Fang's Bites

Labor Day Viewing Picks

College Football
Fresno State at Rutgers – ESPN, 4 p.m.
Tennessee at UCLA – ESPN, 8 p.m.

Golf
PGA Tour/Deutsche Bank Championship, final round – NBC, 2 p.m.

MLB
New York Yankees at Detroit – TBS/YES/FSN Detroit, 1 p.m.
Atlanta at Florida – SportSouth/FSN Florida, 1 p.m.
New York Mets at Milwaukee – SNY/FSN Wisconsin, 2 p.m.
Philadelphia at Washington – CW57/MASN, 3 p.m.
St. Louis at Arizona – FSN Midwest/FSN Arizona, 4 p.m.
Houston at Chicago Cubs – FSN Houston/WGN, 4 p.m.
Baltimore at Red Sox – MASN/NESN, 7 p.m.
Chicago White Sox at Cleveland – Comcast SportsNet Chicago/WKYC, 7 p.m.
Seattle at Texas – FSN Northwest/FSN Southwest, 8 p.m.
San Diego at Los Angeles Dodgers – Cox 4/FSN Prime Ticket, 8 p.m.
Baseball Tonight – ESPN2, 10 p.m.

US Open
4th Round – CBS, 11 a.m./USA Network, 7 p.m.

Entertainment
Prison Break (season premiere) – Fox, 8 p.m.
Jon & Kate Plus 8 – TLC, 9 p.m.
The Closer – TNT, 9 p.m.
Raising the Bar (series premiere) – TNT, 10 p.m.
Big Brother After Dark – Showtime 2, midnight

News
Republican National Convention – CNN/C-SPAN/Fox News/MSNBC, starting at 6 p.m., PBS, 8 p.m, ABC/CBS/NBC, 10 p.m.

Videos of the Week: 2008 Olympics – Various Opens and Closes

Now that the Olympics are over, I can find some worldwide TV partners opens and closes. This includes the BBC and NBC. I did find some extensive CBC stuff from the Closing Ceremonies and also, the network’s bidding farewell to the Olympics, but unfortunately, the person who put them up won’t allow embedding, so until someone else puts them up, I’ll wait to publish them here.

But I can give you what I have found thus far.

Here’s the NBC Today show trying to be coy about the opening to the Olympics even as the Opening Ceremonies were about to get underway.

This NBC’s ID as “America’s Olympic Network” and then the intro to its Daytime coverage with Jim Lampley as host.

Just before the USA men’s basketball team was about to take on China early in the Games, NBC dusted off its old NBA theme bringing a tear to my eye.

I’m going off the beaten path here. I really don’t want to do this, but here is John Tesh explaining how he came up with the theme he calls “Roundball Rock”. You may have seen this performance during various PBS fundraising specials. This is from a concert in 1997. I’m about to throw up. I love the theme, but seeing John Tesh run around is a bit too much. He doesn’t run around in this clip, but during this concert, John is seen running all around the place like Yanni.

I’ll never put up another John Tesh video here. Anyway, here are the last words of Bob Costas’ closing comments and NBC’s closing credits with scenes of Communist China then a montage of moments from the Olympic Games.

Let’s move to the BBC and the open for its Olympics Breakfast program using the great Monkey intro, then going into a nice video montage using Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life” just before Day 1 of the track & field competition. Adrian Chiles and Claire Balding are the co-hosts.

Someone put together a bunch of BBC opens. I really like watching the Monkey animation. And I love the “Previously at the Olympics” montages.

Here are the BBC’s closing credits with scenes of the Olympics from the UK perspective (there are some US athletes included) done to “Miracle” by Tom Baxter. This is one of the better closing credits I have ever seen and the song fits very well. Very nicely done.

After the closing credits, people all over the UK started looking for Tom’s music. This is the official video to “Miracle”.

There you have it. This concludes our Olympics videos until 2010 when we’ll preview the Vancouver Winter Games with videos from past Olympics and I can go back to Calgary in 1988, provided that YouTube is still online, of course. Thanks for watching.

BREAKING NEWS: WEEI Dumps Mustard & Johnson and Hazel Mae to the MLB Network

To prove to you that breaking news never rests for the weekend, David Scott of the Boston Sports Media Watch reports that the long-time weekend duo of Craig Mustard and Larry Johnson are no longer doing shows together on WEEI. The pair have doing the Saturday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. shift for many years and have done various Sunday afternoon shows as well. It’s not known if they’ll remain at the station. Johnson has done work on WEEI during the Big Show with the Big O (Glenn Ordway). Mustard & Johnson made the announcement during their show today. It’s not known who will replace them.

And David also reports that former NESN hottie Hazel Mae has been hired by the MLB Network as a studio host when the channel launches on many cable systems on New Year’s Day. Jessica Heslam of the Boston Herald has more on Hazel’s hiring.

A Saturday Linkfest

Well, it’s a drab day in Southern New England, lots of rain and plenty of overcast skies, plus people all go to the Post Office at the same time to send out packages. It’s never fun waiting at the Post Office.

Anyway, time to get to our links.

Starting off with Friend of Fang’s Bites, Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette, he says NBC is hoping the Olympics ratings success will rub off on the rest of its primetime lineup.

Pete Dougherty from the Albany Times Union says NFL fans in the New York State Capital District should be happy with the lineup for Week 1.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says he’ll be watching the reunion of Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann next Sunday on Football Night in America.

Justin Terranova of the New York Post writes in the TV Sports blog that Giants fans get a chance to remember the Super Bowl victory over the Patriots twice this weekend.

Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News writes that Western New Yorkers love their Bills, even with the Olympics on opposite their games twice during the exhibition season.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News talks to NFL Films’ Steve Sabol who says this year’s edition of Hard Knocks was the hardest for him to produce.

Jerry Garcia from the San Antonio Express-News says FSN Southwest will show plenty of Texas high school football games this season.

Gary Washburn of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer talks with ESPN’s Mike Tirico about the Seahawks.

This week, NBC relaunched its “microsite” for Sunday Night Football. There are plenty of bios and other features there.

Jeffrey Flanagan of the Kansas City Star says Chiefs number one draft pick Glenn Dorsey will be part of an ESPN special this weekend.

My good friend, John Crowe of The Crowe’s Nest blog talks with Fang’s Bites fav Tina Cervasio of MSG Network and formerly of NESN.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says with its new cable deals this week, the Big Ten Network is now in 90% of households in its conference footprint.

Andy Piper of the Dubuque Telegraph Herald talks about the Big Ten Network’s long-awaited arrival on Mediacom systems in Iowa.

But Chris Johnson of the Fort Dodge Messenger says BTN is not in a small part of northwest Iowa because it has not been included in that agreement.

Rivals.com looks at what impact the ESPN-SEC deal will have on the basketball part of the conference.

Ron Judd of the Seattle Times wraps up the Communist China Olympics and looks forward to Vancouver in 2010.

Linda Moss of Multichannel News reports that due to Michael Phelps and the Olympics, cable lost viewership in the summer.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell has a video of him shadowing Olympics gold medalist Michael Phelps. Darren was amused by a blog written by the chairman of Marriott International praising Michael who is a spokesman for Hilton Hotels. And Darren feels the NCAA should be compensating players for uniform sales.

Anna Marie De La Puente of Variety says thanks to the Olympics, ratings for NBC Universal’s Telemundo went way up.

Diane Barrett of Variety says by withholding some of its bigger events for primetime, NBC did not get as much revenue online as it might have hoped. I agree with this.

Jim Cota of the Indianapolis Business Journal liked the job NBC did with the Olympics.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star writes that if you watched the Olympics at one time or another, you were part of US history.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette talks about NBC’s Dan Hicks going from the Olypmics to call the PGA Tour’s Deutsche Bank Championship in Norton, MA this weekend.

Going back to the New York Times, good story by Marv Salter on tennis players making the transition from the court to the broadcast booth, citing Justin Gimelstob and Chanda Rubin as examples.

Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media blog says John McCain’s running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, is a former TV sportscaster.

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable can only confirm that Governor Palin was an intern at TV station KTUU in Anchorage.

But Newsday’s Neil Best who worked in Alaska in the 1980′s provides a little insight on Governor Sarah Palin.

John Lewis of the Sportscaster Chronicles site has a two part interview with Los Angeles Lakers announcer Joel Myers. You can hear the first part of the interview here and part two is here.

The Baltimore Sun says MASN and the Orioles are teaming up to offer $1 tickets in the upper deck of Camden Yards throughout the month of September.

I’ve been working on these links for a while so it’s time for me to do other things.

I do have a Videos of the Week feature coming up for Sunday morning. Since I have my day planned for me tomorrow, don’t expect links until the evening.

Weekend Viewing Picks

Saturday, August 30

College Football
See College Football Viewing Picks

English Premier League
Everton vs. Portsmouth – Setanta Sports, 9:45 a.m.
Blackburn vs. West Ham – Fox Soccer Channel, 10 a.m.
Newcastle vs. Arsenal – Fox Soccer Channel, noon
Bolton vs. West Bromwich Albion – Setanta Sports, 2:15 p.m. (tape)
Middleborough vs. Stoke City – Setanta Sports, 4 p.m. (tape)

Golf
PGA Tour/Deutsche Bank Championship, 2nd round – Golf Channel, 3 p.m.

MLB
Toronto at New York Yankees – CBC/YES, 1 p.m.
Baltimore at Tampa Bay – Fox, 3:55 p.m.
Philadelphia at Chicago Cubs – Fox, 3:55 p.m.
Chicago White Sox at Red Sox – WGN/NESN, 7 p.m.
Kansas City at Detroit – FSN Detroit, 7 p.m.
New York Mets at Florida – SNY/FSN Florida, 7 p.m.
Atlanta at Washington – SportSouth/MASN, 7 p.m.
Milwaukee at Pittsburgh – FSN Wisconsin/FSN Pittsburgh, 7 p.m.
San Francisco at Cincinnati – KNTV/FSN Ohio, 7 p.m.
St. Louis at Houston – FSN Midwest/FSN Houston, 7 p.m.
Los Angeles Dodgers at Arizona – KCAL/FSN Arizona, 8 p.m.
Minnesota at Oakland – FSN North/Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, 9 p.m.
Texas at Anaheim Angels – FSN Southwest/KCOP, 9 p.m.
Colorado at San Diego – FSN Rocky Mountain/Cox 4, 10 p.m.

NASCAR
Nationwide Series/Camping World RV Service 300 – ESPN2, 10 p.m.

US Open
3rd Round – CBS, 11 a.m./USA Network, 7 p.m.

Entertainment
Cops: 20 Years Caught on Tape – Fox, 8 p.m.
America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back – Fox, 9 p.m.
Primeval – BBC America, 9 p.m.
48 Hours Mystery – CBS, 10 p.m.
Big Brother After Dark – Showtime2, midnight
Reality Sex – Cinemax, 12:20 a.m.

Sunday, August 31

Beach Volleyball
AVP Tour/Croc’s Cup Shootout, women’s championship – NBC, 1:30 p.m.

College Football
Hampton vs. Jackson State in Orlando, FL – ESPN2, 2 p.m.
Kentucky at Louisville – ESPN, 3:30 p.m.
Colorado State vs. Colorado – FSN, 7:30 p.m.

English Premier League
Chelsea vs. Tottenham – Setanta Sports, 8:30 a.m.
Liverpool vs. Aston Villa – Fox Soccer Channel, 11 a.m.
Everton vs. Portsmouth – Setanta Sports, 2:15 p.m. (tape)
Manchester City vs. Sunderland – Fox Soccer Channel, 4:30 p.m. (tape)

Golf
PGA Tour/Deutsche Bank Championship, 3rd Round – NBC, 3 p.m.

