakovits for the bright lights of New York.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog tells us that he’s going to have a partner on the blog.

And Sarah Kogod introduces herself to DC Sports Bog readers in her first post.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with Tennis Channel’s Mary Carillo.

Tom Jones from the Tampa Bay Times reviews the weekend in sports television.

Mel Bracht of The Oklahoman notes that the Oklahoma City Thunder set a new ratings record.

John Kiesewetter at the Cincinnati Enquirer says a nationally syndicated radio morning show will be in town for Reds Opening Day.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Wisconsin-Syracuse in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 did well in the local ratings.

Scott D. Pierce at the Salt Lake Tribune says BYU basketball coach Dave Rose has a future in TV if he so chooses.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times says an investment bank helped to broker the Pac-12 media rights contract with ESPN and Fox plus other huge sports and entertainment megadeals.

Joe reports that DirecTV and Tribune are in a dispute over the company’s TV stations and this could include WGN America which carries a bunch of sports programming.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail has yet another amazingly uninformed column not realizing that CBS and Turner share the NCAA Tournament and CBS no longer regionalizes games. Many Canadian college basketball fans are aware of this, yet Bruce is not.

Sports Media Watch looks at the lower ratings generated by the NCAA Tournament over the weekend.

SMW has the viewership for the first primetime effort by ESPN2′s First Take.

To Macgasm where we learn that ESPN is teaming with Apple to make sports scores available on the Siri voice platform on the iPhone 4S.

Joe Favorito asks does UFC really needs New York to be successful?

Jim Connelly at USCHO.com wonders if ESPN is doing more to hurt the NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament than help promote it.

Maury Brown at the Biz of Baseball wonders when MLB Network will hit Canada.

And we’ll end it there. Good night.

Some Rare Saturday Links

It’s been a long time since I was able to provide Saturday linkage. Many times, it’s due to the fact I try to sleep in or my weekend was planned for me behind my back and I have to play chauffeur. Anyway, I’m able to provide some links and since I did not do the megalinks on Friday, I’ll give you this as a replacement, although the number of stories won’t equal Friday’s usual amount.

We begin with Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch who mentions that NFL Network came close to firing Warren Sapp after he tweeted that former New Orleans Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey “snitched” about the team’s bounties to the NFL officials.

Can you believe Bob Costas turned 60 this week??!! Well, he did. MLB Network’s senior editorial director Elliot Kalb who has worked with Bob at NBC writes this tribute.

From the Poynter Institute, ESPN Ombudsman Jason Fry looks at why ESPN expunged a Mark Cuban gay joke from a Bill Simmons Grantland podcast.

George Winslow at Broadcasting & Cable says smartphones and tablets helped to drive a large percentage of traffic for March Madness Live online.

Mike Reynolds from Mulitchannel News writes that the NCAA Tournament saw a ratings decline from the year before for the first night of the Sweet 16 on Thursday.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel says a veteran cable TV programming exec has been promoted within the ranks of NBC Sports.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Dave Kindred mourns the passing of former Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Furman Bisher.

Eric Goldschein from SportsGrid has video of the Kazakhstan national anthem being played for a medalist of a shooting competition in Kuwait. Problem was that it was the version written for the movie “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” and not the real Kazakhstan national anthem. That’s funny.

Sports Video Group offers a review of the March Madness Live iPad app.

Busted Coverage says a Spokane, WA local sports anchor unwittingly decided to crack on Lesley Visser’s face.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says the harsh punishments handed down by the NFL to the New Orleans Saints over Bountygate were likely tied to concussion lawsuits.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe speaks with CBS/Turner’s NCAA Tournament East Regional crew of Uncle Verne Lundquist, Bill Raftery and Lesley Visser.

Chad has a few more things with Verne and Bill that didn’t make the column.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks at MLB Network producing and staffing a pregame show for Fox Saturday Baseball.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says the local CBS affiliate has been taping its late newscast for nights it follows NCAA Tournament action.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record notes that the WFAN Mets Radio Network is not big at all.

Dave Hughes from DCRTV.com has the latest in Baltimore-DC sports media in Press Box.

Jon Solomon of the Birmingham (AL) News talks with Texas A&M’s athletic director about entering the SEC and why the Longhorn Network led to the school’s departure from the Big 12.

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle notes that Texans radio voice Marc Vandermeer is leaving his radio talk show to focus squarely on the NFL team.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes about Fox and MLB Network collaborating on a pregame show.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch talks with Turner Sports reporter Craig Sager who loves his job and picking out loud clothes for every game.

John Maffei of the North County Times writes about San Diego’s sports radio shuffles.

Tom Hoffarth at the Los Angeles Daily News has a story on the Brothers Waltrip who are laughing it up at Fox.

Tom has more with Darrell and Michael Waltrip in his blog.

Sports Media Watch says ESPN is seeing a ratings surge for its studio shows thanks to a busy NFL offseason.

SMW says viewership is up for the NCAA Women’s Tournament on ESPN2.

Steve Lepore has a suggestion for ESPN on how to make the NCAA Hockey Tournament more TV friendly.

Joe Favorito looks at how NFL news broke this week.

Ryan Yoder at Awful Announcing notes that Around the Horn host Tony Reali apparently had an on-the-job injury this week.

I’m going to end the Saturday links there.

Sports Media Journal Weekly Podcast No. 97 — Ken Schott, Schenectady Gazette

A new edition of the Sports Media Weekly podcast is up. This week, Ken Schott, college hockey and sports media writer of the Schenectady Gazette is the guest.

As usual, Keith Thibault of Sports Media Journal have our news segment and we discuss CBS/Turner’s coverage of the NCAA Tournament and how we think the networks have the games down to a science in the second year of their partnership.

We also talk about the crazy day for the NFL on Wednesday with suspensions being handed down by Commish Roger Goodell to the New Orleans Saints over Bountygate and the coverage over Tim Tebow leaving the Denver Broncos. At the time of the recording, Tebow’s fate had still not been decided.

Then we touch upon the Sports Emmy Award Nominations and neither Keith nor I were thrilled to see ESPN’s Skippy Bayless getting a nod in the Studio Analyst category.

And we also discussed NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup races going online on Sirius XM online, mobile and tablet apps, plus the new partnership between Fox Sports and MLB Network for a new pregame show.

College hockey was mostly the topic with Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette. As the local paper is gearing up to cover Union College in the NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Tournament, Keith and I asked Ken about the paper’s plans to cover the games as Union hopes to advance to the Frozen Four from the Bridgeport, CT region.

We asked Ken about the lack of television coverage for the recently completed ECAC Hockey Tournament and how the venue in Atlantic City was more of a hindrance for TV instead of an attraction.

In addition, Ken talked about the coverage of Union by the other local newspapers and TV stations. Plus, we discussed Time Warner Cable picking up local college hockey games in the Capital Region of New York.

Finally, we talked about ESPN’s shuffling of the NCAA Hockey Tournament to ESPNU and ESPN2 and the poor treatment of hockey by the Alleged Worldwide Leader.

Ken was a great guest and I hope you think so as well. The podcast is available on iTunes under Sports Media Journal or you can listen right away by going here.

ESPN Networks All Over The NCAA Hockey Championship

Starting with the Selection Show this Sunday and then starting in earnest on Friday, March 23, the ESPN Family of Networks, mainly ESPN2 and ESPNU will cover the NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Championships starting with the Regional Semifinals and heading to the Frozen Four in Tampa, FL.

All but two of the games will be shown on the combination of ESPNU/ESPN3. ESPN2 will air one Frozen Four semifinal and the Championship Game on April 5 and 7 respectively.

John Buccigross and Barry Melrose will be seen on the Selection Show and they’ll call the East Regional in Bridgeport, CT. Barry will then head to Tampa and be joined by Gary Thorne who will call the Frozen Four.

We have details of the coverage from ESPN.

New Replay Graphics Highlight ESPN’s Complete NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Championship Coverage

Sunday’s Selection Show to feature three-time Stanley Cup Champion Aaron Ward

For the eighth consecutive year, ESPN will present every glass-crushing moment of the 2012 NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Championship starting with the NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Selection Show on Sunday, March 18, and culminating with the Frozen Four in Tampa, Fla., April 5 and 7. All 15 games will air live on ESPN2, ESPNU or ESPN3. Four regional games will be shown on ESPN3 with additional coverage on ESPNU in tape delay. For 2012, ESPN will debut its Advanced Replay Tool (ART) which allows graphics to be used in a replay, a first in the network’s coverage of NCAA hockey.

As in past years, the tournament brackets will be announced on the NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Selection Show by SportsCenter anchor John Buccigross, analyst Barry Melrose and new to the selection show this year, three-time Stanley Cup champion Aaron Ward. Airing Sunday, March 18, at noon ET on ESPNU, Ward’s three-consecutive NCAA Championship appearances while playing at Michigan brings a second layer of expertise to the passion and enthusiasm Melrose infuses into the 30-minute special. The show will also include features from current NHL standouts reflecting on their own NCAA memories, including Tampa Bay’s Martin St. Louis, Buffalo’s Ryan Miller, New Jersey’s Zach Praise and Ottawa’s Matt Gilroy.

The ART, developed by ESPN Emerging Technology, allows graphics to be instantaneously embedded within a replay, providing commentators greater visual resources to communicate analysis to viewers.  It has seen previous success in ESPN’s coverage of basketball, football and golf telecasts.

Melrose, Gary Thorne and Clay Matvick will utilize the tool during ESPN’s Frozen Four telecasts. Former NCAA players Sean Ritchlin (Michigan), Dave Starman (Hartford) and Billy Jaffe (Michigan) will also contribute analysis throughout the two week coverage span. ESPN has aired games from the Championship since 1980 and recently extended its commitment to the NCAA, which includes airing the entire Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Championship through 2024.

Date	Time (ET)	Game/Commentators	Network (s)
Sunday, Mar 18	noon	NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Selection Show John Buccigross, Barry Melrose and Aaron Ward	ESPNU
Friday, Mar 23	3 p.m.	East Regional Semifinal 1 (Bridgeport, Conn.) John Buccigross and Barry Melrose	ESPNU/ESPN3
	5:30 p.m.	Midwest Regional Semifinal 1 (Green Bay, Wis.) Ben Holden and Sean Ritchlin	ESPN3
	6:30 p.m.	East Regional Semifinal 2 (Bridgeport, Conn.) John Buccigross and Barry Melrose	ESPNU/ESPN3
	9 p.m.	Midwest Regional Semifinal 2 (Green Bay, Wis.) Ben Holden and Sean Ritchlin	ESPNU/ESPN3
	11:30 p.m.	Midwest Regional Semifinal 1 (Green Bay, Wis.) Ben Holden and Sean Ritchlin	ESPNU*
Saturday, Mar 24	1:30 p.m.	West Regional Semifinal 1 (Saint Paul, Mass.) Clay Matvick and Dave Starman	ESPN3
	4 p.m.	Northeast Regional Semifinal 1 (Worcester, Mass.) Dan Parkhurst and Billy Jaffe	ESPNU/ESPN3
	5 p.m.	West Regional Semifinal 2  (Saint Paul, MN) Clay Matvick and Dave Starman	ESPN3
	6:30 p.m.	East Regional Final (Bridgeport, Conn.) John Buccigross and Barry Melrose	ESPNU/ESPN3
	7:30 p.m.	Northeast Regional Semifinal 2 (Worcester, Mass.) Dan Parkhurst and Billy Jaffe	ESPN3
	9 p.m.	Midwest Regional Final (Green Bay, Wis.) Ben Holden and Sean Ritchlin	ESPNU/ESPN3
	11:30 p.m.	Northeast Regional Semifinal 2 (Worcester, Mass.) Dan Parkhurst and Billy Jaffe	ESPNU**
Sunday, Mar 25	12:30 p.m.	West Regional Semifinal 1 (Saint Paul, Minn.) Clay Matvick and Dave Starman	ESPNU**
	3 p.m.	West Regional Semifinal 2 (Saint Paul, Minn) Clay Matvick and Dave Starman	ESPNU**
	5:30 p.m.	West Regional Final (Saint Paul, Minn.) Clay Matvick and Dave Starman	ESPNU/ESPN3
	8 p.m.	Northeast Regional Final (Worcester, Mass.) Dan Parkhurst and Billy Jaffe	ESPNU/ESPN3
Thursday, Apr 5	4:30 p.m.	Frozen Four Semifinal 1 (Tampa Bay, Fla.) Gary Thorne, Clay Matvick and Barry Melrose	ESPNU/ESPN3
	8 p.m.	Frozen Four Semifinal 2  (Tampa Bay, Fla.) Gary Thorne, Clay Matvick and Barry Melrose	ESPN2/ESPN3
Saturday, Apr 7	7 p.m.	NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Championship (Tampa Bay, Fla.) Gary Thorne, Clay Matvick and Barry Melrose	ESPN2/ESPN3

*Tape Delayed from earlier March 23 live game on ESPN3
**Tape Delayed from earlier March 24 live game on ESPN3

That will end our posts for the night.

NBC Sports Network Airs The Return of Sid The Kid & Many More Hockey Games Over The Next 7 Days

NBC Sports Network will be busy over the next week. A total of 11 college or pro hockey games will be aired on NBC Sports Network starting with tomorrow night’s Pittsburgh Penguins-New York Rangers game which marks the second return this season of Sidney Crosby to the ice. It kicks off a busy week for NBC Sports Network which will carry the Hockey East Semifinals on Friday and the Championship on Saturday.