Indy Car
IRL Series/Detroit Grand Prix – ABC, 3:30 p.m.

MLB
San Francisco at Cincinnati – Comcast SportsNet Bay Area/FSN Ohio, 12:30 p.m.
Toronto at New York Yankees – CBC/YES, 1 p.m.
Seattle at Cleveland – FSN Northwest/WKYC, 1 p.m.
Kansas City at Detroit – FSN Kansas City/FSN Detroit, 1 p.m.
New York Mets at Florida – WPIX/FSN Florida, 1 p.m.
Chicago White Sox at Red Sox – TBS/Comcast SportsNet Chicago/NESN, 1:30 p.m.
Baltimore at Tampa Bay – MASN2/ION, 1:30 p.m.
Atlanta at Washington – SportSouth/MASN, 1:30 p.m.
Milwaukee at Pittsburgh – FSN Wisconsin/FSN Pittsburgh, 1:30 p.m.
Philadelphia at Chicago Cubs – CW57/WGN, 2 p.m.
St. Louis at Houston – KSDK/FSN Houston, 2 p.m.
Texas at Anaheim Angels – FSN Southwest/KCOP, 3:30 p.m.
Minnesota at Oakland – FSN North/Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, 4 p.m.
Colorado at San Diego – FSN Rocky Mountain/Cox 4, 4 p.m.
Baseball Tonight – ESPN2, 7 p.m.
Los Angeles Dodgers at Arizona, ESPN2, 8 p.m.

NASCAR
Sprint Cup Series/Pepsi 500 – ESPN, 8 p.m.

US Open
Men’s 3rd Round/Women’s 4th Round – CBS, 11 a.m./USA Network, 7 p.m.

Entertainment
Mad Men, Season 2 marathon – AMC. begins at 5 p.m.
60 Minutes – CBS, 7 p.m.
Big Brother 10 – CBS, 8 p.m.
Ice Road Truckers – History Channel, 9 p.m.
Mad Men, new episode – AMC, 10 p.m.
Big Brother After Dark – Showtime2, midnight

Real Time Review of Real Sports for 08/26/08

Here is my real time review of Real Sports as it airs on HBO, August 26, 2008. Four stories as usual, three new, one update. Let’s get to tonight’s episode without further delay.

Segment #1 – Pay To Stay

Reported by Bryant Gumbel, this story deals with the financial raping of sports fans through the concept of Personal Seat Licenses. With tough economic times, fans are being priced out of the market to see their favorite sports team. Six months after the New York Giants upset victory over the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, Giants fans are angry. They’re angry after learning what they’ll have to pay for their season tickets for next season. What costs $100 now will cost 7 times that in the 2009 season. And worse yet, they’ll have to pay $20,000 just for the right to buy that seat.

Long time Giants season ticket holder Jay Goldberg tells Bryant that he doesn’t have any respect for the Giants ownership any more. Goldberg’s family has had season tickets to the Giants for more than 50 years. Jay’s father first bought season tickets for a low price. But as the cost has gone up, Jay kept his season tickets, he says money well spent. But for the right to get two seats in the new Giants Stadium, he has to pay $8,000. Jay says he’s no longer a Giants fan. Bryant asked if he just turned off the switch and Jay replies, “I didn’t turn it off, they (the Giants ownership) turned it off. “

New York City sports fans are being priced out of tickets as the Yankees, Mets, Giants and Jets are moving into new stadia next year. Bryant says all are carving out a new model for sports in America making it increasingly difficult for the average fan to afford a ticket.

In the Giants’ case, they’re adding on a one-time fee to the increased ticket prices known as a Personal Seat License or PSL. This means season ticket holders have to pay thousands of extra dollars just for the right to buy their tickets.

Co-owner of the Giants, John Mara, says he’s received many angry letters from season ticket holders since the team announced the PSL program. Mara says for the person who can’t afford the extreme bump in price, the team has different pricing levels. He says the Giants want to keep the season ticket holder. However, the season ticket holder still has to pay the PSL. Mara says he has to have the PSL to keep up with the Joneses and in this case, it’s Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones who’s also building a new stadium.

Jones is also charging season ticket holders a PSL for the right to sit in the new Cowboys stadium when it opens next season. Cowboys fans would have to pay up to $150,000 per seat.

John Mara says with the Eagles, Redskins and Cowboys, the other teams in the Giants’ division with new stadia, the team is at a competitive disadvantage as far as revenue streams are concerned. He says the team would have been fine for the next three or four years, but would have fallen way behind the other teams after that.

Jay Goldberg says that’s hogwash. The Giants are the defending Super Bowl champions. How more competitive do they need to be? Goldberg says the Giants have the right to make money on their new stadium, but he’s not going to be the sucker who goes along with it.

Ticket prices are skyrocketing all over the country. Bryant points out that the Baltimore Ravens are charging $345 for their top level seat. The Los Angeles Dodgers ask fans to shell out $650 for dugout seats. The Washington Nationals, the worst team in Major League Baseball, have seats at 330. But even with the high prices, attendance is rising along with the ticket prices.

Doctor of economics, Mark Rosentraub tells Bryant that the current rate of increases for tickets are the highest that have ever happened. Dr. Rosentraub tracks the inflation in ticket prices and he says the average fan can still take his family to games, but he’s not going to be able to afford the best seats at the premium levels. Rosentraub says as you go higher in the stadium, the prices go down, and you’ll find the average fan in the last rows in the 3rd deck.

Dr. Rosentraub says Mara is not hurting for season ticket holders because the Giants have a long waiting list of fans who are willing to pay the exhorbitant PSL’s. And Mara can also afford to move fans to lower priced seats so he can get other people in. Rosentraub says the PSL is a risk to the fan because he’s playing the futures market hoping that the value of his ticket doesn’t go down. The fan by paying the PSL takes on the risk and takes it off the owner. Rosentraub says the PSL is a bad risk for the fan because he doesn’t know when the ticket price bubble will burst like the real estate market did last year.

And rising ticket prices are scaring off those who can afford them, like long time Yankees fan Marshall Goldberg who has been sitting in the same box seat at Yankee Stadium for over 30 years. When Goldberg first bought his season tickets in 1976, they cost $8 a ticket and the World Series went up to $15. Goldberg says the prices have gone up over the years, but the increases were reasonable until about three years ago. He says in 2006, the ticket cost $105, then up to $135 in ’07 and to $150 this year. Goldberg says that’s when he knew trouble was coming. That trouble is the new Yankee Stadium that will open across the street from the current edifice next year.

When the Yankees called Goldberg to see if he was going to purchase season tickets for the new stadium, he was flabbergasted to hear the sales pitch. He says with those seats, he can get all the food he can eat for free, free parking and special bathrooms built for certain seat holders. Goldberg said that sounded nice, what was the cost? He was told $2,500 per seat. He said that comes to $10,000 per game and there are 81 games. The Yankees would be sending him an invoice for $810,000 for a ticket that cost $81,000 the previous year.

Although he has shared his love of the Yankees over the years with his sons and grandchildren, Goldberg says he’ll be ending his relationship with the team after this season. Goldberg says he would be embarrassed to sit in a seat that costs $2,500. He says it’s the end of an era of an individual holding decent seats in a stadium. Bryant says after over 30 years, he must know the other ticket holders around him. He asked if they’ll be coming back and Goldberg says no. They can’t afford to. Goldberg says that area will all be corporate seats from now on.

Mark Rosentraub says internet sites like StubHub where fans can legally resell their tickets to the highest bidder are to blame for skyrocketing prices. He says when sports leagues starting having relationships with StubHub, owners found out what people were willing to pay for tickets. He said owners may have been pricing their seats to low and now they’re charging the real price that the market will bear. In a sense, Rosentraub says fans have made this market and now they’ll have to sleep in the bed they’ve made.

Jay Goldberg says he’ll have to think of something else to do with his Sundays. Bryant asked him five years from now, won’t he have buyer’s remorse, but Jay replied no. He could not have any respect for himself if he paid the money. He says having his respect is more important than watching a Giants game.

Bryant says the Jets who will be sharing the same stadium with the Giants announced they’ll have 27,000 seats with no PSL’s, but have not said how much more expensive those tickets will be.

An excellent report. Grade – A.

Segment #2 – Teed Off

Reported by Bernard Goldberg, this is a story about developer Donald Trump’s efforts to build a golf course in the tiny Scottish village of Balmedie. It’s just outside of Aberdeen on the northeast coast of Scotland. Trump says it will be “the Greatest Luxury Golf Resort the World has ever seen.” The course would be on 1,400 acres of unspoiled land along 3.8 miles of pristine coastline next to giant sand dunes that have been around for thousands of years.

Trump says the place is beautiful now, but when he’s finished with it, the coastline will even be more beautiful. He says there no piece of land in the world like it where he could be the World’s Greatest Golf Course. It’s not just a golf course he wants to build. Bernie describes what Trump wants to do is to build a golf metropolis. That would include 500 luxury houses, 950 condos and an 8 story, 450 room hotel. The total cost of the project, an estimated $2 billion.

Of course, when there’s Trump, there’s controversy and there’s a big one right dab in the middle of Scotland. Environmentalists are against it saying the golf course would disturb the natural beauty of the coastline. The battle has become so heated that Trump himself showed up at a public hearing the Scottish government held on whether to approve the start of construction.

Trump was asked if there were any critics of the project and he said most everyone in town loved the project and were in favor of it.

And in the birthplace of golf, wouldn’t you know that there’s even a Biblical implication to the story. In a modern day David vs. Goliath, Trump playing Goliath, there’s a David who’s land sits right in the middle of where the Donald wants to build his mammoth golf course. Right on a shed on the farm which sits in the middle of where Trump wants to build is a message painted in red as clear as day, “NO GOLF COURSE“.

Michael Forbes is the David battling Goliath. He’s a 56 year old blue collar man who lives in his farm that sits on 23 acres of land. It’s filled with barns, tractors, farm equipment and spare tires. It’s not a pretty site. The proposed hotel would be located very close to his farm.

Forbes says he doesn’t want to be surrounded by Trump’s golf course. Trump offered Forbes But Forbes says he’s happy right where he is living with his wife and 84 year old mother. Forbes says his father was born close by, so was his uncle and mother so he has a lot of roots in the area and there’s no reason for him to move away. But it isn’t just about family ties.

Forbes met Trump face-to-face when the Donald made an offer he didn’t think Forbes would refuse. Forbes wasn’t the least bit impressed. Forbes says as long as he’s alive, the farm will never be sold and definitely not to Donald Trump. Forbes says he’ll make sure in his will and his son will never sell the land to Donald Trump. Forbes says he wasn’t willing to sell, but he was willing to clean up his property as a goodwill gesture.

But that changed when Trump went on Scottish TV and basically called out Forbes for living in a dump. He said, “Go down and take a look at how badly maintained that piece of property is. It’s disgusting.”For Forbes, the gloves were off. He says he might have cleaned up, but not now. Forbes says he’ll put out some more rubbish. And he’s not threatening, he promising he’ll do it.

For his part, Trump says Forbes’ property is a slum and he wouldn’t think Scotland would allow it to be located next to a place where the world’s tourists would gather to play golf. Trump says Forbes’ property is a disgusting place and it’s terrible.