In addition, eight NHL games will be carried in that span of seven days. This includes Monday and Tuesday night NHL doubleheaders as the playoff push is in high gear in the National Hockey League. And NBC also gets in the act with one game in its usual Sunday 12:30 p.m. ET timeslot.

Let’s take a look at NBC Sports Network’s schedule between Thursday and next Wednesday.

SIDNEY CROSBY RETURNS THURSDAY NIGHT ON NBC SPORTS NETWORK

Penguins captain takes ice for first time since December against Eastern Conference-leading New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden
Penguins also featured on NBC’s NHL Game of the Week on Sunday at in-state rival Philadelphia at 12:30 p.m. ET
“Crosby is fresh, fit and determined to prove his doubters wrong.” – Pierre McGuire
Bonus coverage of Penguins-Rangers continues NBC Sports Network’s run of live NHL or college hockey for 11 straight nights
Hockey East Tournament culminates with Semifinals and Finals this weekend on NBC Sports Network featuring No. 1 Boston College

NEW YORK – (March 14, 2012) – Sidney Crosby returns to the ice for the first time since Dec. 5, 2011 as his Pittsburgh Penguins, second in points in the Eastern Conference (89), travel to New York to take on the Eastern Conference-leading New York Rangers (95) at Madison Square Garden at 7 p.m. ET on newly added coverage on the NBC Sports Network.

Beginning Thursday, the NBC Sports Group will present 12 live NHL or college hockey games over the next seven days. Crosby’s Penguins will be featured twice across the platforms of the NBC Sports Group, including Sunday’s NHL Game of the Week on NBC at their in-state rival Philadelphia Flyers; the Rangers will appear three times, all at home; and the San Jose Sharks, fighting to make the playoffs in the Western Conference, will also appear three times. The bonus Thursday night game also means that the NBC Sports Group will air 11 straight nights of live hockey action dating from Sun., March 11 through Wed., March 21. Thursday night’s Penguins game on the NBC Sports Network is a non-exclusive telecast and will be subject to local blackouts.

The team of Mike ‘Doc’ Emrick (play-by-play), Eddie Olczyk (analyst) and Pierre McGuire (‘Inside the Glass’ analyst) will call the action for Sunday’s game on NBC, and NBC Sports Network’s Wednesday night game. Dave Strader (play-by-play) and Brian Engblom (‘Inside the Glass’ analyst) will call Sunday night’s game. Emrick and McGuire will call Monday’s primetime coverage, with Strader and Engblom teaming up again for Tuesday’s game. Liam McHugh and analyst Mike Milbury will cover all the intermissions for NBC’s coverage. Additionally, McHugh hosts NHL Live, NBC Sports Network’s pre- and post-game studio show, and is joined by expert analysts Milbury and Keith Jones. John Walton (play-by-play) and Ken Hodge (analyst) handle college hockey for NBC Sports Network on Friday and Milbury will join them on Sat. to call the Hockey East Finals.

NBCSPORTS.COM: NBCSports.com continues to be the online destination for hockey fans. The website streams each NHL Game of the Week, allowing users to follow all the action and providing them with special features like “Star-Cam,” which follows marquee players throughout the game. NHL content areas on the site include ProHockeyTalk, one of NBCSports.com’s popular “Sports Talk” sites that provide fans with day-to-day coverage of the league with sharp analysis on every angle for all the big stories of the day. NBCSports.com also has exclusive NHL videos wrapping-up all the NHL action that day.

FRIDAY NIGHT ICE: NBC Sports Network’s college hockey coverage culminates this weekend with the Semifinals and Finals of the Hockey East Tournament on Friday and Saturday, respectively, live from TD Garden in Boston, Mass. Coverage begins on Friday with a double-header when No. 1 Boston College takes on Providence at 5 p.m. ET, immediately followed by No. 10 Maine against No. 5 Boston University at 8 p.m. ET. The NBC Sports Network will then air the Hockey East Finals in primetime on Sat. at 8 p.m. ET.

NBC Sports Group hockey schedule (all times ET, subject to change):

Thursday, March 15 — Pittsburgh at New York Rangers, 7:00 p.m. (NBCSN)

Friday, March 16 — #1 Boston College vs. Providence, 5:00 p.m. (NBCSN)
Friday, March 16 — #10 Maine vs. #5 Boston University, 8:00 p.m. (NBCSN)

Saturday, March 17 — Hockey East Finals (TBD), 8:00 p.m. (NBCSN)
Saturday, March 17 — Detroit at San Jose, 10:30 p.m. (NBCSN)

Sunday, March 18 — Pittsburgh at Philadelphia, 12:30 p.m. (NBC)
Sunday, March 18 — Washington at Chicago, 7:00 p.m. (NBCSN)

Monday, March 19 — New Jersey at New York Rangers, 7:30 p.m. (NBCSN)
Monday, March 19 — Anaheim at San Jose, 10:00 p.m. (NBCSN)

Tuesday, March 20 — Phoenix at Dallas, 8:00 p.m. (NBCSN)
Tuesday, March 20 — San Jose at Los Angeles 10:30 p.m. (NBCSN)

Wednesday, March 21 — Detroit at New York Rangers, 7:30 p.m. (NBCSN)

More stuff is coming up.

Giving You Some Mid-Week Links

Time for some linkage on this Wednesday.

In case you missed it from early this morning, I wrote a post on how you can avoid paying the $3.99 fee to watch the March Madness Live app on your mobile, iPad or online.

And Maine Sports Media has a legal promo code which you can use to avoid paying the fee while supplies are still available.

Tim Layden of Sports Illustrated has a great story on when the NCAA Tournament truly became March Madness back in 1981 when NBC switched from buzzer beater to buzzer beater. I remember every one of these moments that Layden describes. Yes, I’m old.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand handicaps where ESPN’s Erin Andrews could be headed once her contract is up.

Joe Lucia at Awful Announcing says Erin Andrews isn’t the only free agent at ESPN.

Michael Bradley at the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center writes having March Madness online is a good thing for everyone.

Michael Smith and John Ourand at Sports Business Daily report that the Big 12 is close to signing a rights extension with current TV partners ESPN and Fox Sports Net.

Tom Lorenzo of SportsGrid has video of President Obama making his Final Four picks on ESPN.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News says FX had strong ratings for the premiere “The Ultimate Fighter”.

Emma Bazilian of Adweek writes that Time.com is launching a sports blog.

Brian Lowry of Fox Sports says CBS/Turner is not worried about losing viewers to the March Madness Live online app.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell suggests if Tim Tebow gets traded to Jacksonville, it would be huge for the franchise.

At Fishbowl NY, Jerry Barmash notes that WFAN’s Boomer & Carton will be skating for charity next week.

To the Schenectady Gazette where Ken Schott says ESPN has named its announcing teams for the NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Championships.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says the overnight ratings for the NCAA Tournament’s FIRST FOUR™ games were down from last year.

Pete says NBA TV will be all over the NBA Trade Deadline.

Ken McMillan from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record writes that Time Warner Cable will air the New York State high school basketball championships.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says Drexel got plenty of sympathy from the TV analysts during NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday.

Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times reports that a local sports radio talk show host who used a racial slur earlier this week has left the station.

Eric Deggans of the Times also has a story on the controversy.

Mel Bracht of The Oklahoman says the NBA’s Thunder topped the local ratings last week.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes that Fox Sports Ohio is now airing “Reds Live” nightly.

In Crain’s Chicago Business, Ed Sherman notes that Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf grants a rare interview tonight.

Ed says a new Chicago sports news website is preparing to launch next month joining an already crowded marketplace.

Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times talks with ESPN’s Dick Vitale.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says CBC will shift focus from the Toronto Maple Leafs to the playoff-bound Ottawa Senators.

Sports Media Watch looks at the overnight ratings for the opening night doubleheader of the NCAA Tournament.

SMW tells us that the Knicks and Rangers are performing well in the ratings for MSG Network.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media learns that NBC will air its first-ever NHL playoff doubleheader in April.

Steve says NBC Sports Network will carry Thursday’s Pittsburgh Penguins-New York Rangers game marking the return (again) of Sidney Crosby to the ice.

Steve also provides the coverage plans for NBC Sports Network and TSN for Crosby’s return.

Joe Favorito says horse racing is trying to make some inroads into the March sports calendar.

Ty Duffy of The Big Lead wonders if an ESPN anchor attempted to recruit a high school basketball player for his alma mater.

And that is where the links will end for today.

More posts are on the way. Keep your feeds updated.

Some Quick Monday Night Linkage

Since we did our linkage this morning, there have been several stories worthy of links and they really should not wait until Tuesday. So I’ll do a set of links right now.

We start with Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead who reports on a fake tweet about ESPN’s Erin Andrews leaving the network (her contract is expiring) and the personalities at the Alleged Worldwide Leader who are negotiating new deals.

MediaRantz recaps how this tweet got circulated and had to be quickly debunked by ESPN.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing goes over an interesting Twitter feud between comedian Norm Macdonald and ESPN’s Rick Reilly.

Matt says Digger Phelps wasn’t on his “A” game during Sunday night’s Bracketology show on ESPN.

John Ourand and Michael Smith of Sports Business Journal has CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus talking about the new authentication and pay system for the March Madness mobile app.

Daniel B. Wood of the Christian Science Monitor notes that the ESPN Films documentary on Magic Johnson’s HIV-positive announcement 20 years ago shows how far we have come in our attitude on the disease.

Conor Nagle at Wei Under Par writes that NBC went into bizzaro world in attempting to cover Tiger Woods’ leg injury at the WGC Cadillac Championships.

At Puck The Media, Steve Lepore notes that the NHL on NBC hit a season low overnight rating on Sunday.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell goes inside the numbers with March Madness.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette writes that fans hoping to watch this weekend’s ECAC Hockey Championships will have to do so online (scroll down).

Katie Kramer of the Syracuse Post-Standard has ESPN’s Joe Lunardi saying that local fans give him the hardest time when it comes to his brackets.

The Washington Examiner’s Jim Williams has CBS/Turner’s Jim Nantz and Marv Albert both talking about the NCAA Tournament.

Dave Walker at the New Orleans Times-Picayune says social media has helped to popularize March Madness.

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle says the departure of Texans’ offensive lineman Eric Winston will leave a big hole at a local sports radio station.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer has the networks, announcing assignments and tip times for games of local interest from the NCAA Tournament.

Writing in OnMilwaukee, departing local sports radio host Doug Russell has one wish for the market as he leaves town.

Aaron Morton of the Deseret (UT) News explains to BYU fans where they can find truTV.

Sports Media Watch says the NCAA Tournament Selection Show had its lowest overnight ratings since 1989!!!!

Carol Einarssen at Race Journal Online has Cheers and Jeers for Fox’s NASCAR coverage.

Sox & Dawgs has video of Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine speaking with former ESPN colleagues Karl Ravech and John Kruk during Monday’s exhibition game against Miami.

And that will complete the posts for Monday

Let’s Do The Friday Megalinks

Lots of things to get to today. Couldn’t do the links yesterday. Going to do a big megalink edition for you.

Let’s get cracking, but first, there’s the Weekend Viewing Picks complete with a link to the busy College Basketball Viewing Picks which will be updated throughout the weekend.

National

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand talks with Oscar-winner and ESPN college football analyst Ed Cunningham.

Sports Illustrated issued a statement standing by its feature story this week by George Dohrmann on UCLA’s troubles.

Yesterday, Captain Blowhard, a.k.a Bill Simmons of Grantland interviewed President Obama for his podcast. I haven’t listened to it nor read the transcript as I don’t want to be bothered. Dan Levy of Bleacher Report did and had some problems with it.

Tony Manfred of the Business Insider’s Sports Page lists some writers who were most likely jealous over Simmons’ sitdown with the President.

Sports Business Daily says Captain Blowhard threw a hissy fit this week after Duke refused to issue a credential to one of Grantland’s writers for Saturday’s game against North Carolina.

Tim Baysinger at Broadcasting & Cable writes that NFL Today and Inside the NFL host James Brown will become a special correspondent for CBS News.

Gabriel Beltrone of Adweek writes that Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant is pitching Sprint phones.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life says thanks to Super Bowl XLVI, NBC won the February sweeps, marking the third straight year that sports has steered the month.

Ryan Berenz of Channel Guide Magazine writes that NBC Sports Network will be all over a French bicycle race this month.

Maury Brown at the Biz of Baseball says while we know MLB will announce expanded Wild Card Playoff games today, we don’t know which network will air them.

Sam Mamudi of Marketwatch.com writes that the competition among mainstream sports websites is very intense.

Pam Modarelli-Hegner at Sports TV Jobs writes about the types of personalities and egos journalists encounter when interviewing athletes.

Awful Announcing’s Matt Yoder writes in Puck Drunk Love about ESPN’s failure to cover the NHL.

In his regular site, Matt says CNBC’s Darren Rovell assigned his baby daughter several social networking accounts on her first day on earth.

Brady Green at AA has video of the Toronto Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia’s very funny impression of ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian that aired on Baseball Tonight.

John Daly at the Daly Planet looks at Showtime’s Inside NASCAR program taking the spring and summer off after one episode this week.

Barry Petchesky over at Deadspin notes that ESPN came up with another potentially racist headline for an Asian-American athlete.

Rachel Margolis at ESPN’s Front Row PR blog talks with college basketball analyst Brooke Weisbrod who has a rather interesting day job that keeps her busy during the work week.

Joe Favorito says President Obama is courting sports fans through the Captain Blowhard podcast.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media reviews the new hockey movie, “Goon.”

Sports Media Watch has some of the ratings from last week’s sports action.

SMW says Jeremy Lin is helping to move the ratings needle for ABC and TNT.

The Tampa Bay Times’ Eric Deggans writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center says a San Diego sports anchor’s criticism of Danica Patrick shows that sexism still exists in sports.

Also in the National Sports Journalism Center, Ronnie Ramos laments how social media has watered down traditional sports journalism.

East and Mid-Atlantic

The Boston Globe’s Bob Ryan talks with ESPN’s college basketball analyst Doris Burke. High praise and I agree. Doris is one of the best.

Chad Finn of the Globe says despite having his original role reduced, Dale Arnold is remaining at WEEI.

Chad has some advice for rookie ESPN MLB analyst Terry Francona.

Boston Sports Media Watch’s Bruce Allen writing in SB Nation Boston says Bill Simmons has had a meteoric rise to stardom.

Bill Doyle at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette says it was the Worcester Sharks’ radio voice who came up with the idea to have popular New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski spike a puck before a game last month.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks back at the 50th anniversary of one of the major milestones in sports that barely was covered by the media at the time.

Newsday’s Neil Best says two ESPN’ers will speak at their high school alma mater next week.

Neil says the Nets are not drawing well on YES.

Neil notes that CBS Sports Network utilizes a husband & wife team for its college hockey games.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick mocks the bracketologists handicapping the NCAA Tournament field.

The Post’s Justin Terranova has five questions for NHL on NBC voice Mike Emrick.

Jerry Barmash at Fishbowl NY says MSG Network continues to score with Knicks games.

Jerry reports that former WNBC-TV sports anchor Len Berman is back on TV in NYC.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union notes that NBC Sports Network will air the America’s Cup next year.

Pete says YES is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says NBC Sports Network is adding NHL games to its schedule for the playoff drive.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call writes that a local service provider has snagged the rights to an incoming minor league hockey team.

DCRTV’s Dave Hughes has the latest developments in Baltimore-Washington, DC sports media at Press Box.

South

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes that a local sports anchor is recovering from a stroke he suffered last year.

David has a little more on the story in his blog.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman talks with Fox Sports Oklahoma NBA studio analyst Stephen Howard.

Mel has more here with Stephen Howard.

Mel says NBA TV is marking the 50th anniversary of Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points in a game.

Midwest

The Cincinnati Enquirer’s John Kiesewetter says a movie script has been written about a deaf mute Reds player who changed the way umpires made calls.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wonders if another network will join Fox and TBS in airing the MLB Postseason this year.

Bob says ESPN still leads the way in cable subscriber fees, meaning how much cable and satellite providers are required to pay ESPN per subscriber.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business has his winners and losers in sports business and media.

Ed says a Big Ten Network profile of former Indiana University coach Bob Knight will mostly focus on his achievements and hardly touches on his tumultuous exit.

Paul Christian at the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin notes NBA TV’s documentary on Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point game.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says not many Missourians will be able to see local teams in conference tournaments next week.

West

Dan Caesar of the Salt Lake Tribune writes that BYU is better off an a football independent rather than share money and TV time with other teams when it was part of the Mountain West.

John Maffei at the North County Times says local prep basketball games will be harder to find on local TV this weekend.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star says who knew that product placement would be the big winner during Fox’s airing of the Daytona 500.

Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times says CBS and MSG Network are considering buy the Dodgers in separate bids in order to get their TV rights.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News looks at how the media covered (barely) Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point game 50 years ago today.

Tom has some news and notes this week.

Canada

Raju Mudhar of the Toronto Star says CBC premieres part two of the movie on Don Cherry’s life this weekend.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail can’t believe how well NHL Trade Deadline coverage does in the ratings.

Bruce says social media has changed sports reporting forever.

And that will do it. Enjoy your weekend.

Time For Our Thursday Linkage

Let’s do our linkage now. Lots of good stories.

First, Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch speaks with NBC’s NFL crew on what we’ll see on Super Bowl Sunday.

Richard’s latest Media Circus podcast is up and his guest this week is NBC’s Cris Collinsworth who will call Sunday’s game with Al Michaels.

Good on Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead for breaking the story that Selena Roberts has left SI.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says Time Warner Cable hopes to capture some good feelings with its local Super Bowl ad that will run in selected markets.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek writes that General Motors is cutting back on its ad spending, but will remain on the Super Bowl.

Adweek’s Tim Nudd says Kia’s Super Bowl tries to cram a lot into its Super Bowl spot.

Robert Klara from Adweek notes that tennis players are getting more than just shoe endorsements these days.

Matthew Creamer at Advertising Age has a primer on the Super Bowl ads.

Brian Steinberg from AdAge notes that NBCUniversal corporate sibling Fandango will latch onto one Super Bowl movie ad.

Cotton Delo of AdAge says Honda’s Ferris Bueller ad is the most watched Super Bowl ad on the web right now.

Mark Wilson of Popular Mechanics wonders if NBC’s streaming of Super Bowl XLVI will lead to more events online.

Tom Cheredar from MediaBeat says the Feds cracked down today on several sites illegally streaming sports.

Maggie Hendricks at Yahoo’s Shutdown Corner says Pats QB Tom Brady watched last year’s Super Bowl through an illegal website. Great thing to admit, Tom.

To Graham Watson at Yahoo’s Dr. Saturday blog and he says ESPN may have inadvertently helped USC coach Lane Kiffin commit a recruiting violation. It would not be the first time.

Good story from Jeremy Rapanich in Deadspin on NBC’s preparation for Super Bowl XLVI.

Matt Yoder from Awful Announcing looks at the next potential wave of NFL TV analysts.

Ryan Yoder at AA recaps Texas US Senate candidate Craig James interview on a state radio station.

Glenn Davis at SportsGrid wonders if Steven A. “A is for Acrimony” Smith flipped the bird to Skip Bayless today.

The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn takes a look at Radio Row at the Super Bowl.

Newsday’s Neil Best says WFAN’s Mike Francesa and the agent for former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor are in a feud.

Neil says Miami sports radio host Sid Rosenberg is no longer doing morning drive sports reports for NYC radio station WINS.

Neil speaks with WFAN’s Giants beat reporter.

Neil says NBC is hopeful that Super Bowl XLVI will set a viewership record.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union has the rundown for NBC’s Super Bowl 6-hour pregame.

Ken McMillan at the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record has ESPN’s BracketBusters schedule.

Evan Weiner of the New Jersey Newsroom notes that the NFL is the best of both capitalism and socialism.

Isabelle Khurshudyan of the University of South Carolina’s student newspaper, the Daily Gamecock, recaps a campus appearance by ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen.

John Kiesewetter from the Cincinnati Enquirer says Fox Sports Ohio has set its Reds programming for this month.

Zak Keeler from the Indianapolis Star writes that visiting reporters are heaping praise on Indy as Super Bowl host.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is surprised over the Pro Bowl’s ratings.

Mark Schuttenhelm of the Jamestown (ND) Sun questions the choices NBC Sports Network has made for its college hockey games.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News breaks down the Super Bowl by play-by-play announcer.

The Los Angeles Times reports that ESPN poker commentator Norman Chad was admonished for live tweeting his jury selection. Really, Norman?

Jessica Lantz has a look at one of the better Super Bowl ads, only this one will play in Canada only.

Speaking of Canada, the Canadian Sports Media Blog says CTV will begin its promotional push for this year’s Summer Olympic Games during the Super Bowl.

Sports Media Watch says this year’s NHL All-Star Game ratings finished below last year’s.

Mike Silva at Sports Media Watchdog says this week’s Mike and the Mad Dog reunion reminds fans what they’ve been missing since 2008.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media has some suggestions on how to improve NBC’s NHL coverage.

Jackie Pepper continues her coverage of Super Bowl XLVI.

And we’re done with our links for today.

Your February 1st Links

It seems like last week we rang in the New Year. Now, we’re one month into 2012. Didn’t take long.

Let’s do some linkage.

Starting with Michael Hiestand of USA Today, we learn that NBC has quite a bit in store for its six hour Super Bowl pregame show.

Also in USA Today, Michael Coppinger finds that new HBO Sports President Ken Hershman plans on cleaning up the network’s shaky boxing reputation.

And Reid Cherner at USA Today has a preview of the upcoming season of “Eastbound & Down” featuring Kenny Powers. I’ll admit, I don’t get the chi of “Eastbound & Down” and find it unwatchable, but the show has its fans.

John Ourand at Sports Business Daily says the NFL is issuing a tablet-only commemorative Super Bowl appl

At Bleacher Report, Dan Levy tells us that NFL Network’s Deion Sanders came out the winner at yesterday’s Super Bowl Media Day.

At Deadspin, Barry Petchesky has video of reporters leering at Televisa Deportes reporter Marisol Gonzalez during Media Day.

Barry also has a series of photos taken by perverts reporters as original Mexican bombshell Inês Sainz was traversing her way through Media Day.

The Olympic newsletter Around the Rings notes that the International Olympic Committee is in no hurry to negotiate a Canadian TV rights deal after the lone bid failed to come up to its standards.

Around the Rings also notes that broadcasters for the 2014 Winter Games including NBC are gathering in Sochi to discuss plans for that Olympiad.

To All Things D where Liz Gannes has new ESPN President John Skipper saying he wants people to see his content, just not for free.

And All Things D has the video highlights of Skipper’s comments.

Lisa Richwine of Reuters notes that Skipper is bullish on ESPN 3D. Oh great.

Lucas Shaw at The Wrap says John Skipper and ESPN are in love with Silicon Valley.

David Griner of Adweek has the Volkwagen Super Bowl ad that has been hyped for a couple of weeks. I like the teaser with the dogs barking better.

Katy Bachman at Adweek says the FCC is seeking public comment on the NFL’s antiquated TV blackout rules.

Best Buy won’t be using rock stars, but tech stars in its Super Bowl ad. Last year, Best Buy used Ozzy Osbourne and Justin Bieber in a very lame ad.

Natalie Zmuda of Advertising Age says Pepsi will emphasize music in its Super Bowl ads.

Louisa Ada Seltzer of Media Life Magazine previews tonight’s “Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials” special on CBS.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell wishes advertisers wouldn’t release their Super Bowl spots before they air in the Big Game.

Kristi Dosh of ESPN.com says Super Bowl advertising has gone beyond just buying time during the game.

Alex Sherman and Andy Fixmer of Bloomberg Businessweek write that NBC is using the Super Bowl to heavily promote “Smash” in what it hopes will save its primetime lineup.

The NBC’s Sunday Night Football Facebook page has a gallery of photos from yesterday’s media event in Indianapolis.

The Nielsen Wire blog looks at whether the New England Patriots or the New York Giants do better than the other in social media.

To SportsGrid and Tom Lorenzo who has video of TSN’s Ray Ferraro throwing out an “F” bomb not once, but twice during a broadcast last night.

Jason Dachman of Sports Video Group writes that ESPN was technically prepared to air the Australian Open epic men’s final.

James Careless of TV Technology looks at NBC’s online streaming of the Super Bowl.

Steve Donohue of Fierce Cable says Time Warner Cable seems to be doing just fine without MSG Network.

Lou Modestino of the Quincy (MA) Patriot-Ledger says Fox Sports was mostly responsible for moving the Daytona 500 forward one week.

Bill Pennington in the New York Times looks at fans getting to attend Super Bowl Media Day for the first time.

Richard Sandomir of the Times says a new media company wants to become the ESPN for kids. Already, the NFL, several sports stars and NBC Sports Network have signed up to partner with the company.

Good story by Jim Yardley of the Times Magazine exploring how some American NBA players are faring in Communist China and how the NBA made a huge miscalculation in trying to launch a league there.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union writes that Time Warner Cable will extend its free Sports Pass option to residential customers affected by the company’s dispute with MSG Network.

Pete says NFL Network will air the Pro Football Hall of Fame announcement for the Class of 2012 on Saturday.

Dan Gross of the Philadelphia Daily News writes that a local TV reporter is back at work after being on suspension for prematurely tweeting that Joe Paterno had died.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner speaks with CBS Sports Network’s Tom Lemming about National Signing Day.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman notes a ratings record for the Oklahoma City Thunder on Fox Sports Oklahoma.

Matthew Tully of the Indianapolis Star says foreign journalists covering the Super Bowl are enjoying Indy as the host city.

The Star has a roundup of what journos are saying about Indianapolis.

Bob Kravitz of the Star filed a diary with his observations of Super Bowl Media Day.

Anthony Schoette of the Indianapolis Business Journal writes that the Super Bowl has helped to focus a spotlight on IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway which has been hosting  media events this week.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers will be a guest analyst on NBC’s Super Bowl XLVI pregame.