Trump says Forbes made a mistake, thinking he could hold out until Trump caved. Trump says he was actually willing to sell his land and then he wanted more money. When Bernie told him that Forbes’ version of the story is different, Trump says he wasn’t shocked at all. He says, “Michael Forbes was ready, willing and able to sell his land, then changed this mind.”

Forbes says that’s not true. He says he doesn’t have a price no matter what Trump says. When asked if he would take $5 million from Trump, Forbes says he telll him to shove it and he means it.

Michael’s 84 year old mother says Trump speaks crap. She says she never swears or calls anyone names, but Donald makes her.

In Aberdeen, eight miles away, Bernie took an unscientific poll of residents in a pub and he found a majority love the golf course and want the money that tourists would bring to the area.

Trump is hopeful that the golf resort would be approved, but he’s not sure.

Mickey Foote who lives on a small piece of land overlooking the proposed resort says “This is a piece of country you couldn’t replace. That’s why he came here because it’s a beautiful piece of country. So why does he want to shit all over it?” Foote loves the view without the houses and hotel. As for the residents in favor of the course, Foote says they’re intoxicated with the idea of having celebrities in town. He says the residents won’t even see anyone as they drive back and forth from work.

Foote says the only thing they’ll see is “a fucking great tower with a ‘T’ on top of it.”

There’s also the issue of the 4,000 year old sand dunes which are considered a national treasure in Scotland. Trump would have to turn some of them into fairways and greens to stop the sand from blowing onto the golf course. He says by doing that, he’s actually preserving the dunes. Foote says the dunes have been around for 4,000 years. They don’t need saving.

And there’s another issue with those against the course. Trump himself. They say Trump may go over well with the social elite, but for them, his bigger-than-life persona is too much. Trump himself feels that may have a lot do with the delays in construction. He says if he was anonymous person with a lot of money wanting to build the course, it might have been approved quicker.

Trump has battled people who have not wanted to sell their property to him. In Atlantic City, NJ in the 1990′s, a woman refused to sell her property to Trump as he wanted to build a parking lot for his Trump Plaza. Trump built the lot around her house and the woman still lives there today.

So knowing that, Trump says let’s see how it plays out. He says it’s a long term deal and he’ll see how it plays out. Bernie tried to press him on what that meant, but Trump would not budge. He even suggested that he and Michael Forbes might be friends one day. But Forbes doesn’t appear to be heading in that direction. As he and Bernie were looking at his horse eating grass in what would be near the Trump hotel, Forbes says he hopes he craps on the doorstep.

In their transition, Bernie says if Trump builds a second golf course on the land, Forbes’ farm would be right smack next to it. And if the hotel is built there, a guest will be staring right into the farm. Bernie says the good thing about being Donald Trump is that people will want to come if he builds the golf course. The bad thing is that people don’t like his bigger-than-life persona and it doesn’t play in Northeastern Scotland.

Bernie says the decision to build will come in about a month by the highest levels of Scottish government, from the Finance Minister. And the Finance Minister who wants to promote development might say yes.

It’s a good story. Grade, A minus.

Segment #3 – Racketeers

In this story reported by Frank Deford, we look at the increasing problem of gambling on professional tennis.

While the image of tennis has been the classy look and the prim and proper fans, over the last few years, the image has changed as serious gamblers have now come into the game. Eddy Murray, a professional gambler living in London says internet gambling has become widespread in the tennis game as people can place bets from their homes and watch the matches at the same time. You may not know it, but tennis has grown into the third most wagered-on sport, only behind horse racing and soccer. Most of the action occurs on Betfair, the world’s largest betting exchange based in the UK.

Launched in 2000, it’s set up as an exchange so people can bet against each other, this way, the bettors set the odds instead of the house. Gamblers can place bets not just before, but during an event.

Last August while betting on an obscure tennis match, Murray noticed millions of dollars were placed on a big underdog to defeat his heavily favored opponent. Murray felt someone knew something and was willing to place huge money on that knowledge. The money was placed on a second round match at the Prokom Open, a minor tour stop in Poland between 4th ranked Nikolay Davydenko of Russia and 67th ranked Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina. Early betting showed Davydenko to be a 5-1 favorite.

Murray says Davydenko won the first set 6-2 easily. He should have gone up to a 20-1 favorite at that point. But instead, something else happened. Betting started going the other way. Bets kept coming in on Arguello’s side. And Arguello came back from a set down to tie the match. Murray says that should not happen especially with the World’s no. 4 ranked player. There was no evidence of any injury. And in the 3rd set, suddenly, Davydenko quit saying he hurt his foot.

Betfair co-founder Mark Davies says it looked as if the betting was dictating the action, not the other way around. He was so suspicious of the match, that he suspended all bets placed on the match. The Betfair people were also stunned at the amount bet on such a minor match which turned out to be $7 million. Normally, the amount is about ten times less for such a match. Davies says it didn’t seem right so bets on the match were voided. It had never been done before in Betfair’s history and Davies says it hasn’t happened since. Davies would not say if any bets came from Russia, but the company did give information to a private investigator hired by the ATP Tour, the men’s side of professional tennis.

A confidential report from the ATP lists three Betfair users from Russia placed $1 million in bets on Arguello. For their part, Davydenko and Arguello maintain they did nothing wrong and a year later, the ATP is still investigating the affair. But because the match was so unusual, the image of tennis has taken a beating.

After the ATP commissioned a report on gambling in tennis called the Gunn-Rees report, the findings as Deford says, were stunning. In the five years before that suspicious Davydenko-Arguello match, there were 45 matches in which gamblers appeared to know the results ahead of time. In addition, the ATP found eight of its players had gambled on matches. An Italian player, Giorgio Gallamberte had made hundreds of bets including on his own matches. He admitted wrongdoing, but said he did not bet against himself to lose.

Then coaches and players came forward and admitted that gamblers would ask them to throw matches in exchange for money. A Belgian coach Marc De Hous says gamblers would approach a favored player and give him cash to throw a match. The favored player is given a small percentage of the winnings. Another Belgian, Gilles Elseneer says in 2005 at Wimbledon, a man approached him in the locker room offering him $140,000 to throw his first round match. Elseneer says he refused because Wimbledon meant too much to him and he still could look in the mirror.

Deford says Real Sports found about 15 players who admitted to reporters that they had been approached, but refused to take money to throw matches. Author Michael Mewshaw whose book Short Circuit exposed financial corruption in tennis a quarter century ago says you have to wonder of those who were approached and didn’t say anything. He says tennis is like professional boxing, it’s an individual sport that’s vulnerable to corruption. Mewshaw wrote that players would bet each other and promoters would pay top players money under the table to get them to play at their events. He feels the current gambling problem is rooted in what he calls “casual corruption”. Mewshaw says in order for the gambling to stop, the culture of tennis would have to change. It’s accepted in tennis that a player would tank to leave one tournament so he can play in another.

Mewshaw says he actually saw an ATP official give the green light to a player to tank a match so he could go to another tournament. And a player can lose a tournament, tank job or not, and not affect his ranking. A player has to play 18 tournaments a year including all four Grand Slams. Anything that happens after that does not affect the ranking. Of those 18, thirteen are mandatory events, the other five are picked by the player. The Gunn-Rees report says the tournaments that don’t affect a player’s ranking are “vulnerable to corrupt practice and presenta threat to the integrity of tennis.”

Tennis can change the problem by changing its ranking system, but there’s one thing it can’t police and that’s the internet. Five years ago, gambling on tennis exploded as people could bet from the comfort of their own homes. Mewshaw says internet wagering has led to suspicions he had never seen in the 25 years of investigating tennis.

Betfair’s Mark Davies says if tennis wants to clean up its sport, it has to get rid of those who could be bought. He says naturally, Betfair is not to blame for the corruption in tennis. Since 2003, Betfair has provided information to the ATP of suspisious gambling and even provided information about a 2005 match that involved, Nikolay Davydenko. Mewshaw says a match in Gestaad, Switzerland involving Davydenko and an Armenian player who was low ranked and there was a suspicious betting pattern on that as well. After a two week investigation, no impropriety was found.

The ATP refused repeated requests by Real Sports for an on camera interview, but did say it has a zero tolerance policy on betting on matches. Mewshaw says he’ll believe it when he sees a decision on the Davydenko match in Poland.

Frank tells Bryant that the ATP is hoping that this story goes away. He says the ATP has put up a smokescreen saying it’s conducted a great investigation, but Frank points out it’s not. He says the Davydenko match is one of the most egregious matches that he’s heard of in any sport and nothing has been done. Frank says the ATP is treating the gambling problem as a nuisance it hopes will go away. Frank says the investigation was a sham, the review was no more than a college term paper and he learned more about the problem through newspapers than the ATP. He said the number one recommendation from the review that if any player was caught gambling should be punished. Frank sarcastically says the ATP is now getting tough.

Frank says the culture of tanking has to change and fixing is just an easy step over.

Kind of a confusing story. A good one, but I think this story belonged to Bernard Goldberg who probably would have gotten some more information out of this. Grade, B.

Segment #4 – The Comeback Kid

Reported by Jon Frankel, this is an update from a story done two years ago. Last month in the All Star Home Run Derby, Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers his 28 home runs at Yankee Stadium in the first round. It served as a reminder of how good Hamilton is. In only his second Major League season, it also gave fans a chance to know how far he has come and how far he had fallen. Just three years ago, Hamilton was washed up and a drug addict. Baseball was the last thing on his mind.

Hamilton said drugs consumed him. He thought about every day, before he went to bed, when he woke up. Josh says he couldn’t control himself and he was amazed at how a smell of a drug can remind him of how much drugs took over his body.

His fall from grace came after major league scouts had projected him to be one of the great players. Dan Jennings, a former director of scouting for the Tampa Bay Rays and current Vice President of Personnel for the Florida Marlins says other than Alex Rodriguez, Hamilton was the mos talent amateur player he had ever scouted. He was one of the more than 50 scouts who would attend Hamilton’s games at high school during his senior year. And Jennings says he was impressed his Hamilton’s makeup off the field, how he carried himself, his character and his personality.

The Tampa Bay Rays signed Hamilton in 1999, taking him ahead of Josh Beckett who was drafted by the Marlins. He received close to a $4 million signing bonus. Hamilton used it to pay off his parents’ debts. And when Hamilton played his first year in the minors, his parents would come with him. Josh bought them a truck so they could follow him around the circuit and he would stay with his parents rather than stay with the team. He says it was as if he was still home. Mom would cook dinner, wash his clothes and Josh says he didn’t feel like he was missing out on anything.

In 2001, there were reports that Hamilton had a good shot at making the Rays, but that’s when his troubles began. During spring training, the truck that he bought his parents got blindsided when a car ran a red light. His parents went back to their native North Carolina to recover, Josh stayed in Florida to rehab broken vertebrae that he had suffered in the crash. It would be the first time he would be without his parents and baseball, two of the things he loved.

That’s when with a lot of time on his hands, Hamilton who had gotten tattoos on his legs started to hang out at a local parlor. He would get two or three tattoos a day and then partying with the tattoo parlor owners at night. That’s when he started drinking and doing cocaine.

The Rays found out and then sent Hamilton to the Betty Ford Clinic, but he left after 8 days against doctor’s advice.

When his arm was injured in the 2002 season, Josh went to his native Raleigh to get surgery and started hanging out with high school friends. It was there that his drinking led to abusing cocaine. Hamilton said he would go on binges staying awake for three or four days, sleeping for a day and a half. He says the worst thing he did was pawn off his Single A Championship ring to buy drugs. To this day, Josh does not have that ring.