Ed Sherman at Crain’s Chicago Business looks at Super Bowl Week in Indianapolis and wonders “what if” had the Bears built a domed facility.

Steve Eighinger of the Quincy (IL) Herald Whig is thankful for ESPN as it helped him to endure the Great Midwest Blizzard of 2011.

Roman Augustoviz of the Minneapolis Star Tribune notes that CBS Sports Network has signed a TV deal with the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference known in local circles as “The National.”

Eli Segall of the San Jose Business Journal says the Sharks are scoring big for Comcast SportsNet California.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says the man who broke the Sidney Crosby neck injury story stands by his scoop.

Sports Media Watch says the NFL Pro Bowl’s ratings were down from last year, but still outpace the other All-Star games.

SMW has some various ratings news and notes.

Dave Kohl at the Broadcast Booth says last week was pretty slow for any kind of sports news.

Joe Lucia of Awful Announcing notes that Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News crime writer Sarah Ganim has been given much deserved Pulitzer Prize consideration for her reporting on the Penn State story.

Barry Janoff at The Big Lead writes that Mean Joe Greene is redoing his iconic Coke Super Bowl ad from the 1970′s for Proctor & Gamble.

And we have more links that I ever thought I would find today. That’s good for you.

CBS Sports Network Becomes The Home of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference

Starting with the 2013-14 season, the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference will begin play and it will also have a new TV contract in tow. CBS Sports Network has announced that it will air at least 18 conference games including the semifinals and finals. The NCHC will start play with teams from the CCHA and the WCHA conferences.

Due to the Big Ten starting a hockey conference, the teams left from the WCHA and CCHA decided to form a new league that would begin play at the same time of the new Big Ten hockey conference.

And to help out, CBS Sports Network announced Tuesday that it would carry the league’s games. We have the press release.

CBS SPORTS NETWORK SIGNS MULTI-YEAR DEAL WITH NATIONAL COLLEGIATE HOCKEY CONFERENCE

Network to be Exclusive National Television Partner for New Hockey Conference Featuring Eight of the Nation’s Top College Hockey Teams

CBS Sports Network has agreed to a multi-year agreement with the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference, beginning in the 2013-2014 season. CBS Sports Network will be the exclusive national television partner for the conference, which will feature eight of the nation’s top college hockey programs. The announcement was made today by Dan Weinberg, Senior Vice President, Programming, CBS Sports Network, and Jim Scherr, Commissioner of the National.

The agreement calls for a minimum of 18 conference games, including the National’s semifinal and championship contests. Currently six teams that will be in the new conference are ranked in the USCHO.com Top 20 poll.

“With top teams and passionate fan bases, the National is poised to be an elite college hockey conference, and we’re thrilled to be the national television partner,” said Weinberg.  “College hockey has been a staple of our programming and we’re pleased to expand our coverage and further serve fans with compelling and competitive conference action.”

“We are delighted to be associated with the preeminent national broadcaster of college hockey,” said Scherr.  “It is our goal to be the premier single-sport conference in intercollegiate athletics and the unmatched exposure and production quality that will be provided by CBS Sports Network will contribute significantly to realizing that vision.”

Currently, CBS Sports Network’s comprehensive college hockey coverage includes action from Hockey East, ECAC, CCHA, WCHA and Atlantic Hockey.

That will do it. We’ll shut the site down for the night.

Time For Some Thursday Links

Let’s give you some linkage on this Thursday.

We begin with Fox NFL rules analyst Mike Pereira who doesn’t mince words on ESPN’s Jon Gruden.

Bob’s Blitz reacts to Pereira’s strong post.

Jill Goldsmith of Variety says the clock is ticking for MSG Network and Time Warner Cable to hash out a new carriage agreement.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News writes that ESPN’s Monday Night Football experienced close to a double digit percentage ratings drop this season.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek says nothing delivers the ratings like football whether it be college or the NFL.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Ronnie Ramos says coaches and leagues regulating how their players use Twitter is still up for debate.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid notes that ABC 20/20 anchor Chris Cuomo is a fan of ESPN Monday Night Countdown’s “C’mon, Man” segment.

Mike Ozanian of Forbes says the Seattle Mariners could see a huge media rights increase in the very near future.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe talks with the venerable TV play-by-play man of the Boston Celtics, Mike Gorman.

Chad notes that the Boston sports radio wars are getting a bit tighter in the ratings.

Johnny Diaz of the Globe writes that local businesses including Celtics rightsholder Comcast SportsNet New England are glad to have the team back in action.

Richard Huff of the New York Daily News looks at ESPN’s New Year’s Eve programming featuring two daredevil death-defying and record-breaking jump attempts.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette gives us his top 5 sports media stories of the year.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union writes about Mike Pereira’s column on Jon Gruden.

John Hopkins of the Towanda (NY) News offers to take a vow of abstinence from ESPN for a year.

Tim Pinaccio of CSNPhilly.com talks with NHL Chief Operating Officer John Collins about HBO’s 24/7 series.

Barry Jackson at the Miami Herald says a local sports radio station is juggling its on-air lineup.

Rachel George of the Orlando Sentinel says CBS Sports Network will be all-Tim Tebow from Saturday night into the wee hours of Sunday morning.

Jay G. Tate of the Montgomery (AL) Advertiser notes that Auburn coach Gene Chizik will be returning to the BCS Championship Game this season, as an ESPN analyst.

At the Detroit News, Angelique S. Chegelis looks at the new partnership between the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences that would pit the conference’s football teams in interconference matchups in the first three weeks of the season. Games would benefit both conferences’ TV networks.

Tom Couzens at the Sacramento Bee gives a primer to Kings fans looking for the team’s games on satellite providers.

Susan Krashinsky of the Toronto Globe and Mail wonders if CBC can remain in the sports business.

Tommy Craggs of Deadspin looks into the Skip Baylessification of ESPN.

Kevin McCauley of SB Nation says now that charges against him have been dropped, Mike Milbury will return to NBC for the NHL Winter Classic.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says Versus will utilize its NHL top analyst Eddie Olcyzk to help call its inaugural college hockey telecast this week.

Sports Media Watch continues its countdown of the Top 20 Sports Media stories of the year. Here are #5 — 2. And you have the #1 story of the year.

And that will conclude the links for now. I figured I would get them done early for a change.

ESPN Extends Agreement With NCAA For Championships Through 2023-24

The networks continue to lock in long-terms agreements and today, we receive this press release from ESPN regarding the NCAA Championships. With this agreement, the ESPN networks will air championships in sports including Football, Women’s Basketball, Hockey, Soccer, Volleyball, Track & Field, Gymnastics, Lacrosse, Softball and Baseball.

The championships will be aired on all ESPN platforms including TV and online. ESPNU will get a huge block of programming devoted to college sports. ESPN will also get various streaming rights for ESPN3.

ESPN picks up seven NCAA Championships in this agreement including three from CBS/CBS Sports Network women’s gymnastics, women’s lacrosse and men’s and women’s outdoor track & field.

Here’s the announcement from ESPN and the NCAA.

ESPN and NCAA® Extend Rights Agreement through 2023-24

Expanded Rights Secured for ESPN3 and Other Multi-media Platforms for 24 NCAA Championships;
Exclusive International Rights for NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship;
NIT^® Season Tip-Off and NIT Postseason Coverage

ESPN, Inc. and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) today announced a multiyear agreement through 2023-24 for worldwide, multi-media rights to 24 NCAA championships and exclusive multi-media rights outside the United States, its territories and Bermuda for the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. The new agreement, which takes effect immediately, also provides expanded coverage of each round of the NIT Season Tip-Off and all games from the NIT Postseason Tournament across the ESPN networks.

The new agreement includes 600-plus hours and 300 telecasts of live coverage annually across more platforms than ever before. It contains rights for ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3, ESPN 3D, ESPN Mobile, ESPN FULL COURT, GamePlan, Buzzer Beater, Goal Line, ESPN International, ESPN Deportes, ESPN.com and WatchESPN, with many of the 24 championships produced in high definition on ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD and ESPNU HD.

Exclusive coverage of the Division I Women’s Basketball Championship and broad rights covering the NCAA Division I Football Championship, and the Men’s and Women’s College World Series, among others, will continue on the ESPN networks.

“We have enjoyed a great relationship with the NCAA that has spanned the history of ESPN,” said George Bodenheimer, President, ESPN and ABC Sports, and Co-Chairman, Disney Media Networks. “This is our most comprehensive agreement yet and ensures sports fans will have access to top-level NCAA athletics across ESPN networks and platforms.”

“Thousands of inspiring and compelling student-athletes make it to the championship level every year, and we at the NCAA are excited to be able to share their stories with a broader audience than ever,” said NCAA President Mark Emmert. “Across all sports and divisions, our primary goal is to support student-athlete success both on the field and in the classroom, and this new agreement provides us a greater ability to do so.”

ESPN expands its exclusive final round NCAA coverage with 24 NCAA championships:

• Fall – Division I women’s soccer; Division I men’s soccer; Division I women’s volleyball; Division I football (FCS); Division II football and Division III football
• Winter – Division I men’s and women’s indoor track & field; Division I men’s and women’s swimming & diving; Division I women’s basketball; Division I wrestling; Division I men’s ice hockey; National Collegiate women’s bowling; National Collegiate women’s gymnastics and National Collegiate men’s and women’s fencing.
• Spring – National Collegiate men’s volleyball; Division I men’s and women’s lacrosse; Division I men’s and women’s outdoor track & field; Division I softball and Division I baseball

ESPN is adding coverage of seven NCAA championships: National Collegiate women’s gymnastics, National Collegiate men’s and women’s fencing, Division I women’s lacrosse, Division I men’s and women’s outdoor track & field and National Collegiate women’s bowling (previously sublicensed from CBS). ESPN will also air additional preliminary round coverage of selected NCAA championships including Division I football (FCS), Division I women’s volleyball, Division I softball and Division I baseball.

ESPNU

• Additional coverage on ESPN’s 24-hour college sports network, including high-profile, preliminary-round NCAA championships exposure. ESPNU has featured original NCAA content since the network’s inception on March 4, 2005
• During the 2011-12 season, 15 NCAA national champions will be crowned on ESPNU in the following events: National Collegiate women’s bowling; National collegiate men’s and women’s fencing; Division III football; National Collegiate women’s gymnastics; Division I men’s and women’s indoor track & field; Division I women’s lacrosse; Division I men’s and women’s outdoor track & field; Division I men’s and women’s soccer; Division I men’s and women’s swimming & diving, and National Collegiate men’s volleyball
• More than 90 events and 220 hours of NCAA championship programming during the 2011-12 season

ESPN3

• ESPN’s live multi-screen sports network will feature exclusive coverage from selected rounds and sites of 16 NCAA championships including: Division I baseball; National Collegiate men’s and women’s fencing; Division I football (FCS); National Collegiate women’s gymnastics; Division I men’s and women’s indoor track & field; Division I women’s lacrosse; Division I men’s and women’s outdoor track & field; Division I women’s soccer; Division I softball; Division I men’s and women’s swimming & diving; Division I women’s volleyball and Division I wrestling
• Extensive early-round event coverage from Division I baseball, Division I football (FCS), Division I men’s ice hockey, Division I softball, Division I women’s volleyball and Division I wrestling
• 80-plus live exclusive events from NCAA championships, the NIT Season Tip-Off and NIT Postseason Tournament during the 2011-12 season

Women’s Basketball

• ESPN remains the exclusive home of the Division I Women’s Basketball Championship.  ESPN has carried the championship since 1996
• 2012 marks the 10^th consecutive year of airing the entire championship with all 63 games tipping-off live on ESPN networks
• ESPN continues to feature the NCAA Women’s Basketball Selection Special with Selection Monday on ESPN

Men’s Basketball

• International rights for the entire NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, including distribution in Latin America (Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America), the Middle East and Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands, Europe, Japan and Canada (via TSN)
• Selected highlight rights from the complete championship for distribution in the U.S. and international territories
• Exclusive home of the men’s basketball NIT Season Tip-Off and NIT Postseason Tournament, including expanded coverage of the tip-off event and all rounds from the postseason tournament
• Live studio coverage from inside the stadium at the Men’s Final Four^®

Studio Shows

• In addition to women’s basketball, ESPN maintains exclusive rights to selected NCAA championship selection shows. ESPNU will showcase Division I baseball, Division I football (FCS), Division I men’s ice hockey, Division I men’s lacrosse, Division I softball, and Division I women’s volleyball selection shows.

That will do it.

It’s The Linkage! At Long Last and It’s Back!

I think it’s about a week and a half since I’ve been able to do links. Been crazy with me, but you’ve still been visiting and I appreciate that. Time to provide you with sports media news links which is what the site depends on to begin with.

Thanks for your patience during this trying time for me. Onward and let’s do the links.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today writes that NBA analysts aren’t holding back as they get ready for a new truncated season.

Mike Foss of USA Today talks with the new ESPN main soccer analyst Taylor Twellman about tweeting while commentating and concussions.

From earlier this week, Tom Weir of USA Today’s Game On blog notes that “Tebowing” has been officially recognized as a word.

This week’s Sports Business Journal lists the 50 Most Influential People in Sports Business for 2011. I’m not in this year’s list (I’m joking).

Terry Lefton of SBJ says the Stadium Formerly Known as San Diego Jack Murphy will have a temporary name for the holiday season.