And playing baseball could get Josh to stop abusing drugs. In 2003, he reported to spring training still using, but then took a leave of absence missing the entire season citing personal reasons.

In September 2003, he showed up at the doorstep of a former girlfriend, strung out on drugs at 2 a.m. But Josh did not want to see the girl, he wanted to see her father. Michael Chadwick. Chadwick says he knew who it was and he saw someone who was physically drained, lost, scared, didn’t know where to go. Hamilton worked construction jobs for Chadwick and knew he was someone he could turn to. But he did not know how well equipped Chadwick could help him. Because Michael himself had battled drugs and counsels teens and athletes on how to avoid the same problems.

Chadwick helped Hamilton to confront his addictions, but didn’t save him from it. The next year, Hamilton had an up and down year, going on binges, cleaning himself up, relapses, and numerous failed drug tests. Due to the tests, Major League Baseball suspended Hamilton for the entire 2004 and 2005 seasons.

Hamilton then followed Chadwick, speaking at schools about drugs. He dated Chadwick’s daughter, Katie, got married and had a daughter. But after another relapse, Katie kicked him out of the house. She says there was a point that she didn’t know if he was going to survive.

Hamilton says rock bottom for him was being out in the country with six people he didn’t know, in a trailer letting a dope man use his truck to get him some more drugs. In the fall of 2005, after losing 40 pounds, Hamilton showed up on his grandmother’s steps. She took him in. He went to see a therapist. He tried to reconcile with Katie. During his visit home, he held his daughter Sierra only for the second time since she was born and broke down crying. He says he knew then that he couldn’t go down the wrong path anymore.

He started going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Moved back in with Katie, Sierra and his step-daughter, Julia. All that was missing was baseball. He started training at a youth academy. Major League Baseball took notice and allowed him to train at the Rays’ minor league facility in 2006.

Within a month, he was back in the minors, playing in Wappinger Falls, NY. But he had Katie and the kids with him. His family followed the team’s bus sometimes driving 10 hours each way. And Katie makes sure he came back home by picking him up at the ballpark and driving him back, taking one car. Katie said she wasn’t afraid he would get drugs, but she was eliminating the chance for him to go to a bar and get sidetracked. And she wouldn’t give him a large amount of money.

His comeback only lasted 15 games when he suffered a season ending knee injury. But he stayed clean and surprisingly, the Cincinnati Reds added him to the team in 2007 and he made his Major League debut last April as a 25 year old rookie. He hit 19 homers coming off the bench.

But this season, Josh was playing full-time after being traded to the Texas Rangers in the offseason. Hamilton has been hitting over .300 this season, was voted to the American League All-Star team and has been mentioned as an MVP candidate. But after going through what he was seen over the last six years, Hamilton takes nothing for granted.

Hamilton says he’ll never be fully cured and he wakes up telling himself to be responsible and do the right things every day.

Bryant says Josh leads the majors with 116 RBI hitting .301 with 29 home runs. And Josh and Katie are proud parents to a new baby girl.

Inspirational story. One that will need to be updated again down the line to see how he does.

Grade – A.

Final Comment – Ricky Williams

Now I’ll transcribe Bryant’s final comemnt.

“Finally tonight, a few words about Ricky Williams, that miscast, misunderstood complex running back with a fondness for marajuana. A former number one pick who has to yet to fulfill his potential, Williams has missed most of the past two NFL seasons due to violations of the league’s substance abuse policy. Now he’s back. He opens the season with the Miami Dolphins a week from this Sunday, I for one will be rooting for him.

“I like Ricky for all the reasons most NFL hardliners don’t. He’s complicated, publicity shy, free thinking and he doesn’t buy the idea that football is all that important. If you’re tired of typical jocks, you gotta like someone like Williams who doesn’t drink the league’s Kool Aid and who is capable of saying as Ricky did, that he loves to play football, but he hates being a football player.

“While that statement drew odd responses who don’t do nuance, it actually fits Williams perfectly. His unwillingness never be seen as only a character in the ongoing soap opera of sports is admirable. That he and his drug appetite never quite fit in in a league that punishes players for lesser transgressions was predictable.

“Ricky’s comeback this season is no sure thing, far from it. But truth is, Williams can’t afford to be an idealistic kid who digs getting high anymore. He’s a 31 year old man with a family to support and football is not only his best way to do that, it may be his only way, which makes the story more ironic. Ricky Williams, a talented guy with a capacity for cannibis finally comes back to football because he found the grass wasn’t greener. Now there’s a morality tale even a hardliner can root for.

“And that’s our show for this evening.”

What? I’m not a hardliner, but that is preposterous. Ricky has done this to himself and while I’m for second chances, he’s not only had his second chance, but third and fourth chances as well. Grade – F.

Overall grade – B. Bryant’s comments brings the grade down.

Another Amazing Race 13 Promo

Thanks to puddin, the Governor of Alaska and current running mate of John McCain (I keed! I keed!), over at the Reality Fan Forum, I have another promo of Amazing Race 13. This includes the siblings and frat boys and a few other assorted scenes.

As usual, great stuff. If you want to find out what the TAR Detectives have discovered about the race thus far (and they’re very good), head on over to the RFF’s Amazing Race forum. It’s very good reading.

Primetime & Late Night Viewing Picks

College Football
Temple at Army – ESPN Classic, 7 p.m.
SMU at Rice – ESPN, 8 p.m.

MLB
Chicago White Sox at Red Sox – Comcast SportsNet Chicago/NESN, 7 p.m.
Baltimore at Tampa Bay – MASN2/FSN Florida, 7 p.m.
Toronto at New York Yankees – Rogers Sportsnet/YES, 7 p.m.
Kansas City at Detroit – FSN Kansas City/FSN Detroit, 7 p.m.
Seattle at Cleveland – FSN Northwest/STO, 7 p.m.
New York Mets at Florida – SNY/Sun Sports, 7 p.m.
Milwaukee at Pittsburgh – FSN Wisconsin/FSN Pittsburgh, 7 p.m.
San Francisco at Cincinnati – Comcast SportsNet Bay Area/FSN Ohio, 7 p.m.
Atlanta at Washington – SportSouth/MASN, 7:30 p.m.
St. Louis at Houston – FSN Midwest/FSN Houston, 8 p.m.
Los Angeles Dodgers at Arizona – KCAL/FSN Arizona, 9:30 p.m.
Minnesota at Oakland – FSN North/Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, 10 p.m.
Texas at Anaheim Angels – FSN Southwest/FSN West, 10 p.m.
Colorado at San Diego – FSN Rocky Mountain/Cox 4, 10 p.m.

NFL
San Diego at San Francisco – KFMB/KPIX, 10 p.m.
Denver at Arizona – NFL Network/KCNC/KNXV, 10 p.m.
Oakland at Seattle – KING, 10 p.m.

US Open
Men’s 2nd round/Women’s 3rd round – USA Network, 7 p.m.

Entertainment
15 Most Shocking Political Sex Scandals – E!, 8 p.m.
Dateline NBC – NBC, 9 p.m.
20/20 – ABC, 10 p.m.
Swingtown – CBS, 10 p.m.
Late Show with David Letterman – CBS, 11:35 p.m.
Co-Ed Confidential 2 Sophomores – Cinemax, 11:40 p.m.
Big Brother After Dark – Showtime 2, midnight
Bikini Girls From The Lost Planet – Cinemax, 12:10 a.m.

CBS Accidentally Leaked Its SEC Schedule

Thanks to the Southern Saturday blog which happened to find this and to the Eye on Sports Media blog for linking to it, here’s the projected SEC on CBS schedule for this season. This looks like a very strong schedule.

09/13 – 3:30 p.m. – Georgia @ South Carolina (CBS HD)
09/20 – 3:30 p.m. – Florida @ Tennessee (CBS HD)
09/27 – 3:30 p.m. – Tennessee @ Auburn (CBS HD)
10/04 – 3:30 p.m. – Florida @ Arkansas or Kentucky @ Alabama (CBS HD)
10/11 – 3:30 p.m. – Tennessee @ Georgia (CBS HD)
10/11 – 8:00 p.m. – LSU @ Florida (CBS HD)
10/18 – 3:30 p.m. – LSU @ South Carolina (CBS HD)
10/25 – 3:30 p.m. – Georgia @ LSU (CBS HD)
11/01 – 3:30 p.m. – Georgia-Florida (CBS HD)
11/08 – 3:30 p.m. – Alabama @ LSU or Georgia @ Kentucky (CBS HD)
11/15 – 12:00 p.m. – Notre Dame @ Navy (CBS HD)
11/15 – 3:30 p.m. – South Carolina @ Florida or Georgia @ Auburn (CBS HD)
11/22 – 3:30 p.m. – Ole Miss @ LSU or Tennessee @ Vanderbilt or Arkansas @ Mississippi St. (CBS HD)
11/28 – 2:30 p.m. – LSU @ Arkansas (CBS HD)
11/29 – 12:00 p.m. – Georgia Tech @ Georgia (CBS HD)
11/29 – 3:30 p.m. – Auburn @ Alabama (CBS HD)
12/06 – 12:00 p.m. – Army @ Navy (CBS HD)
12/06 – 4:00 p.m. – SEC Championship

Your Labor Day Weekend Megalinks

As we head into a three day weekend, it’s time to give you your Friday megalinks.

As always, we go into the Weekend Viewing Picks first.

College football has already begun with some games played on Thursday. Among the highlights for Saturday, USC takes on Virginia, Michigan hosts Utah, Appalachian State visits LSU and Alabama plays Clemson in the Georgia Dome. You can see the slate of nationally televised games for Saturday in my College Football Viewing Picks. On Sunday, ESPN has Kentucky-Louisville at 3:30 p.m. and FSN will air Colorado State-Colorado at Invesco Field at 7:30 p.m. Then on Monday, ESPN has a doubleheader starting Rutgers hosting Fresno State at 4 p.m. and Tennessee playing in the Rose Bowl against UCLA at 8.

The U.S. Open, tennis’ last Grand Slam Tournament of the year finishes its first week of play in Flushing Meadow, NY. CBS has extensive weekend coverage starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. USA has primetime coverage throughout the weekend at 7.

Major League Baseball heads into September with two games on Fox on Saturday at 3:55 p.m., Philadelphia at Wrigley Field to take on the Cubs and the Tampa Bay Rays host Baltimore. The regional splits and announcing assignments are here. WGN has White Sox-Red Sox, Saturday night at 7. On Sunday, TBS has the White Sox-Red Sox at 1:30 p.m., WGN has the Phillies-Cubs at 2 and ESPN’s Sunday night game airs on ESPN2 as the Dodgers play Arizona at 8.

The PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup continues with the Deutsche Bank Championship at the TPC Boston. Golf Channel has 2nd round coverage on Saturday starting at 3 p.m. NBC takes over with 3rd round coverage Sunday at 3. Then NBC picks up the final round at 2 p.m. on Labor Day.

NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series has the Pepsi 500 Sunday at 8 p.m.

Let’s head to your links.

National

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand talks about the next step in instant replay.

Christopher Byrne of Eye on Sports Media looks at TBS’s blog which doles out its production assignments for its Sunday afternoon MLB games through a blog.

Glenn Dickson of Broadcasting & Cable reports that ABC’s College Football Countdown will finally be aired in HD. It’s about time.

Larry Barrett in Multichannel News tells us the NFL Network will have a slew of special programming leading up to Thursday’s Redskins-Giants season opener.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says Olympians are picking up speaking engagements. Darren wonders if Nastia Liukin can make you eat your Wheaties. And Darren gets readers’ reaction to the LPGA’s English-only policy.

Joe Favorito likes how the US Open is going green.

The Sports Media Watch has some idle notes.

Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball talks about the new MLB postseason ad campaign being put forth by Fox and TBS. Thank goodness it will not involve Dane Cook.

East and Mid-Atlantic

David Scott of the Boston Sports Media Watch breaks news that the Boston Herald is losing yet another reporter.

Nancy Marrapese-Burrell of the Boston Globe talks about Inside the NFL moving to Showtime.

Phil Mushnick in today’s New York Post remembers late Post columnist Dick Young.

The Post’s Justin Terranova talks with ESPN’s Tim Hasselbeck and NBC/NFL Network’s Cris Collinsworth about the Giants. And Justin has five questions for ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has the composite college football schedule for the entire 2008-09 season.

Over to the Baltimore Sun where Ray Frager is impressed with Versus’ versatility. In his blog, Ray has the announcing lineup for ESPN’s family of networks’ college football games.

The Washington Times’ Tim Lemke writes that some Olympic sponsors are not re-upping for Vancouver and London.

South

Doug Nye of The State says the new SEC TV deals have made the conference #1 on TV. Doug talks about the South Carolina and South Carolina State football coaches shows switching TV channels.

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald writes that ESPN is promising a new documentary on the University of Miami will be fair and not a hatchet job.

Dave Darling of the Orlando Sentinel says there’s going to be a lot of college football on TV this season.

Mel Bracht from the Daily Oklahoman says CBS’ Spencer Tillman is looking forward to calling his first Oklahoma football game. Mel has Spencer’s top five college football teams. Mel has some news and notes. And Mel give us his Weekend Viewing Picks.

Midwest

George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal has women angry over fantasy sports leagues.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Bob Wolfley talks about Ron Jaworski getting a bigger role on Monday Night Football this season.

Teddy Greenstein in today’s Chicago Tribune says ESPN helped to broker Saturday’s matchup between Utah and Michigan.

Paul Christian of the Rochester Post Bulletin has a primer on the Big Ten Network.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch talks about the Rams not being on national TV this season. And Dan talks about Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann being reunited on Football Night in America.

Jeffrey Flanagan from the Kansas City Star has Fox NFL analyst Jayice “JC” Pearson lobbying for new sideline reporter Nishelle Turner.

West

Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune says focus groups turned ESPN back to the basics on Monday Night Football. Jay has the ratings from last week.

John Maffei in the North County Times writes about the new analyst for San Diego State University football games.

The Ventura County Star’s Jim Carlisle says the game will be the star on ESPN’s Monday Night Football. Imagine that.

Steve Springer of the Los Angeles Times compares this year’s Olympics overall viewing record to other programs.

The Los Angeles Daily News’ Tom Hoffarth is on vacation, but he does give us a shrunken version of his media notes.

That’s going to do it for the megalinks. Back later with Viewing Picks galore later.

College Football Viewing Picks for 08/30/08 (All Times Eastern)

Just as I did last year, I will post College Football Viewing Picks every Friday. I get the information from Matt’s College Sports on TV Website as he updates the regional ESPN on ABC broadcasts right up until Thursday when the Alleged Worldwide Leader makes its selections for the weekend. The site is an excellent resource for both college basketball and college football viewing.

So for our first weekend of college football, here we go.

UPDATE – Because of Hurricane Gustav, the President of LSU and the Governor of Louisiana have moved up the starting time of the Appalachian State-LSU game to 11 a.m. ET. The schedule has now been revised to reflect this new development.

College Gameday, live from Atlanta – ESPN, 10 a.m.

11 a.m.
Appalachian State at LSU – ESPN Classic

12 p.m.
Big Ten Coverage Map
Western Kentucky at Indiana – Big Ten Network
Maine at Iowa – Big Ten Network
Youngstown State at Ohio State – Big Ten Network
Coastal Carolina at Penn State – Big Ten Network
Akron at Wisconsin – Big Ten Network

Virginia Tech vs. East Carolina at Charlotte, NC – ESPN
Syracuse at Northwestern – ESPN2

12:30 p.m. ET
Hawaii at Florida – Raycom

2 p.m.
Ohio at Wyoming – the mtn.

3:30 p.m.
ABC/ESPN Coverage Map
USC at Virginia – ABC/ESPN2
Utah at Michigan – ABC/ESPN2
Oklahoma State vs. Washington State at Seattle – FSN
Towson at Navy – CBS College Sports
Delaware at Virginia – ESPNU (3:45 p.m.)

6 p.m.
TCU at New Mexico – Versus
Northern Iowa at BYU – the mtn.

7 p.m.
Mississippi State at Louisiana Tech – ESPN2 (6:45 p.m.)
Northern Illinois a Minnesota – Big Ten Network

7:30 p.m.
Boston College vs. Kent State at Cleveland – ESPNU

8 p.m.
ABC Coverage Map
Michigan State at California – ABC
Alabama at Clemson – ABC

8:30 p.m.
Illinois vs. Missouri at St. Louis – ESPN

10 p.m.
Washington at Oregon – FSN

Roger Ebert vs. Jay the Rat

I never thought I would ever link to Roger Ebert in this blog, but here I am, about to give you Ebert’s open letter to Jay Mariotti. I love Roger. He’s one of the best movie critics in the country and I watched his show, “Siskel & Ebert” just to see one of them rip the movies they were reviewing.

I’ll never forget Roger starting off a review in the middle of a rant against Friday the 13th Part III for its violence against women.

Well, Roger is steaming mad again and it’s not about a movie. He’s angry at Jay Mariotti for leaving the Chicago Sun-Times. Roger’s not mad at Jay for leaving. He’s angry at the way he left. And he’s angry at Jay for going to China on the Sun-Times’ dime, then leaving after e-mailing his resignation.

It’s classic Ebert and so well-written (like most all of Ebert’s work). He calls out Mariotti in an open letter in the Sun-Times.

My favorite part from his letter:

Dear Jay,

What an ugly way to leave the Sun-Times. It does not speak well for you. Your timing was exquisite. You signed a new contract, waited until days after the newspaper had paid for your trip to Beijing at great cost, and then resigned with only an email. You saved your explanation for a local television station.

As someone who was working here for 24 years before you arrived, I think you owed us more than that. You owed us decency. The fact that you saved your attack for TV only completes our portrait of you as a rat.

And Ebert continues:

If you only work on television, viewers may get a little weary of you shouting at them. You were a great shouter in print, that’s for sure, stomping your feet when owners, coaches, players and fans didn’t agree with you. It was an entertaining show. Good luck getting one of your 1,000-word rants on the air.

Great stuff. I will nominate this as one of the stories of year. And from now on, Jay Mariotti will be known as Jay the Rat. Thank you, Roger.

BREAKING NEWS: Big Ten Network Carves Deal with Cox

Two in one day for the Big Ten Network. While Cox Communications does not have a huge presence in the Midwest, it does have subscribers in suburban Cleveland. Here’s the announcement:

Cox Launches the Big Ten Network in Ohio in Time for Buckeye Football Season

PARMA, Ohio and Chicago – Cox Communications announced that it has reached an agreement to carry the Big Ten Network in time for the start of the 2008-09 football season. The Big Ten Network is now available on Cox Channel 62 and on Channel 724 in high definition and is available to all Cox cable subscribers in the Cleveland area. The channel position may change later this fall to align the network with other sports programming.

“Cox is pleased to be able to offer the Big Ten Network,” said Anne Doris, vice president and general manager of Cox Cleveland. “The Buckeye State has many Big Ten fans, and we worked diligently to negotiate the best deal for our customers.”

Big Ten Network President Mark Silverman said the network is looking forward to welcoming Cox subscribers. “We’re thrilled that Cox in Cleveland is joining the long and growing list of distribution partners offering the Big Ten Network to their customers,” Silverman said. “When fans tune in, they’ll find unparalleled coverage of Big Ten and Buckeye sports – they’ll see more action and more in-depth analysis than ever before.”

Cox serves almost 150,000 service subscribers in 10 suburbs on Cleveland’s west side. The Big Ten Network is expected to broadcast three of the first five Ohio State University games this season including this Saturday against Youngstown State University, September 20 against Troy and September 27 against Minnesota.

So the Big Ten Network is quickly working to get its channel on in time for the Saturday season openers. It’s carrying 7 games this Saturday, including six at noon ET.

BREAKING NEWS: Big Ten Network Hashes Out Deal With Mediacom

The very last hurdle for the Big Ten Network has been cleared as far as Big Cable is concerned. As Wolf Blitzer of CNN would say, “Happening now…” BTN has reached an agreement with Mediacom to have the channel appear on Mediacom systems in Iowa and Minnesota.

JOINT STATEMENT FROM MEDIACOM COMMUNICATIONS AND BIG TEN NETWORK

Middletown, New York and Chicago – August 28, 2008 –announced today that they have reached an agreement to carry the Network in time for Saturday’s opening of the Big Ten college football season. MEDIACOM COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION (Nasdaq: MCCC) and the Big Ten Network

Mediacom will launch the Big Ten Network in phases on its expanded basic level of service in states with Big Ten universities. The agreement also includes the network’s high-definition and video-on-demand programming. Mediacom customers will be notified when the network becomes available in their community.

There are a few smaller cable companies that have not made agreements with the Big Ten Network, but the channel is in negotiations with them as this is becoming a very good start to the second year of BTN.

We Have Our Winners!

We have our winners in the Olympics Opening Ceremonies DVD giveaway. Thanks to those who e-mailed over the last 24 hours.

The answers:

What was the highest rated night of the Olympics and what was the final rating?
Day 4 or August 12. The rating was 19.9 with a 34 share, overall 82 million people tuned in.

The Communist China Olympics set a record for overall viewing in U.S. history, what was the previous record holder?
The 1996 Atlanta Olympics with 209 million viewers. The 2008 Olympics brought in 214 million.

The winners will be receiving their DVD’s in the mail.

Primetime & Late Night Viewing Picks

College Football
Vanderbilt at Miami (OH) – ESPNU, 7:30 p.m.
NC State at South Carolina – ESPN, 8 p.m.
Wake Forest at Baylor – FSN, 8 p.m.
Oregon State at Stanford – ESPN2, 9 p.m.

MLB
Toronto at Tampa Bay – Rogers Sportsnet/FSN Florida, 7 p.m.
Florida at Atlanta – Sun Sports/SportSouth, 7 p.m.
Los Angeles Dodgers at Washington – FSN Prime Ticket/MASN, 7 p.m.
Philadelphia at Chicago Cubs – Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia/WGN, 8 p.m.
Texas at Anaheim Angels – FSN Southwest/FSN West, 10 p.m.
Minnesota at Seattle – FSN North/FSN Northwest, 10 p.m.

NFL
Detroit at Buffalo – WWJ/WKBW, 6;30 p.m.
New York Jets at Philadelphia – WCBS/WPVI, 6:30 p.m.
Jacksonville at Washington – NBC, 7 p.m.
Cincinnati at Indianapolis – WKRC/WTTV, 7 p.m.
Atlanta at Baltimore – WXIA/WBAL/MASN, 7 p.m.
Tennessee at Green Bay – WKRN/WFRV, 7 p.m.
Carolina at Pittsburgh – WCCB/KDKA, 7 p.m.
St. Louis at Kansas City – KTVI/KCTV, 7 p.m.
New England at New York Giants – WCVB/WNBC, 7 p.m.
Chicago at Cleveland – WFLD/WKYC, 7:30 p.m.
Miami at New Orleans – WBFS/CST/WNOL, 8 p.m.
Minnesota at Dallas – KSTC/KTXA, 8 p.m.
Tampa Bay at Houston – WTTA/KATV, 8 p.m.