Dan Shanoff’s Quickish site lists the Best Sportswriting in 2011. Some good choices and good reading throughout.

Toni Fitzgerald from Media Life Magazine says three of the five NFL TV partners are experiencing lower ratings from last season.

From MediaPost, Wayne Friedman writes that smaller market TV revenues played a huge role in the NBA’s nixing of the Chris Paul from New Orleans-to-Los Angeles Lakers trade.

Brian Steinberg of Advertising Age says hoping to tap into a more health-conscious audience, Dannon Yogurt becomes the first of its kind to advertise on the Super Bowl.

At Adweek, Lucia Moses says Rolling Stone magazine will host its first-ever Super Bowl party in Indianapolis come February.

All Access notes that Milwaukee Brewers radio voice Bob Uecker will be inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Chris Chase at Yahoo’s Shutdown Corner has a video that has gone viral in which a Washington, DC news anchor said that if Tom Brady had died, the DC NFL Team might have had a chance to beat the New England Patriots last Sunday.

Michael Bradley at the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center says don’t expect journalism from local MLB TV partners as they increasingly fund team’s payrolls.

Dan Fogarty at SportsGrid wonders if Shaquille O’Neal will upset the apple cart that is TNT’s Inside the NBA postgame studio show.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III of Baylor is setting the world afire with his Superman socks.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing lists the site’s Top 10 Pammies of the Year.

Gabriel Sherman of The New Yorker magazine writes about sports journalism getting into some hard reporting in the wake of various scandals.

Newsday’s Neil Best writes about tonight’s premiere of HBO’s 24/7 Flyers/Rangers.

The New York Daily News’ Dr. Gloom and Doom reports that YES may hire former MLB manager Lou Piniella as an analyst for next season.

Pete Dougherty in the Albany Times Union says while CBS won the right to keep Patriots-Broncos in Week 15, viewers in the Capital Region won’t see it.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette notes that DirecTV will air a local college hockey game through Fox College Sports.

Ken McMillen from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says WGN America will pick up 10 Chicago Bulls games this season.

Laura Nachman has a couple of Philadelphia 76ers announcements.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has gotten a hold of Tony Kornheiser’s high school yearbook picture and yes, he had hair.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with Golf Channel Morning Drive co-host Gary Williams.

Dwain Price at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram speaks with new Dallas Maverick Lamar Odom about his trade from the Lakers and whether he’ll continue to do the Kardashian television abortion.

The Houston Chronicle reports that ESPN college football analyst Craig James is expected to announce a run for the U.S. Senate, a move that would thrill many fans who can’t stand him on television.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman notes that the NFL topped the local ratings in the Sooner State.

Mel says the local CBS affiliate will pick up the rest of the Denver Broncos schedule and air plenty of Tim Tebow.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says a local sports talk show host has resigned leaving his station in the lurch.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business talks with “NHL 36″ Executive Producer Ross Greenburg about tonight’s series premiere.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail asks if lightning can strike twice with HBO’s 24/7.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog looks at the effect of media giants Bell Canada and Rogers combining to purchase Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment which would be like ESPN and NBC teaming up to buy the New York Yankees, that’s how big the news is in Canada.

John Daly at The Daly Planet explores the continuing dispute between Sirius XM and Turner Sports over streaming NASCAR on the internet.

Sports Media Watch looks at the final ratings for the SEC on CBS.

And SMW also notes the final ratings of college football on ABC.

SMW says the Heisman Trophy Presentation on ESPN last Saturday did well.

And SMW has some ratings news and notes.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says today is a pretty big day for hockey fans.

And the Big Lead notes that Tim Tebow is on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated.

That will conclude our linkage today and I hope that the next set of linkage will come tomorrow instead of another 10 days.

Churning Out The Tuesday Links

Early evening again. Let’s do some linkage here.

The Poynter Institute’s Jason Fry writes an article as the ESPN Ombudsman on how whiskey maker Jameson’s got stuck sponsoring the ESPN Films “Unguarded” documentary on addict Chris Herren.

Michael Bradley writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center looks at a new e-book from Dallas Mavericks owner and social media maven Mark Cuban.

Tony Barnhart, a.k.a. “Mr. College Football”, writes a tribute to the late voice of the Georgia Bulldogs, Larry Munson at CBSSports.com.

Peter Schrager at Esquire talks with Baltimore sportscaster Gerry Sandusky, who’s often confused with the accused Penn State child molester.

At the Hollywood Reporter, Georg Szalai writes that the NBA lockout really didn’t effect the cable networks’ in the third quarter of this year.

Lacey Rose from the Reporter talks with Captain Blowhard about his Grantland site and a few other things that people really don’t care about.

One more from the Reporter, Gary Baum says Hollywood is taking sides for this weekend’s USC-UCLA game. Whatever.

Brian Steinberg at Advertising Age tells us how the ads for Super Bowl XLVI on NBC are shaping up.

Dan Hirschhorn of Ad Age says the networks are now hoping to poach NBA advertisers in the wake of the lockout.

Jon Lafayette of Broadcasting & Cable notes the plan of succession for ESPN Dictator George Bodenheimer is now in place and will take in effect on New Year’s Day.

John Eggerton at B&C says NBC Sports Network gets into boxing next year.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News notes that NASCAR’s season finale got a big rating for ESPN.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek writes about NBC Sports and the NHL teaming up for a new event hoping that it will be as successful as the Winter Classic.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell notes a new poll which shows that former Penn State coach Joe Paterno’s reputation has been ruined most likely for good.

Newsday’s Neil Best says the NFL is not as dependent on New York for ratings as the other sports leagues.

Pete Dougherty from the Albany Times Union has the NFL Week 12 TV schedule for the Capital Region.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette says Time Warner Cable will air local high school football championships this weekend.

Ken says MSG Network airs some college hockey on Saturday.

Jim Williams at the Washington Examiner talks about NBA TV’s new show that premieres tonight.

Jim says the Big East could become a coast-to-coast conference.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes about the ESPN chain of succession.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman says as expected, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State drew big local ratings over the weekend.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says try not to get too excited over Fox’s Galloping Gobbler Award.

Ed Sherman from Crain’s Chicago Business talks with an NBA agent who’s making due during the lockout.

Jay Drew of the Salt Lake Tribune writes that BYU’s TV contract is the main holdup for the school’s entry to the Big East.

Helene Elliot from the Los Angeles Times looks at the potential aftermath of the Dodgers ownership sale.

Sports Media Watch says ESPN’s NASCAR ratings went up this year.

Christopher Byrne of Eye on Sports Media has some thoughts on the passing of Georgia football announcer Larry Munson.

That’s going to be it.

Doing The Wednesday Links

Let’s provide some mid-week linkage for you.

Sports Business Daily recaps how ESPN’s SportsCenter handled NBA highlights on what should have been the Opening Night of the regular season.

SBD also looks at Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt’s agreement to sell the team at auction.

Paul Thomasch with Reuters says MLB is looking to hit the motherlode in a new round of negotiations for network TV partners.

Michael Hiestand from USA Today talks with SEC on CBS analyst Gary Danielson on LSU-Alabama.

Steve Wieberg and Steve Berkowitz of USA Today explore ESPN’s role in the realignment in college sports.

Tom Weir of USA Today says ESPN’s Jenn Brown tweeted about her experience being locked in a hotel bathroom today.

In Outkick The Coverage, Clay Travis looks into the conflicts regarding CBS’ Tony Barnhart’s reporting of Missouri to the Southeastern Conference.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch delved into ESPN’s coverage of Tim Tebow and found it bordering on the excessive.

Etan Vlessing of the Hollywood Reporter says singer Cee Lo “Eff You” Green will be performing on the NHL float during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC. Of course, the NHL and NBC are partners as well. Green also is a judge on NBC’s “The Voice” so there’s synergy all around here.

Georg Szalai of the Reporter has Comcast’s CEO saying Telemundo’s reported $600 million deal for the World Cup will be profitable for the company.

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable reports that an appeals court has again thrown out the FCC fine against CBS for airing Janet Jackson’s nipple during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show.

Bill Cromwell of Media Life Magazine says cable had a ratings downturn in October led by ESPN’s Monday Night Football and TBS’ MLB Postseason coverage.

Timothy Burke at Deadspin notes that ESPN’s Erin Andrews had a little problem with a math concept with LSU coach Les Miles.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid says ESPN.com’s comment section went haywire thanks to those writing about Tim Tebow.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell wonders if Fox will buy the Dodgers again.

Darren tells us that secondary ticket prices for Saturday’s LSU-Alabama game are reaching astronomical levels.

In the Boston Globe, Bruins beat reporter Fluto Shinzawa writes about being a foodie when he travels on the road with the team.

Edward Wyatt of the New York Times looks at the Third Circuit Appeals court throwing out the FCC fine against CBS.

Mike Tanier of the Times says NFL TV analysts now have to find ways to stand out above the crowd even if it means being confrontational.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette looks at NBC Sports Network’s college hockey schedule.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union has the Week 10 College Football TV schedule.

Pete also has the Week 9 NFL TV schedule.

Ken McMillan at the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record notes that Seton Hall basketball will air on ESPN Radio New York this season.

Laura Nachman says Sunday Night Football featuring the Philadelphia Eagles won primetime for NBC.

David Salter in the Patriot-News (PA) writes about the progression and in some cases, regression of women covering sports.

Dan Steinberg from the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says Rob Dibble can’t let his 2010 firing from MASN go without firing another shot.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner writes that the first part of the Big East’s expansion is complete. Now comes the next step.

Jon Solomon of the Birmingham (AL) News says the ESPN Films documentary on the Alabama-Auburn rivalry is top notch.

Dennis Pillion of Al.com notes that ESPN will go inside the Alabama football program leading up to its big game against LSU on Saturday.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle notes that DirecTV has come to terms with another local station group.

John Kiesewetter from the Cincinnati Enquirer says Time Warner Cable will air four local high school football games.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the NFL is about to release the Green Bay Packers championship DVD package.

Ed Sherman at Crain’s Chicago Business writes that Comcast SportsNet is trying to survive without the Bulls.

Mark Anderson of the Las Vegas Review-Journal notes that Air Force is happy to be playing on “an easy to find” TV channel this week and possibly be moving to the Big East where games are also easily found.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has the Week 10 NFL TV schedule for SoCal.

Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times wonders if media rivals Fox and Time Warner would put forth a bid to buy the Dodgers.

Sports Media Watch has a look at the Week 8 NFL overnight ratings. First, CBS. Then Fox. To Sunday Night Football. And finally, Monday Night Football.

And SMW notes that ESPN is filling programming holes left by the NBA lockout.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media has the national college hockey TV schedule.

Joe Favorito says the baseball season may be over, but the sport continues to keep its brand active in the offseason.

Joe Lucia at Awful Announcing feels ESPN’s presentation of the MLB Gold Glove Awards did not need to be watched.

And that will do us for now.

NBC Sports Network Announces College Hockey Schedule

It’ll actually begin when the channel is still caused Versus, but the bulk of the 16 game schedule will be after the name change to NBC Sports Network on January 2. Overall, it’s a very good college hockey schedule and it will culminate with the Hockey East Tournament in March. NBC Sports Network will air games from the ECAC, Hockey East, CCHA and WCHA.

There will be three doubleheaders on February 10, February 24 and on March 16. The March doubleheader will be the Hockey East Semifinals in Boston.

The games will air Friday nights on Versus/NBC Sports Network. We have your press release from the NBC Sports Group.

NBC SPORTS GROUP LAUNCHES FIRST-EVER COLLEGE HOCKEY COVERAGE WITH 16 GAMES ON NBC SPORTS NETWORK THIS SEASON

Network Drops Puck on Coverage with #12 Boston University-#4 Notre Dame
New Year’s Eve Match-up
11 Friday Nights of College Hockey Begins Jan. 6; Hockey East Tournament Coverage Begins March 9
NBC Sports Network to also Air Notre Dame Home Hockey Games Beginning with 2013-14 Season

NEW YORK (November 2, 2011)— The NBC Sports Group will air 16 live college hockey games this season on NBC Sports Network, including four from the Hockey East Tournament (one Quarterfinal, both Semifinals and the Final). This season’s schedule, which marks the first time that the NBC Sports Group will air college hockey games, was developed through partnerships with numerous collegiate hockey associations and universities.

The coverage begins on VERSUS, which will be rebranded as the NBC Sports Network on Jan. 2, on Saturday, December 31, when No. 4 Notre Dame hosts No. 12 Boston University at 7 p.m. ET. The remainder of this season’s schedule, which includes a game each Friday in primetime starting in January, will be seen on NBC Sports Network. The schedule culminates with live coverage of the Hockey East Tournament with a Quarterfinal game on March 9, as well as both Semifinals and the Final on March 16 and 17, 2012, respectively, from TD Garden in Boston, Mass.

“We are excited to be launching our first-ever college hockey package by building a destination on Friday nights on the NBC Sports Network with many of the preeminent brands in the sport,” said Jon Miller, President of Programming for NBC Sports Group.

Additional regular-season highlights include No. 4 Notre Dame hosting No. 3 Michigan on Jan. 20; No. 9 Yale facing Harvard on Jan. 27; and a Feb. 10 doubleheader featuring No. 1 Boston College traveling to Vermont and No. 8 Denver hosting No. 5 Minnesota.