US Open
Men’s Opening Round/Women’s 2nd Round – USA Network, 7 p.m.
Match of the Day – USA Network, 2 a.m.

Entertainment
Big Brother 10 – CBS, 8 p.m.
Modern Marvels – History Channel, 9 p.m.
The Gong Show with Dave Attell – Comedy Central, 10 p.m.
Reality Bites Back – Comedy Central, 10:30 p.m.
Late Show with David Letterman – CBS, 11:35 p.m.
Big Brother After Dark – Showtime2, midnight

News
Democratic National Convention – CNN/C-SPAN/Fox News/MSNBC, starting at 6 p.m., PBS, 8 p.m., ABC/CBS/NBC, 10 p.m.

An Experimental Thursday

You may have been noticing different looks for the blog over the last 12 hours or so. I’m experimenting with various templates to see how they look. The current look now is what I have settled upon for now, but there may be one or two more different templates I may try out, so if you see a different template later on, that’s the reason. I apologize for the inconvenience, but I think this template is a leading candidate for now. I prefer my blogroll to the left for some reason and I like having a lot of space for you to read the entries instead of being squeezed. Anyway, I promise you this won’t take long. I may even go back to the previous one that had been here for over a year. Let me know how you like this layout.

I want to remind you that I have a contest. I’m giving away the Olympics Opening Ceremonies DVD from NBC. I do have one winner and I need a second. The questions once again: What was the the highest rated night of this year’s Olympics and what was the final rating? And this year’s Olympics set a record for overall viewing in US history, what was the previous record? You can find the answers here at Fang’s Bites if you click on the “Olympics” label. And you can e-mail the answers to kzfone@gmail.com. First right answer claims the second and final Olympics Opening Ceremonies DVD.

Let’s start with The State in Columbia, SC in which Seth Emerson has five questions for ESPN’s Erin Andrews. Nice pic of Erin in that story too.

Maurice Patton of the Tennessean says college football is not just relegated to Saturdays anymore thanks to ESPN’s success with Thursday night games.

Paul Doyle of the Hartford Courant says Comcast appears to be on its way to adding ESPNU which would be in time for UConn fans to see their football team in action twice this season.

Joe Nocera of the New York Times blogs that with the Big Ten Network picking up carriage deals on big cable, the conference sort of won its battle.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes that NBC Sports is trying to figure out how to distribute the ball for the crammed Football Night in America crew.

Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says tonight’s Steelers exhibition game has been moved up a half hour so as not to conflict with the Democratic Convention.

Vlada Gelman of TV Week talks about the NFL Network entering the Sunday morning pre-game fray.

Randy Covitz of the Kansas City Star wonders how much NFL coverage is too much.

The Boston Herald picks up a story from the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson about the changes in each NFL TV partner’s lineup for this season.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has comments from NFL Films’ Steve Sabol about Brett Favre.

Westwood One Radio has announced its college football schedule.

ESPN has announced the sites and locations for College Gameday during basketball season plus its Saturday night games starting in January.

Andy Plesser of Beet TV says NBCOlympics.com will keep most, if not all, of its video content available on its website until the end of the year.

Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle says NBC did not mess up its coverage of the Olympics.

Michael McCarthy of USA Today visited the video center which MLB will use for its replays of controversial home run calls.

Jack Curry of the New York Times explains how instant replay will work in MLB.

Tim Arango of the New York Times says Major League Baseball will use blogging as part of its postseason advertising campaign.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News writes that the mtn. debuted on DirecTV last night.

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune writes about Jay Mariotti leaving the crosstown Sun-Times. And Bruce Allen of the Boston Sports Media Watch found one throwaway line in that story that could be distressing to Boston fans.

TSN will air a Labour Day CFL doubleheader on Monday.

That’s it for now.

Your NFL Announcing Teams by Network

Ok, in lieu of an evening update, I figured I would give you the announcing teams for the NFL by network. I know many of you would like to know the teams and since Fox made its announcement earlier today, it completes the rosters for all of the NFL TV partners. So I’ll give you each network including pregame show lineups.

UPDATE – I’ve added Westwood One Radio’s announcing teams below.

CBS Sports/AFC

NFL Today – host, James Brown; analysts, Bill Cowher, Boomer Esiason, Dan Marino, Shannon Sharpe; Insider, Charley Casserly

Announcing Teams
Jim Nantz/Phil Simms
Greg Gumbel/Dan Dierdorf
Dick Enberg/Randy Cross or Dan Fouts
Kevin Harlan/Rich Gannon
Ian Eagle/Solomon Wilcots
Gus Johnson/Steve Tasker
Don Criqui or Bill Macatee/Steve Beuerlein or Dan Fouts

Fox Sports/NFC

Fox NFL Sunday – host, Curt Menefee; analysts, Terry Bradshaw, Jimmy Johnson, Howie Long, Michael Strahan; weather, Jillian Reynolds; Barry Switzer joins Jimmy for Grumpy Old Coaches; comic relief, Frank Caliendo

Announcing Teams
Joe Buck/Troy Aikman/Pam Oliver, sideline reporter
Kenny Albert/Daryl “Moose” Johnston/Tony Siragusa, sideline analyst
Dick Stockton/Brian Baldinger/Laura Okmin, sideline reporter
Thom Brennaman/Brian Billick
Sam Rosen/Tim Ryan/Chris Myers, sideline reporter
Matt Vasgergian/Jaycee Pearson/Nishelle Turner, sideline reporter
Ron Pitts/Tony Boselli/Charissa Thompson, sideline reporter

NBC Sports/Sunday Night Football

Football Night in America - co-hosts, Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth; co-anchors, Dan Patrick, Keith Olbermann; analysts, Tiki Barber, Jerome Bettis; insider, Peter King

Announcing Team
Al Michaels/John Madden/Andrea Kremer, sideline reporter

ESPN/Monday Night Football

Sunday NFL Countdown - host, Chris Berman; analysts, Mike Ditka, Cris Carter, Tom Jackson; insider, Chris Mortensen

Announcing Team
Mike Tirico/Ron Jaworski/Tony Kornheiser/Suzy Kolber and Michele Tafoya, sideline reporters

NFL Network/Thursday and Saturday Night Football

NFL Gameday Morning – host, Spero Dedes; analysts, Marshall Faulk and Warren Sapp; insider, Adam Schefter

NFL Gameday Final – host, Rich Eisen; analysts, Deion Sanders, Steve Mariucci

Announcing Team
Bob Papa/Cris Collinsworth/Adam Schefter, sideline reporter

Just for kicks and giggles, I’ll give you the new NFL Network Sunday lineup:

10 AM – Noon NFL GameDay Morning

1 PM – 4 PM NFL GameDay Red Zone

4 PM – 7:30 PM NFL GameDay Scoreboard

7:30 PM – 8:30 PM NFL GameDay

11:30 PM – 12:30 AM NFL GameDay Final

Westwood One Radio

NFL Sunday Doubleheader

Bill Rosinski/Dan Reeves
Harry Kalas/Mark Malone

Sunday Night Football
Dave Sims/Jim Fassell

Monday Night Football
Marv Albert/Boomer Esiason/host, Jim Gray

Thursday Night Football
Ian Eagle/Dennis Green/Hub Arkush, sideline reporter

If there are any changes, I’ll certainly let you know. You may want to bookmark this entry in case you want to see who’s announcing your game.

Fox Sports Announcing Assignments for MLB, 08/30/08

Fox Sports has coverage of two games and I notice that Joe Magrane of the Tampa Bay Rays TV broadcast team who did some good work for NBC during the Olympic baseball tournament is teaming up with Kenny Albert for Saturday’s Orioles-Rays game.

Philadelphia Phillies at Chicago Cubs, Dick Stockton, Eric Karros, & Ken Rosenthal, going to 90% of USA

MARKETS INCLUDE: Albuquerque, Atlanta, Austin, Birmingham, Buffalo, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Dayton, Denver, Detroit, Greensboro, Greenville, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Knoxville, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Louisville, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Norfolk, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Raleigh, Richmond, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tulsa, Washington, West Palm Beach

Probable Pitchers: Brett Myers, RHP (7-10, 4.49 ERA) vs. Ted Lilly, LHP (13-7, 4.23 ERA)

Baltimore Orioles at Tampa Bay Rays, Kenny Albert & Joe Magrane, going to 9% to USA.

MARKETS INCLUDE: Baltimore, Boston, Fort Myers, Hartford, Orlando, Providence, Tampa

Probable Pitchers: TBA vs. Andy Sonnanstine, RHP (13-6, 4.42 ERA)

Primetime & Late Night Viewing Picks

MLB
Red Sox at New York Yankees – ESPN/NESN/YES, 7 p.m.
Toronto at Tampa Bay – Rogers Sportsnet/ION, 7 p.m.
Chicago White Sox at Baltimore – Comcast SportsNet Chicago/MASN, 7 p.m.
Cleveland at Detroit – STO/FSN Detroit, 7 p.m.
New York Mets at Philadelphia – SNY/Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, 7 p.m.
Los Angeles Dodgers at Washington – FSN Prime Ticket/MASN2, 7 p.m.
Texas at Kansas City – FSN Southwest/FSN Kansas City, 8 p.m.
Cincinnati at Houston – FSN Ohio/FSN Houston, 8 p.m.
Milwaukee at St. Louis – FSN Wisconsin/FSN Midwest, 8 p.m.
Oakland at Anaheim Angels – KICU/FSN West, 10 p.m.
Colorado at San Francisco – FSN Rocky Mountain/Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, 10 p.m.
Baseball Tonight – ESPN, 10 p.m.

US Open
2nd Round – USA, 7 p.m.

Entertainment
Greatest American Dog – CBS, 8 p.m.
Mythbusters – Discovery, 9 p.m.
Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Dallas Cowboys – HBO, 10 p.m.
Late Show with David Letterman – CBS, 11:35 p.m.
Big Brother After Dark – Showtime2, midnight

News
Democratic National Convention – CNN/C-SPAN/Fox News/MSNBC, starting at 6 p.m., PBS, 8 p.m, ABC, CBS, NBC, joining at 10 p.m.

Fox Sports’ Announcing Teams for the NFL

Got the latest press release from Fox Sports officially announcing the announcing teams for the NFL on Fox.

Nice to see Charissa Thompson graduating from the Big Ten Network going to do sideline work on the NFL. By the way, not to pat myself on the back, but I was one of the first blogs to champion Charissa’s work.

Anyway, here’s the release:

FOX SPORTS ANNOUNCES 2008 NFL ON FOX BROADCAST TEAMS

Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and Pam Oliver Return as Top Crew for 7^th Season

Super Bowl Champion Michael Strahan joins Curt Menefee, Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long and Jimmy Johnson for the 15^th Season of FOX NFL SUNDAY, America’s Most-Watched Pregame Show

Former Baltimore Ravens Head Coach Brian Billick and New Sideline Reporters Laura Okmin, Nischelle Turner and Charissa Thompson Join the NFL on FOX

New York— FOX Sports officially announced today its broadcast teams for the upcoming NFL season. Leading the group again are six-time Emmy-Award winning play-by-play announcer Joe Buck, Pro Football Hall of Famer Troy Aikman and reporter Pam Oliver, who return as the NFL on FOX’s lead broadcast team for the seventh straight season. The announcement was made today by FOX Sports president and executive producer Ed Goren. This season marks Buck’s 15^th with FOX Sports and Aikman’s eighth while sideline reporter Pam Oliver returns for her 14^th NFL on FOX season. The group calls their first game from Cleveland on Sept. 7 as the Browns play host to the defending NFC East Champion Dallas Cowboys. For the second consecutive year, former Cowboys fullback Daryl Johnston teams with play-by-play announcer Kenny Albert and sideline analyst Tony Siragusa to comprise the NFL on FOX’s solid No. 2 broadcast team. They are in Philadelphia Week 1 as Steven Jackson and the St. Louis Rams take on Donovan McNabb and the Eagles.

Each week, the NFL on FOX broadcast day begins with the one-hour FOX NFL SUNDAY (12:00 PM ET), America’s most-watched NFL pregame show. FOX NFL SUNDAY, recipient of four Outstanding Studio Show Emmy Awards, adds reigning Super Bowl champ and future Hall-of-Famer Michael Strahan as a studio analyst. Strahan, the NFL’s all-time single-season sack leader makes his debut on Sunday, Sept. 7 joining co-hosts Terry Bradshaw and Curt Menefee, analysts Howie Long and Jimmy Johnson, weathercaster Jillian Reynolds, and comic prognosticator Frank Caliendo. Strahan’s addition raises the number of Super Bowl rings on set each week to nine. Former NCAA & Super Bowl winning head coach Barry Switzer & Johnson team together each week for FOX NFL SUNDAY’s “Grumpy Old Coaches” segment.

FOX Sports also announced the hiring of former Baltimore Ravens head coach Brian Billick as a game analyst. Billick, who in only his second season at the helm led the Ravens to victory in Super Bowl XXXV, coincidentally over Strahan’s Giants. He teams in a two-man booth with Thom Brennaman on the eight Sundays the NFL on FOX carries at least seven games, making his debut in Week 1 calling the Tampa Bay at New Orleans matchup. Billick also joins Dick Stockton and Brian Baldinger on select Sundays to form a three-man booth.

In addition, FOX Sports adds three fresh faces to provide reports from the field as Laura Okmin, Nischelle Turner and Charissa Thompson join the NFL on FOX as sideline reporters. Okmin, who will join Dick Stockton and Brian Baldinger, has been a BCS sideline reporter for the past two seasons, the host of FSN’s “Totally Football” and a feature reporter for FSN’s “Pro Football Preview” the past two years. Nischelle Turner, formerly of KTTV, a FOX affiliate in Los Angeles will join Matt Vasgersian and JC Pearson while “Best Damn Sports Show Period” co-host and sideline reporter for the BIG TEN NETWORK’s lead broadcast team Charissa Thompson will join Ron Pitts and Tony Boselli.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing our new additions on camera,” said Goren. “Strahan’s chemistry with Terry, Howie, Jimmy and Curt throughout the summer has been tremendous and I’m excited to see it play out on set. With Billick we’ve added an analyst who I believe has as much potential as any I’ve seen in my career while the addition of Okmin, Turner and Thompson provide each of our game crews sideline access. In all, these additions will help continue FOX Sports’ reign as the No.1 NFL Network.”

The 2008 NFL on FOX campaign kicks off Sunday, Sept. 7 (12:00 PM ET) with doubleheader coverage of seven games, highlighted by the Cleveland Browns hosting Terrell Owens and the defending NFC East Champion Dallas Cowboys. Week 1 action on FOX also features an NFC South rivalry when the Buccaneers head to New Orleans to battle the Saints as well as the NFL’s leading rusher LaDainian Tomlinson and the Chargers playing host to the Carolina Panthers.

Following are the NFL on FOX announcer pairings for 2008:

Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Pam Oliver

Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, Tony Siragusa

Dick Stockton, Brian Baldinger, Laura Okmin

Thom Brennaman, Brian Billick

Sam Rosen, Tim Ryan, Chris Myers

Matt Vasgersian, JC Pearson, Nischelle Turner

Ron Pitts, Tony Boselli, Charissa Thompson

Stockton, Pitts and Albert have the distinction of being the only members of the group to work NFL on FOX games full-time since FOX Sports’ inception in 1994. Oliver is in her 14^th season, followed by Rosen (13), Baldinger and Buck (11), Aikman and Johnston (8), Ryan (7), Glazer and Siragusa (5), Myers and Pearson (4), Vasgersian (3), Boselli (2), Billick, Brennaman, Okmin, Turner and Thompson (1).

Nice to see Fox increase its sideline reporters for this season. And Fox which at one time paled in comparison to CBS’ lineup has a stronger lineup for the 2008 season.

Olympics Opening Ceremony DVD Giveaway

Thanks to the people over at 360i.com, I have two Olympics Opening Ceremonies DVD’s to give away.

I’ll give the first two people with the right answers the DVD courtesy of NBC. To answer, you’ll have to do a little bit of research, but the answers are on this blog. You can check the archives.

Two questions. Get both right and you’ll get the DVD’s. You can e-mail the answers to kzfone@gmail.com.

What was the highest rated night of the Olympics and what was the final rating?

Second, the Communist China Olympics set a record for overall viewing in US history, what was the previous record holder?

You can find the answers here on this blog or elsewhere if you use Google or Yahoo. First two correct answers will receive the DVD.

UPDATE – We have our winners. Thanks to those who have entered.

Wicked Wednesday Links

I was out earlier today and we already have some breaking news.

Early this morning, the Big Ten Network hashed out a carriage agreement with Charter Communications meaning fans in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Northern Illinois and Ohio will be able to watch their respective schools starting this Saturday.

However, Jeff Richgels and Bill Novak of the Capital (WI) Times in Madison say it’s unclear if Charter will have the Wisconsin season opener on in time for this Saturday.

Judd Zulgad of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes that the agreement paves the way for 300,000 subscribers in Minnesota to watch the Big Ten Network. Judd adds that while BTN and Mediacom are close to an agreement, there’s still some hashing out over which systems in the Midwest will receive the channel so this Saturday’s games may not be seen by subscribers.

By the way, we’re still awaiting official word on an official agreement with Mediacom. On Saturday, we heard that the Big Ten Network and Mediacom were close to an agreement, but nothing official from either party as of yet. I’ve contacted the Big Ten Network about this, but so far, I have yet to receive any confirmation. If I hear anything, I will definitely pass it along. But this is certainly a big contrast to last year when the big cable companies were holding steadfast in not picking up the Big Ten Network. This season, fans all over the Midwest are happy that they’ll be able to see their teams. Now let’s continue with the BTN links.

Mark Snyder of the Detroit Free Press says the deal with Charter allows Michigan fans in the north and western parts of the state to watch the Big Ten Network.

Mark Alesia from the Indianapolis Star reports that BTN is very close to a deal with Bright House Cable which serves 125,000 thousand subscribers in Indiana most of those in Indy and its surrounding areas.

Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Business of Sports blog has the channel assignments for the Big Ten Network on Time Warner Cable. And Don adds that Charter is working hard to get this Saturday’s Wiscsonin season opener on the air.

While the major cable companies are coming into the fold, the Ashland Times-Gazette of Ohio reports that Armstrong Cable has yet to pick up BTN which means residents there will not be able to see Ohio State’s opener against Youngstown State this weekend.

Moving away from the Big Ten Network, USA Today’s Michael Hiestand reports that the NFL Network is now joining the Sunday morning pregame fray by starting an early edition of NFL GameDay which would air opposite ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown.

Newsday’s Neil Best has an interesting tidbit from ESPN’s Ron Jaworski about Monday Night Football.

Mike Shields of Mediaweek reports that Sprint cell phone will able to listen to live NFL radio broadcasts this season.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell doesn’t think the LPGA’s English-only policy is a good idea.

The Big Lead reports that ESPN is trying to develop a late night talk show.

In a story that broke last night, columnist and noted blowhard Jay Mariotti suddenly resigned from the Chicago Sun-Times. This just a short two months after signing a new contract extension. Editor & Publisher looks at why Mariotti decided to leave the paper.

Jim Kirk of the Chicago Tribune gets Mariotti’s take on why he left the Sun-Times.

Writing in the Philadelphia Metro, sports talk show host Angelo Cataldi says the Philly sports media has gotten soft.

The Sports Media Watch says NBC dominated the network competition during the second week of the Olympics.

Brian Stelter of the New York Times has the final viewing figures for the Olympics on NBC.

Tim Lemke of the Washington Times says the International Olympic Committee must decide by next year if it wants to continue its 20 year relationship with NBC or go with ESPN or another party for 2014 and 2016.

Mark Berman of the Roanoke (VA) Times says MASN has filed a complaint with the FCC about Comcast for its refusal to carry the channel in the local area. In the meantime, John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable says the FCC has given itself another 60 days to rule in MASN’s dispute with Time Warner Cable.

Continuing on a story broken by the Sports Business Journal on Monday, Tim Hurd of the San Jose Mercury News writes that the Oakland A’s are considering a move from its current home of Comcast SportsNet Bay Area to Comcast SportsNet West where it would not be a stepchild to the San Francisco Giants.

The Philadelphia Business Journal says the local Comcast SportsNet channel will premiere a new Eagles pre-game show this season.

Jeff Wright of the Eugene (OR) Register-Guard says Comcast SportsNet Northwest has signed a deal with the University of Oregon to air football, basketball, baseball and track & field.

Arlen Schweiger of Electronic House magazine writes that ESPNU is set to premiere in HD Thursday.

Joshua Russo from the Rapid City (SD) Journal says there are plenty of options for South Dakotans to watch college and pro football this season.

CBS Sports has the broadcast schedule for the US Open starting this weekend.

That’s it for now.

Mamilla T-shirts!

Back in June, I posted a video made by a fan of the Maria Sharapova-Camilla Belle friendship.

But the girls at AfterEllen and other lesbian sites have been discussing the potential of their friendship possibly being deeper. But the point appears to be moot since Camilla has been seen in public with a boyfriend.

Even so, someone has made “I Love Mamilla” t-shirts over at CafePress and actually, they look very nice. And there are other t-shirts supporting Maria over here.

Back to your regularly scheduled links later.

Jay Glazer Says Michael Strahan Is Staying Retired

Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer tells us that Michael Strahan will not come out of retirement and go with his original plan to become part of the Fox NFL Sunday studio crew.

Strahan turns down Giants, will stay retired

The recently retired perennial Pro Bowler told FOXSports.com exclusively that he has decided to remain retired and has turned down the Giants’ offer to lure him back to action.

“This has been one of the toughest nights of my life,” Strahan said from Greece. “But after long deliberation and throwing around a million scenarios in my head for the past day, I think it’s just best if I stay retired.

“I have gone back and forth on this because as a player you’ll always want to play, you’ll never lose that urge to be out there. But I could only do this if I could commit 100 percent, physically, mentally, emotionally and I can’t do that. I’ve tried to convince myself and my body to give it one more year, but in the end I just don’t think I could turn it on like I need to again.”

Strahan and the team held discussions and he says the money was enough to do the deal. But in the end, it became a matter of whether or not he wanted to put his body through the rigors of another NFL season.

“I really love my life now,” he said. “It’s great having nobody put a finger on me. You really put yourself through an awful lot in this league, more than people realize.

“I’ve got a great home at FOX now and I think it’s where I belong. I wish I could’ve had different news for Giants fans but I’ve known for a while I’m done.”