The college hockey telecasts will be produced by the same Emmy Award-winning team that oversees all of the NHL games for the NBC Sports Group, led by Sam Flood, Executive Producer for NBC Sports and VERSUS.

The NBC Sports Group also recently announced a multi-year deal with Notre Dame to have their home games televised on the NBC Sports Network beginning with the 2013-14 season, when the school joins Hockey East.

NBC Sports Network’s College Hockey Schedule (all times ET, subject to change):

Saturday, December 31, 2011 — #12 Boston University at #4 Notre Dame 7:00 p.m. (VERSUS)
Friday, January 6, 2012 — Dartmouth at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 7:30 p.m.
Friday, January 13 — #14 Minnesota-Duluth at Nebraska-Omaha 7:30 p.m.
Friday, January 20 — #3 Michigan at #4 Notre Dame 7:30 p.m.
Friday, January 27 — #9 Yale at Harvard 7:30 p.m.
Friday, February 3 — Cornell at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 7:30 p.m.
Friday, February 10 — #1 Boston College at Vermont 7:30 p.m.
Friday, February 10 — #5 Minnesota at #8 Denver 10:00 p.m.
Friday, February 17 –Dartmouth at #9 Yale 7:30 p.m.
Friday, February 24 — #12 Boston University at Vermont 7:30 p.m.
Friday, February 24 — #15 North Dakota at #8 Denver 10:00 p.m.
Friday, March 2 — #8 Denver at Nebraska-Omaha 7:30 p.m.

Hockey East Tournament

Friday, March 9 — Quarterfinals 7:30 p.m.
Friday, March 16 — Semifinals 5:00 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Saturday, March 17 — Finals 8:00 p.m.

All rankings based off USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine 2011-12 Men’s College Hockey Poll #5 (October 31, 2011).

That’s going to do it.

It’s Been Way Too Long Without Linkage

I appreciate you still visiting Fang’s Bites as I’ve been trying to keep the site updated for you. Linkage has been scarce since Sunday. Been busy helping my sister with her son and then I was out for most of the morning.

Time to provide you with some linkage.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says Fox Sports will be using infra-red technology during the World Series.

The Nielsen Wire blog notes the MLB teams that topped their local markets in the TV ratings.

Kurt Helin of Pro Basketball Talk looks at Bryant Gumbel’s controversial commentary about NBA Commissioner David Stern.

Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing says while Gumbel’s “plantation overseer” comment is what’s driving controversy, it’s Stern himself who’s stirring the pot.

Robert Littal at Black Sports Online is uncomfortable with Gumbel’s commentary.

Lauren Schutte of the Hollywood Reporter has a look at Stephen Colbert’s mock ad on the NBA lockout.

George Winslow from Broadcasting & Cable says the Big 12 Conference has chosen a company to help develop mobile apps for the iPhone and Android platforms.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News writes that ESPN scored a key demographic win for Monday Night Football.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek says low ratings for the MLB League Championship Series isn’t providing much hope for the World Series.

Anthony also looks at the breakdown of talks between the NFL and Time Warner Cable for the NFL Network.

Glenn Davis of SportsGrid says while people are talking about Bryant Gumbel’s comments about NBA Commissioner David Stern, there’s another unflattering analogy about him floating around the internet today.

Joe Gisondi of the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center has some suggestions on how to write a proper lead and how to avoid writing clichés.

Brandon Costa from Sports Video Group says Fox Sports Midwest is trying to set itself apart among the outlets covering this year’s World Series.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell looks at the two Lone Star State businessmen behind the Texas Rangers.

To Pro Hockey Talk and Mike Halford who says the Winnipeg Jets are blown away by the local media coverage particularly today in Toronto as compared to when they were the Atlanta Thrashers.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says the byes in NFL Week 7 are leaving Fox with scraps.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call writes that Fox’s Joe Buck doesn’t care if you think he’s biased for one team or another.

From the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg notes that former DC NFL Team quarterback Joe Theismann isn’t in favor of John Beck starting this week over train wreck Rex Grossman. This is why Joe was such a bad analyst.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says ESPN on ABC correctly covered Dan Wheldon’s death and subsequent tribute on Sunday.

To the Houston Chronicle where Anna-Megan Raley shows us how Texans tight end Joel Dreessen took down an NFL Network analyst.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman says the Fox Sports crew is looking forward to airing its 14th World Series.

Mel notes that college football topped the local ratings.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says the local CBS affiliate won’t carry Carson Palmer’s Oakland Raiders debut on Sunday.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business has some sports TV notes including the World Series ratings expectations.

Ed also compares the fates and fortunes of the Cubs and Cardinals as the World Series begins tonight.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes that both Joe Buck and Tim McCarver are almost back at full strength after separate physical ailments.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News writes that Fox won’t be displaying a live strike zone graphic as TBS did during its MLB Postseason coverage.

Bruce Dowbiggin at the Toronto Globe and Mail says like it or not, Don Cherry’s influence on Canadian hockey cannot be measured.

Sports Media Watch notes that CBS finally broke out of its NFL ratings losing streak in Week 5.

SMW says in NFL Week 5, Fox saw a ratings downtick.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media notes that Versus/NBC Sports Network will begin airing Notre Dame hockey games this season.

And that will do it for links today.

Doing Some Tuesday Linkage

Having spent most of the day at the Providence Civic Center and the Rhode Island Convention Center for a seminar, I wasn’t able to provide linkage. I’ve collected quite a few links for you today so let’s get to them.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today goes over the ratings from the weekend and notes that the NFL regular season had no problem in the ratings with the MLB Postseason.

Lindsay Powers from the Hollywood Reporter writes that the Anti-Defamation League is setting its sights on Hank Williams, Jr. for his remarks on President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner which led ESPN to pull his open from last night’s Monday Night Football game.

Sports Business Daily has a recap on the entire Hank Williams, Jr. controversy.

John Ourand at Sports Business Journal says the Philadelphia Phillies climbed to the top of the local MLB ratings for this season.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News reports on the Tennis Channel’s long-term extension to carry the French Open.

Andy Katz of ESPN.com reports that the Big 12 member schools have agreed on a plan that will distribute TV rights money equally among the institutions.

Tom Van Riper of Forbes.com reports that a Nielsen study has found that women make up a large portion of the sports audience.

Maggie Hendricks of Yahoo wonders when female sports reporters will stop being the target of some cruel male fans.

Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy writes that with the NHL season fast approaching, the league has yet to sign a deal to air its games in all of Europe. Yes, ALL of Europe.

Phil Swann of TV Predictions says TBS has gotten it right with its HD coverage of the MLB Postseason.

At Media Bistro’s TVSpy, Andrew Gauthier has the video of a Seattle TV reporter not editing out the swears while reading live on the air a Seahawks fan chat from the station’s website.

The Big Lead has a picture of ESPN’s Erin Andrews and her trophy boyfriend.

Timothy Burke of SportsGrid has video that shows two things on one play, first the Cowboys’ Felix Jones is is not a MENSA candidate and Joe Buck and Troy Aikman had no idea it was 4th down.

To Bob’s Blitz which has audio of WFAN’s Mike Francesa pulling a nutty on the New York Jets for their performance in Baltimore on Sunday Night Football.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell finds that using the color pink in the NFL’s Breast Cancer Awareness campaign may be counterproductive to its message.

Darren wonders why Mercedes-Benz chose the New Orleans Superdome to purchase naming rights.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks into the extremely lengthy NFL Network-Time Warner Cable dispute.

Richard also delves into the Hank Williams, Jr./Monday Night Football mess.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says local college hockey will be heard on two stations.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette writes that Time Warner Cable also gets into the local college hockey act.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog talks with MASN Nationals analyst F.P. Santangelo on his first year on the job.

Dan says Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic has raided MSG Network for its new Capitals studio host.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says both Sunday Night Football and the MLB Postseason are doing well in the ratings.

Michael Kruse and Lane DeGregory of the St. Petersburg Times looks at two fans who made both the Tampa Bay Rays and the Buccaneers games on the same night.

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle has a look at some local college football and NFL ratings.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says ESPN’s E:60 will do a story on former Bengals running back Ickey Woods and his foundation to promote asthma and organ donation awareness.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that the Green Bay Packers drew their largest ratings of the season on Sunday.

Bob says Versus’ Turning Point will focus on the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says the Dodgers will be changing flagship radio stations next season.

Sports Media Watch says the opener for the NLDS between Arizona and Milwaukee was a mixed bag for TBS.

SMW says Cards-Phils Game 1 was down.

SMW notes that Tigers-Yankees didn’t do well either.

To the NFL, SMW notes that Fox was the ratings winner in Week 4.

SMW tells us that CBS continues in a downward spiral for the NFL.

SMW informs us that NBC’s ratings for Sunday Night Football were down.

And Monday Night Football also took a big hit according to SMW.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media has the final numbers for Versus’ preseason NHL games.

That’s going to do it.

CBS Sports Network Announces 2011-12 Hockey East Schedule

CBS Sports Network and the Hockey East conference have announced an eight game college hockey schedule that begins next week and ends in March. Overall, Boston College makes the most appearances with 5, Boston University is next with 4, then Maine and Vermont have two appearances. Providence College and UNH have one single appearance and that is a game involving both schools in February.

We have the full press release with the schedule right below.

HOCKEY EAST ANNOUNCES 2011-12 CBS SPORTS NETWORK BROADCAST SCHEDULE

Wakefield, Mass. – Hockey East and CBS Sports Network announced on Wednesday the eight-game broadcast schedule for the upcoming 2011-12 season.

The schedule opens with Boston College hosting WCHA foe Denver University on Friday, October 14 at Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Mass. The next two games will feature one of the fiercest rivalries in all of college sports, as Boston College faces off against Boston University on November 13 and December 2 at Conte Forum.

“We are pleased to join forces once more with CBS Sports Network,” said Hockey East Commissioner Joe Bertagna. “The need to reach a national audience is greater than ever before and we are happy to continue this partnership.”

CBS Sports Network will televise from Maine’s Alfond Arena on December 10, as the Black Bears host the Boston University Terriers. The Network will also air the rematch on January 28 from Agganis Arena in Boston.

On February 3, the Network will air UNH entertaining Providence College from the Whittemore Center in Durham. The Network schedule concludes with Vermont at Boston College in the final two games of the regular season for each school.

“We’re excited for another season of Hockey East action on CBS Sports Network,” said Ross Molloy, Vice President, Remote Production, CBS Sports Network. “The schedule once again features top conference games and we look forward to providing fans comprehensive coverage throughout the season, including our pregame show which originates from the site of each game.”

The Hockey East Association is a 10-team Division I college men’s hockey conference founded in 1984 and an eightteam Division I women’s league which began play in 2002-03. The men’s league has won seven NCAA championships in the past 19 years.

2011-2012 CBS SPORTS NETWORK BROADCAST SCHEDULE
Date	Game	Time
Friday, October 14	Denver at Boston College	7:30
Sunday, November 13	Boston University at Boston College	4:00
Friday, December 2	Boston University at Boston College	7:30
Saturday, December 10	Boston University at Maine	7:30
Saturday, January 28	Maine at Boston University	7:30
Friday, February 3	Providence at New Hampshire	7:30
Friday, March 2	Vermont at Boston College	7:30
Saturday, March 3	Vermont at Boston College	7:00

 

That’s going to do it.

Cranking Out The Sunday Links

Let’s give you some linkage on this Sunday morning. I’m at work again. No rest for the weary here.

Cam Martin of SportsNewser writes that Sports Illustrated’s Peter King broke news this weekend about HBO’s Hard Knocks.

David Whitley of the Sporting News says there’s some hypocrisy in the Big 12′s criticism of the Longhorn Network.

John Taylor at College Football Talk says ESPN.com’s Joe Schad reported a story on a potential LSU violation without giving credit to its original source.

Timothy Burke at SportsGrid has video of NESN’s Jerry Remy trashing Mike Lowell during a commercial break, but knowing Remy during commercial breaks and him knowing that the monitors at Fenway Park can be heard, I’m 100% positive he was joking.

Awful Announcing gathered tweets from people watching Fox Saturday Baseball as Dick Stockton and Thom Brennaman were calling separate games. Let’s just say the reaction wasn’t pretty.

Joe Favorito has some tips for anyone using social media.

Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe says the Celtics will have a lot of green thanks to its deal with Comcast SportsNet New England.

I’ll break my boycott of Dr. Gloom & Doom, Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News for a week. Today, Gloom & Doom has a story filled with backhanded compliments and vitriol on the successful return of Stephen A. “A is for Angry” Smith to ESPN Radio New York. No quotes from Smith though.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record writes about college hockey games possibly being aired on Versus.

On this Baseball Hall of Fame Day, Evan Weiner in the New Jersey Newsroom states that the HOF is barren without two people who made a huge impact on the game.

Jim Williams at the Washington Examiner notes that ESPN’s Nicole Briscoe gets a bigger role in the network’s NASCAR Sprint Cup coverage starting next weekend.

Mike Berardino of the South Florida Sun Sentinel writes about Florida Marlins broadcaster Dave Van Horne being inducted into the broadcaster’s wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend.

Andrew Carter of the Sun Sentinel says the director of the ESPN Films 30 for 30 documentary on Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams plans to film a follow-up.

Berry Tremel of the Daily Oklahoman has former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer weighing in on the Fox Sports/Big 12 alliance.

John Klein of the Tulsa World feels the Longhorn Network controversy is much ado about nothing.

Jeff Korbelik of the Lincoln (NE) Journal-Star writes that the sports radio format is finding its niche in town with a second station launching this week.

Warren Gerds of the Green Bay (WI) Gazette talks about a local reading of “Lombardi” which recently finished its Broadway run, featuring most of the original actors who performed in the play.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has the sports calendar for Southern California for the upcoming week.

In the Los Angeles Times, college football writer Chris Dufrense looks at the SEC Media Days event that has become larger-than-life.

Sports Media Watch notes the end of ESPN The Weekend at Walt Disney World.

And that will end the linkage for today.

Quick Saturday Links

I keep getting interrupted at work. I wrote a post earlier today on Brent Musburger’s night in Las Vegas, but I kept being recruited to the leave the office and something that should have taken 20 minutes to write ended up being three hours. And now I’m trying to do some linkage and keep getting interrupted as well. Who said Saturday’s are easy? Who said weekends are for relaxing? Who said you’re not supposed to work on weekends?

Anyway, you don’t want to read my complaints. Let’s do some linkage.

This won’t be as big as the recent news of the deaths in Norway or the just reported death of Amy Winehouse, but legendary boxing promoter Butch Lewis passed away today at the age of 65. He was a prolific promoter of fights in the 1980′s and had his signature tux with no shirt look. Lewis also produced movies and TV shows. He will be missed.

Michael Hiestand and Mike McCarthy of USA Today debate whether US coverage of global sporting events should be neutral or American-centric.

Rebeca Ford of the Hollywood Reporter says comedian Artie Lange is getting closer to co-hosting a Fox Sports Radio show with fellow comic Nick DiPaolo.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says the NBA released its national TV schedules this week to a lot of fanfare, but little buzz.

Andy Lewis at the Hollywood Reporter reports that Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt has been ordered to negotiate a new bankrupcty loan with MLB after a judge ruled voided one negotiated with another party.

To Sports Grid where Dan Fogarty notes that Jim Rome decided to dredge up some old street slang that people thought was dead for several years.

Glen Davis at SportsGrid says Fox Sports Detroit MLB analyst Rod Allen tried to make a joke about the Tigers’ large Latino contingent, but it came out very wrong.

James Jahnke of the Detroit Free Press had Allen trying to clarify that remark.

Cam Martin of SportsNewser writes that legendary announcer Dick Enberg will be honored by the Rhode Island-based International Tennis Hall of Fame for 50 years in broadcasting.

Newsday’s Neil Best looks at NBC/Versus getting into summer horse racing at Saratoga starting today.

Neil says athletes will miss getting their 15 minutes on HBO’s Entourage as the last season airs starting tomorrow.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes that Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspapers could lose special access to the London 2012 Olympics due to the News of the World phone hacking scandal.

To Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette who reports that Versus may be interested in airing college hockey games to supplement its NHL schedule.

Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review notes that Fox has selected the Pirates for its Saturday Baseball package for the first time since last decade.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner writes that MASN gives Mid-Atlantic baseball fans a show to watch.

Jeff Weiner in the Orlando Sentinel says ESPN is pulling out its ESPN the Weekend event out of Walt Disney World.

Jon Solomon of the Birmingham (AL) News writes that the SEC Media Days event has outgrown Birmingham.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News looks at some of the developments that occurred in sports media over the week.

Mac Engel of the Fort Worth Star Telegram notes that TCU is now keeping a watchful eye the Longhorn Network.

Eric Bailey of the Tulsa World says the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes are looking forward to increased TV exposure this football season.

To the St. Louis Post-Dispatch where Dan Caesar writes that you need a scorecard to keep up with the Cardinals’ TV and radio broadcast teams.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports a local TV station will air selected University of Utah football games starting this season.

Richard Ruelas of the Arizona Republic chronicles how the Fiesta Bowl made it to TV.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog looks at the announcers CTV could employ for the London 2012 Olympics.

The CSM also looks back at the week in Canadian sports media.

Sports Media Watch says Fox got off to a fast start of the second half of the MLB season last Saturday.

The Business Insider Sports Page lists the 10 worst sportscasters on the planet.

Brady Green at Awful Announcing has audio of Yankees voice John Sterling singing crazily about “The Grandy Man.”

That’s going to do it for today. Lots of links for a Saturday.

It’s A Monday Linkfest

For some reason, I’ve been out of the office a couple of times today and it’s pissing me off. Anyway, I’m back in the office now and barring an unforeseen interruption, I should be able to give you linkage here.

Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand has the local MLB TV ratings for the first half of the regular season and notes that the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets are in trouble.

This next story from Sports Business Daily is behind the dreaded paywall, but you can still get the gist of it as yesterday’s compelling Brazil-USA game at the Women’s World Cup received a 2.6 overnight rating for ESPN. CNBC’s Darren Rovell notes that the rating is better than this year’s NBA Draft!

Eben Novy-Williams of Bloomberg reports that Brazil-USA was the most watched Women’s World Cup Soccer game since the 1999 Final which the USA won over Communist China.

Lacey Rose of the Hollywood Reporter confirms what The Wrap reported over the weekend, that ESPN Classic will pick up the entire Friday Night Lights series.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek writes that the NFL could see as much as a $600 million rights fee for a new 8-game Thursday Night Football package.

Adweek’s Rebecca Cullers has a story on sports apparel outfitter K-Swiss continuing its storyline of utilizing HBO’s Eastbound & Down’s Kenny Powers character in its ad campaign.

USA Today’s Mike McCarthy talks with Fox Sports’ Joe Buck about his vocal cord troubles that have plagued his voice this year.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News says cable providers could be crowing this year with some big name boxing pay per view fights.

Jon Lafayette at Broadcasting & Cable writes that Golf Channel has relaunched its website.

My good friends at SportsGrid have just launched a redesign of their excellent sports media website. Dan Fogarty explains.

SportsGrid has brought on Timothy Burke of the Mocksession site which provides vidcaps and videos. He’s been providing videos to the under the byline “SportsGrid Video”, but now can reveal himself publicly as of today. Tim has this funny post of the WGN Cubs announcers exposing their cameramen as pervs.

One more from SportsGrid. A look at how it would cast the movie based on the ESPN tome, “Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside The World of ESPN.” The choices are pretty much dead on.

Cam Martin at SportsNewser has video of one of the media cars getting too close to one of the cyclists in the Tour de France and causing a horrific crash.

Also from SportsNewser, Marcus Vanderberg tells us that an estimated one billion people watched last year’s World Cup Final between Spain and the Netherlands. That’s a lot of people.

The London Telegraph has ESPN UK’s English Premier League schedule for the upcoming season.

Chris Fedor from Sports Radio Interviews has a link to Dan Patrick’s interview with reporting bulldog Jim Gray about “The Decision”, one year later.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell talks about Tiger Woods “special announcement” that he made on Golf Channel, that he’ll be following his agent, Mark Steinberg to a new agency.

Paul Devlin at the New Canaan (CT) Patch talks with CBS Sports’ Jim Nantz.

Newsday’s Neil Best notes that YES cleaned up in the ratings with Saturday’s Rays-Yankees game during which Derek Jeter got his 3,000th career hit.

Neil talks with women’s soccer legend Mia Hamm who’s doing work for espnW and ESPN for the Women’s World Cup about USA-Brazil.

Neil has a review of the HBO doc on Curt Flood that airs Wednesday.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun loves baseball, but can no longer stand watching the Orioles on MASN.

From the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg looks at the Nationals’ attendance and TV ratings at the halfway point of the regular season.

Dan has Wizards’ TV analyst Phil Chenier explaining why he shaved off his trademark mustache.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with Fox Sports’ Tim McCarver about calling the MLB All-Star Game for the last 20 years.

In the St. Petersburg Times, Tom Jones lists some of the things in sports and sports TV that he has missed.

The Tampa Tribune notes that Rays outfielder Sam Fuld will be working for ESPN tonight during the MLB Home Run Derby.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the Brewers local ratings are amongst the highest in MLB.

Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star Tribune gives praise to former Minnesota Twins manager Tom Kelly who pinch-hit for regular Fox Sports North analyst Bert Blyeven last week.

Jeff Korbelik of the Lincoln (NE) Journal Star says former local sports anchor Dari Nowkhah heads over to ESPNU full-time.

The Dickinson (ND) Press picks up a story from Brad Schlossman on the new college hockey superconference talking with Versus about a TV contract.

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post reviews the HBO documentary on Curt Flood.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has your SoCal sports calendar.

Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle says Showtime is hoping that “The Franchise” will become a sports franchise for the network.

Cathall Kelly of the Toronto Star is an asshole.

Bruce Dowbiggin at the Toronto Globe and Mail says a CFL on TSN analyst gave a compelling interview on his post-concussion syndrome.

Matt Hartley in the Financial Post says NBC will be handling all US ad sales for the NHL.

Wayne Friedman in MediaPost also writes about the NBC Sports Group/NHL ad sales joint venture.

Sports Media Watch has some news and notes on various sports media personalities.

SMW also has some local MLB ratings news.

That’s going to do it for today.

ESPN/ESPN2 Covers The NCAA Frozen Four

Starting on Thursday, ESPN2 and ESPN will carry the NCAA Frozen Four^®, the hockey version of the Final Four^®. This year’s Frozen Four^® will be held at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN. The last four teams vying for the NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Championship will be Notre Dame vs. Minnesota-Duluth and Michigan vs. North Dakota. With all of the Frozen Four teams coming from the Midwest, expect a very electric atmosphere in St. Paul. Gary Thorne and Barry Melrose will have the call of the games. And on Friday, ESPNU will carry the announcement of the Hobey Baker Award, which will name college hockey’s best player.

It all begins Thursday and we have the press release right here.

NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Frozen Four Coverage Starts Thursday

The NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Championship will conclude this week at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., beginning Thursday, April 7 with semifinal action — Notre Dame vs. Minnesota-Duluth at 5 p.m. and Michigan vs. No. 2 national seed North Dakota at 8:30 p.m. The games will air on ESPN2 HD, ESPN3.com and ESPN Mobile TV with Gary Thorne and Barry Melrose calling all the action and Clay Matvick reporting.

The semifinal winners will meet in the title game Saturday, April 9, at 7 p.m. on ESPN HD, ESPN3.com and ESPN Mobile TV.

The Hobey Baker Memorial Award Presentation will honor the nation’s top college hockey player Friday, April 8, at 7 p.m. on ESPNU. Melrose and Matvick will present the award to one of three finalists – Cam Atkinson of Boston College; Matt Frattin of North Dakota or Andy Miele of Miami (Ohio).

Date	Time (ET)	Game	Networks
Thu, April 7	5 p.m.	Frozen Four: Semifinal 1 Notre Dame vs. Minnesota-Duluth Gary Thorne, Barry Melrose & Clay Matvick	ESPN2/ ESPN2 HD /ESPN3.com/ESPN Mobile TV
	8:30 p.m.	Frozen Four: Semifinal 2 Michigan vs. No. 2 North Dakota Gary Thorne, Barry Melrose & Clay Matvick	ESPN2/ESPN2 HD/ESPN3.com/ESPN Mobile TV
Fri, April 8	7 p.m.	Hobey Baker Memorial Award Presentation Barry Melrose & Clay Matvick	ESPNU/ESPNU HD
Sat, April 9	7 p.m.	Frozen Four: National Championship Gary Thorne, Barry Melrose & Clay Matvick	ESPN/ESPN HD /ESPN3.com/ESPN Mobile TV

And that is it.

Some Additional Wednesday Links

Let’s provide you with some more links.

Stephen Wilson of the Associated Press says the International Olympic Committee hopes to have the US TV rights for the 2014/16 Olympics and possibly the 2018/20 Games awarded by mid-June.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand notes that without UConn in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship Game, ESPN did not suffer much of a ratings dropout last night.

Sports Illustrated tennis writer Jon Wertheim answers readers questions and frustrations about Tennis Channel.

Marcus Vanderberg from SportsNewser has the video of former sports anchor and boxing announcer Nick Charles talking to his former employer, CNN about his last stages of life. As you may be aware, Nick has incurable cancer and probably doesn’t have long to live. What a very poignant video.

And here’s the story from CNN.com on Nick Charles from Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Michael David Smith at Pro Football Talk says ESPN is bringing back Jon “This Guy” Gruden’s QB camp.

ESPN’s First Take gives you a behind the scenes look at what it takes to bring a show together.

Sheldon Spencer at ESPN Front Row explains what the ESPN Car Wash means.

Robin Berger at TV Technology says ESPN wants to change the way baseball is brought into your home.

The Atlantic 10 Conference has announced that it has extended a rights agreement with ESPN for two more seasons. CBS Sports remains the main rightsholder.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe reports that 98.5 The Sports Hub has reupped its afternoon drive team.

The Inside Track girls at the Boston Herald talk about Patriots running back Danny Woodhead’s visit to ESPN yesterday.

Barry Janoff of NY Sports Journalism speaks with CBS/Turner’s Clark Kellogg.

Celeste E. Whittaker of Cherry Hill (NJ) Courier Post enjoyed watching CBS/Turner’s coverage of the NCAA Tournament.

To the Baltimore Sun where Steve Gould says MASN is seeing significant ratings spikes for the Orioles in the young season.

Scott Claire of the Naples (FL) Daily News says ESPN’s Dick Vitale will be making an appearance at a local youth basketball league.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says this year’s viewership for the NCAA Tournament was up from last year.

Tom Groeschen of the Cincinnati Enquirer says Sean Casey made a triumphant return to the Reds last night as a member of Fox Sports Ohio.

Kari Petrie of the St. Cloud (MN) Times says Charter Communications does not have an agreement to pick up 45 extra Minnesota Twins games that will be aired on Fox Sports Net. Those 45 games came from over the air rightsholder WFTC.

The Grand Forks (ND) Herald says ESPN will have cameras at a University of North Dakota viewing party for cut-ins during its coverage of the NCAA Frozen Four on Thursday.

Anthony Gimino from the Tucson Citizen says this September’s Oklahoma State-Arizona game will be moved to a Thursday night to accommodate ESPN.

Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times talks Lakers with ESPN/ABC’s Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy.

Jon Wilner at the San Jose Mercury News who has been doing a bang up job covering the Pac 12 rights negotiations says it appears the conference is seeking to sign a very lucrative deal and NBC/Comcast seems to be the frontrunner.

Kevin Lynch at the San Francisco Chronicle talks with new 49ers radio analyst Eric Davis.

Cory Wolfe of the Saskatchewan Star Phoenix talks with new TSN Sportscentre anchor Natasha Staniszewski.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog looks at the implications in the Quebec TV market if the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers pack up and leave for Canada for the 2012-13 season.

The Sports Media Watch notes that the overnight ratings for NASCAR on Fox dipped again on Sunday.

Wendy Parker notes that there are plenty of outlets for women’s basketball coverage.

And that’s where we’ll end it for linkage. I think you have plenty for now.

Some Monday Linkage

Been busy today for no particular reason. Well, work is a very good reason, but it just seems to be piling up today. We give you the links while we still can.

Michael Hiestand from USA Today starts us off and he wonders if the Butler-VCU matchup in the NCAA Tournament Final Four^® Cinderella matchup will translate into ratings.

Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand tweeted that it will no matter which team is there.

Marcus Vanderberg of SportsNewser writes about Nick Charles calling his very last fight last Saturday night.

Nellie Andreeva at Deadline talks about FX carrying a full slate of college football games this fall.

Glenn Davis in SportsGrid says The Simpsons took an indirect swipe at Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and his Jones Mahal stadium outside Dallas.

SportsGrid’s Dan Fogarty has Dan Patrick taking issue with various media types for their ripping of BYU’s Jimmer Fredette.

Marisa Guthrie of the Hollywood Reporter notes that the NCAA Tournament steered CBS to a primetime win last night.

Georg Szalai of the Reporter says the networks are preparing alternative plans in case the NFL Lockout goes into the fall.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News reports that MLB Network is expanding its game broadcasts to Tuesdays and Fridays this season.

Mike talks about FX getting back into sports with a full slate of college football games.

Toni Fitzgerald from Media Life Magazine notes that the NCAA Tournament’s ratings slipped when the games shifted solely to CBS on Saturday.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell looks at whether this year’ s Final Four will be good for business.

Another reason to dislike the New York Post’s Phil Mushnick, he doesn’t like CBS’ Gus Johnson.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette has the NCAA Frozen Four faceoff times.

Dan Steinberg from the Washington Post responds to Washington Wizards/Capitals owner Ted Leonsis’ contention that newspapers have “lost a step.”

And Dan notes that John Feinstein won’t be appearing on Tony Kornheiser’s radio show anymore.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times looks back at the weekend on sports TV, but he errs in saying Reggie Miller has been working with Steve Kerr on the NCAA Tournament. Reggie worked with Dan Bonner two weekends ago and then Len Elmore this past weekend. Steve worked with Marv Albert the last two weeks.

Jodie Valade of the Cleveland Plain Dealer looks at the return of legendary Cavs voice Joe Tait to the microphone last night. Tait has been battling health problems this season.

Bob Finnan of the News-Herald also writes about Tait’s return and subsequent retirement at the end of this season.

Bob Wolfley from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel talks with ESPN’s Orel Hershiser.

Tom Hoffarth at the Los Angeles Daily News has your sports calendar for this week.

The Toronto Globe and Mail’s Bruce Dowbiggin says former NHL player Theo Fleury had to endure horrible taunting on Twitter.

Raju Mudhar at the Toronto Star examines the third all-sports Canadian network, The Score.

Matt Yoder from Awful Announcing has the video of ESPN’s Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale bashing VCU’s selection into the NCAA Tournament three weeks ago.

That will finish the links for today.

Some Monday Linkage

Getting a late start on the Monday links. Part of it was due to the Masters thesis I wrote on the NCAA Tournament earlier today. Let’s do the links for you.

From USA Today’s Michael Hiestand, we have him saying that having the NCAA’s National Director of Officiating on to explain controversial calls only added positives to CBS/Turner’s coverage this past weekend.

Sports Business Journal lists its annual Forty Under 40 sports executives and personalities. The media section will interest you. Or at least it should. The entire section is open to all. I won’t link to everyone, but the names are listed and you can read at your leisure.

Marisa Guthrie at the Hollywood Reporter notes that the NCAA Tournament on CBS/Turner is garnering its best ratings in two decades.

TMZ reported yesterday that Charlie Sheen met with Fox Sports executives about possibly doing some work for them. Yes he did. #winning.

Nellie Andreeva of Deadline confirms the TMZ report with Fox execs.

Lindsay Rubino of Broadcasting & Cable says an NCAA Tournament overrun helped CBS win primetime on Sunday.

Todd Spangler from Multichannel News writes that Verizon Fios TV is picking up ESPN 3D for its 6 subscribers who have a 3-D TV.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel says a Hispanic cable TV network has won the right to show the Puerto Rican Basketball League in the States.

Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek says the NCAA Tournament won’t return to regionalizing its games anytime soon.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine says the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament paid dividends to the four national game strategy.

Jason Fry writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center delves into the Associated Press new policy for writing game leads.

Marcus Vanderberg at SportsNewser says fans can vote for the athlete who will adorn the cover of the Madden NFL ’12 video game.

SportsGrid’s Dan Fogarty has video of Charles Barkley ripping the Big East on TBS last night.

From Sports TV Jobs, Brian Clapp has a video telling aspiring sports TV anchors some tips on how to get a job.

Brian gives you a day in the life of a sports TV producer.

Pam Modarelli Hegner in Sports TV Jobs, advises young sportscasters not to root in the press box.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell reports that the owners of the New York Mets are seeking to get a case against them dismissed over their knowledge or lack thereof, of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme.

Newsday’s Neil Best says Charles Barkley has given CBS/Turner’s NCAA Tournament studio a much needed battery charge.

Anthony Rieber of Newsday reports that New York Yankees skipper Joe Girardi won’t be making daily appearances on WFAN as originally announced.

Neil gets the reaction from WFAN’s Mike Francesa who made that original announcement.

Somebody take Phil Mushnick’s temperature because he actually gives praise to CBS/Turner for its coverage of the Butler-Pittsburgh game.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Herald has this year’s NCAA Hockey Tournament TV schedule.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner notes the NCAA Tournament is not only doing well in the ratings, but also online.

Tom Jones at the St. Petersburg Times looks back at a busy weekend in sports television.

David Barron in the Houston Chronicle has the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 tip times for Thursday and Friday.

In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bob Wolfley notes some strong words from former URI and Texas coach Tom Penders on various CBS and ESPN college basketball announcers.

At Crain’s Chicago Business, Ed Sherman looks at the Cubs’ search for a new Public Address announcer.

Ed says the local sports radio host who was suspended from his job after a DUI arrest is now undergoing rehab.

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post talks with CBS/Turner’s Verne Lundquist who got to call rare “home” games at the NCAA Tournament this weekend.

Dusty also speaks with the lovely Lesley Visser who worked with Verne and Bill Raftery in Denver. And one thing mentioned in the story that I didn’t know. Lesley divorced Fox/Turner announcer Dick Stockton last year.

Tom Hoffarth from the Los Angeles Daily News has the SoCal sports calendar for this week.

And Tom rates Charles Barkley’s performance on the NCAA Tournament.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says if soccer doesn’t get good ratings in Canada now, it never will.

Ruju Mudhar from the Toronto Star talks with Rogers Sportsnet head Scott Moore about putting more baseball on the network and the possibility of the company’s purchasing Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment.

Sports Media Watch notes the 17 year ratings high for the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.

Steve Lepore at Puck the Media wishes NBC had more time to talk about the classless and big time thug Matt Cooke’s hit during yesterday’s Penguins-Rangers game.

And that’s going to do it.

NESN Covers Bruins & Hockey East Championship At The Same Time

On Saturday, NESN will have two hockey games to cover, the Bruins taking on the Toronto Maple Leafs live from the Air Canada Center in what is a Hockey Night in Canada game on CBC. In addition, NESN will cover the Hockey East Championship game live from TD Garden. Both games drop the puck at 7 p.m. In New England and on DirecTV and Dish, the Bruins will be on the main NESN channel and the college hockey will be on NESNplus. For NESN National in Michigan, North Carolina and Florida, the Hockey East Championship will be on the schedule. We have the particulars from the New England Sports Network.

NESN TO DELIVER SIMULTANEOUS LIVE COVERAGE OF BOSTON BRUINS AT TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS AND HOCKEY EAST CHAMPIONSHIP GAME ON SATURDAY, MARCH 19 AT 7 PM

March 15, 2011 – NESN, New England’s most watched sports network, will deliver simultaneous live coverage of two games on Saturday, March 19, 2011. The Bruins vs. Maple Leafs game will be seen on NESN throughout New England while live coverage of the Hockey East championship game from TD Garden will be available on NESNplus throughout New England. Outside New England, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks will carry the Hockey East championship game on NESN National while DirecTV and Dish Network will carry the game nationally on NESNplus.

NESN’s coverage of the Hockey East Tournament begins with coverage of both semifinal games on NESN, live from TD Garden on Friday, March 18 at 5:00 PM. The first game features Boston College vs. Northeastern followed by New Hampshire vs. Merrimack at 8:00 PM. The winners of each semifinal game will face-off Saturday night for the Hockey East championship.

NESNplus are the channel positions that NESN distributors provide so NESN can cover two live events at the same time. In most Comcast communities the Hockey East championship game will be seen on channel 84. Find a complete list of NESNplus channels at NESN.com/NESNplus.

NESN Schedule for Saturday, March 19^th

6:30 PM – Bruins FaceOff LIVE
7:00 PM – Boston Bruins at Toronto Maple Leafs (L)
9:30 PM – Bruins Overtime LIVE (L)
10:00 PM – NESN Daily (L)
10:15 PM – Hockey East Championship Game (replay)

NESNplus and NESN National Schedule for Saturday, March 19^th

6:30 PM – Hockey East FaceOff LIVE
7:00 PM – Hockey East Championship Game (L)
9:30 PM – Bruins Overtime LIVE (L)
10:00 PM – NESN Daily (L)
10:15 PM – Boston Bruins at Toronto Maple Leafs (replay)

More later.

NESN Covers Red Sox-Yankees and College Hockey Simultaneously

On Friday, NESN will start its Red Sox coverage and kick into high gear into coverage of the final two weeks of Hockey East. As you can imagine, this will require an extra channel so NESN will utilize “NESNplus” for the first time this year on Friday. So the Red Sox will go on the NESN mothership while the New Hampshire-Boston College game is thrown to NESNplus. We have the schedule and all of the particulars in the press release posted below.

NESN TO DELIVER SIMULTANEOUS LIVE COVERAGE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE AT BOSTON COLLEGE HOCKEY EAST GAME AND RED SOX AT YANKEES SPRING TRAINING GAME ON MARCH 4^th

March 1, 2011 – NESN, New England’s most watched sports network, will deliver simultaneous live coverage of two games on Friday, March 4, 2011. The Red Sox – Yankees spring training game will be seen on the regular NESN channel throughout New England while live coverage of New Hampshire at Boston College Hockey East game will be available on NESNplus beginning at 7 PM with Hockey East FaceOff LIVE.

NESNplus are the channel positions that NESN distributors provide so NESN can cover two live events at the same time. In most Comcast communities the UNH – BC game on NESNplus will be seen on channel 84. A complete list of NESNplus channels can be found at NESN.com/NESNplus.

Below are the programming schedules for both NESN and NESNplus:

NESN Schedule for Friday March 4^th
7:00 PM – Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees (L)
10:00 PM – NESN Daily (L)
10:15 PM – Hockey East Friday Night LIVE – New Hampshire vs. Boston College (replay)

NESNplusSchedule for Friday March 4^th
7:00 PM – Hockey East Face Off LIVE
7:30 PM – Hockey East Friday Night LIVE – New Hampshire vs. Boston College (L)
10:00 PM – Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees (replay)

As we get into April, we’ll see conflicts between the Red Sox and Bruins so expect to see more use of the NESNplus channel in the weeks to come.