Strahan considered coming out of retirement to help the team after fellow Pro Bowl defensive end Osi Umenyiora sustained a season-ending injury during the Giants’ preseason game against the Jets on Saturday night.

Strahan received a call early Monday from Giants GM Jerry Reese at the urging of co-owner Steven Tisch, who has a close relationship with Strahan.

The Giants had been hoping for a repeat of last season, when Strahan missed all of training camp and preseason while deliberating whether to return for a 15th NFL season, then returned to help lead the Giants to their 3rd Super Bowl.

The Giants had been hoping to pull a situation like last season when Strahan missed all of training camp, but then made the regular season opener and played the entire season to the Super Bowl, however, it was not to be.

I’m sure Michael will address it on the first show of the season on September 7th.

The Final NBC Press Release on the Olympics

Here we go, the last press release from NBC that I will put up on the Communist China Olympics. Without looking at it, I can tell you it will say the Olympics in Beijing set a viewing record. The Games averaged over a 16 rating for the 17 days of viewing. The Olympics won each night in primetime. The press release will also say people visited NBCOlympics.com in droves (however, we know that Yahoo Sports beat NBCOlympics as far as pure numbers are concerned). And we’ll get a statement from NBC Universal Sports & Olympics Emperor Dick Ebersol. Now, I will go to my inbox, copy the text and paste it here and see what we get.

BEIJING OLYMPICS SET RECORD AS MOST-VIEWED EVENT IN U.S. TV HISTORY WITH 214 MILLION VIEWERS

OLYMPICS CAST ‘HALO’ ACROSS NBC UNIVERSAL

NEW YORK – Aug. 26, 2008 – NBC Universal's Beijing Olympic coverage was viewed by more Americans than any event in U.S. television history, according to data provided by Nielsen Media Research.  NBCU's coverage reached 214 million total viewers, shattering the previous mark set by the 1996 Atlanta Olympics (209M) by five million viewers and surpassing the 2004 Athens Games (203M) by 11 million viewers.  The Beijing Games averaged 27.7 million viewers and scored a 17-day rating of 16.2/28 to post significant gains over the 2004 Athens Games.  Sunday night's Closing Ceremony had the best rating for any Summer Olympics Closing Ceremony outside the U.S. since the 1976 Montreal Games.

"This audience record is something I thought I'd never see again, but what really satisfied me is the way in which these Olympics truly captivated and seemed to inspire our country," said Dick Ebersol, Chairman, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics and Executive Producer of NBC Universal's Beijing Olympics coverage.

"For me, the greatest measure of success at an Olympics is the number of messages I receive from parents of young kids who have fallen in love with the Olympics. That child means more to me than anything because I think a love affair with the Olympics is the greatest in all of sports."

MOST VIEWED EVENTS IN U.S. TV HISTORY:
1. 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, 214 million (17 days)
2. 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, 209 million (17 days)
3. 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, 204 million (16 days)
4. 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, 203 million (17 days)
5. 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics, 194 million (17 days)

VIEWERS AND RATING BOTH UP SIGNIFICANTLY FROM ATHENS:
The Beijing Olympics 17-day average primetime viewership is 27.7 million, the best primetime average viewership for a complete Summer Olympics outside the U.S since Montreal in 1976, and 13 percent ahead of Athens in 2004 (24.6 million).

NBC's average of a 16.2 rating, 28 share is the best rating for a Summer Olympics outside the U.S. since Barcelona in 1992 (17.1/33) and is an eight percent increase over Athens in 2004 (15.0/26).

With the Beijing Olympics, NBC became the most dominant network in primetime for 17 consecutive nights since the advent of Nielsen People Meters in 1987.  On each of its 17 nights of Beijing Olympic coverage, NBC enjoyed a 244 percent or greater lead over the nearest broadcast network in the adult 18 to 49 demographic (important to advertisers), a 225 or greater percent gain in viewers (persons 2+), and 200 or larger percent in household rating.

NBC also set records in Nielsen People Meter history for biggest margins over the combined major-network competition for three consecutive weeks, with wins of 24 percent or more over ABC, CBS and Fox combined for three straight weeks in 18-49 and 23 percent or more in total viewers.

OLYMPICS IN PRIMETIME DOMINATE COMPETITION:
In primetime, NBC's Beijing Games won all 100-rated half-hours against its entire network competition.

CLOSING CEREMONY BEST NON U.S. SUMMER RATING SINCE 1976:
Sunday's Closing Ceremony garnered 27.8 million average viewers, a 42 percent gain from the Closing Ceremony night in Athens (19.6 million). The night earned a 15.5 rating/25 share, a 30 percent increase from Athens (11.9/20).  In both categories, the Closing Ceremony from Beijing was the best delivery for a Summer Olympics Closing Ceremony outside the U.S. since Montreal in 1976.

NBC Universal's 3,600 hours of Beijing Olympic coverage not only fueled record-breaking Olympic viewership, but also cast an Olympic "halo" across the many different divisions of NBC Universal.  The unprecedented Olympic coverage drove record numbers of viewers to NBCU's cable networks; it also produced impressive gains in viewership and competitive advantage for NBC News' "Today," "NBC Nightly News," and NBC's affiliated stations. 

Following are the details of the Beijing Olympic "halo" effect:

OLYMPICS HELP WIDEN TODAY SHOW'S LEAD OVER GMA:
Based on data during the Beijing Olympics through last Thursday (8/8-8/21/08) only:
TODAY averaged 6.272 million viewers, a 69 percent (2,553,000) advantage over GMA's 3.719 million.
TODAY widened its advantage over GMA in all ratings categories.  Specifically, the NBC program increased its lead in homes (from 19 percent to 69 percent), total viewers (from 21 percent up to 69 percent), rating  adults 18-49 (from 30 percent up to 90 percent), and rating  adults 25-54 (from 21 percent up to 77 percent) versus its pre-Olympic 3rd Quarter 2008 performance.
TODAY posted its best Summer Olympic advantage over GMA in total viewers since the 1996 Atlanta Games.

NIGHTLY NEWS TAKES FULL ADVANTAGE OF OLYMPIC 'HALO':
Based on data for the full Beijing Olympic Games (8/8-8/24/08):

Nightly News delivered 9.087 million total viewers, a 32 percent advantage (2,185,000) over ABC World News and 63 percent (3,522,000) more than CBS Evening News.
Nightly had 42 percent of the total 3-network share of news audience, the highest percentage during any Summer Olympic Games.

NBCU'S CABLE NETWORKS MAKE MAJOR OLYMPIC GAINS:
88 million viewers tuned into the Beijing Games on the cable networks of NBC . This is 28 percent more than Athens and more than any previous Olympics.
CNBC posted a 0.32 household rating, 229,000 persons 18-49 and 236,000 persons 25-54 during the Beijing Olympics.  Versus the prior 4-week average, CNBC was up triple-digits across all key demos.
MSNBC posted a 0.46 household rating, 267,000 persons 18-49 and 267,000 persons 25-54 during the Beijing Games.  Versus the prior 4-week average and year ago average, MSNBC was up triple-digits among all key demographics. 
USA averaged a 0.70 rating, 491,000  persons 18-49 and 484,000 persons 25-54 with all Olympic programming.  Versus the prior 4-week average and the year ago average, USA was up double-digits across all key demos. 
Oxygen posted a 0.43 household rating, 291,000 persons 18-49 and 313,000 persons 25-54 with all Olympic programming during the 6-8 PM block - up double to triple-digits versus the prior 4-week average and the year-ago average.

NBCOLYMPICS.COM ON MSN POSTS RECORD NUMBERS:  For the complete Beijing Games, NBCOlympics.com has more than doubled the combined totals for the Athens and Turin Games in page views and unique users, while increasing videos streamed by more than seven times.

VIDEO STREAMS: 75.5 million for Beijing, 10.8 million for Athens and Turin Games combined (+601%)
UNIQUE USERS: 51.9 million for Beijing, 25.2 million for Athens and Torino Games combined (+106%)
PAGE VIEWS: 1.24 billion for Beijing, 561.1 million for Athens and Torino Games combined (+122%)
HOURS OF VIDEO STREAMED: 9.9 million hours of video consumed through for Beijing Games is the equivalent of 1,126 years of video.

TOP 10 METERED MARKETS FOR BEIJING GAMES IN PRIMETIME:
T1. Denver          23.1/40
T1. Salt Lake City         23.1/45
3. Minneapolis  22.1/41
T4. Indianapolis         21.3/37
T4. San Diego  21.3/39
T6. Baltimore  21.1/35
T6. Oklahoma City 21.1/33
8. Nashville          21.0/33
9. Columbus, Ohio 20.4/35
10. Portland, Ore.         20.2/41
So let's go over my predictions.

• The Olympics in Beijing set a viewing record. (check)
• The Games averaged over a 16 rating for the 17 days of viewing. (check)
• The Olympics won each night in primetime. (check)
• The press release will also say people visited NBCOlympics.com in droves (however, we know that Yahoo Sports beat NBCOlympics as far as pure numbers are concerned). (check)
• And we’ll get a statement from NBC Universal Sports & Olympics Emperor Dick Ebersol.(check)

That wraps up Fang’s Bites extensive coverage of the Olympics from Communist China. If there are links in the next few days, I’ll provide them, but as far as independent entries like this one, we’re done.

The Amazing Race 3 Promo Featuring the Start Line!

Here’s another promo for The Amazing Race Asia 3, this one featuring Ida & Tania, but also showing the start of the race.

I like it.

Primetime & Late Night Viewing Picks

MLB
Red Sox at New York Yankees – NESN/WWOR, 7 p.m.
Chicago White Sox at Baltimore – Comcast SportsNet Chicago/MASN, 7 p.m.
Toronto at Tampa Bay – Rogers Sportsnet/ION, 7 p.m.
Cleveland at Detroit – STO/FSN Detroit, 7 p.m.
New York Mets at Philadelphia – SNY/CW57, 7 p.m.
Florida at Atlanta – FSN Florida/SportSouth, 7 p.m.
Los Angeles Dodgers at Washington – FSN Prime Ticket/MASN 2, 7 p.m.
Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh – WGN/FSN Pittsburgh, 7 p.m.
Texas at Kansas City – FSN Southwest/FSN Kansas City, 8 p.m.
Cincinnati at Houston – FSN Ohio/FSN Houston, 8 p.m.
Milwaukee at St. Louis – FSN Wisconsin/FSN Midwest, 8 p.m.
Oakland at Anaheim Angels – KICU/FSN West, 10 p.m.
Minnesota at Seattle – FSN North/FSN Northwest, 10 p.m.
Arizona at San Diego – FSN Arizona/Cox 4, 10 p.m.
Colorado at San Francisco – FSN Rocky Mountain/Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, 10 p.m.
Baseball Tonight – ESPN, 10 p.m.

US Open
Opening Round – USA Network, 7 p.m.
Match of the Day – USA Network, 2 a.m.

Entertainment
Wipeout – ABC, 8 p.m.
Big Brother 10 – CBS, 9 p.m.
World’s Funniest Commercials 2008 – TBS, 9 p.m.
Rescue Me – FX, 10 p.m.
Highway 18 – Golf Channel, 10 p.m.
Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel – HBO, 10 p.m.
Late Show with David Letterman – CBS, 11:35 p.m.
Big Brother After Dark – Showtime 2, midnight

News
Democratic National Convention – CNN/C-SPAN/Fox News/MSNBC, coverage begins mostly at 6 p.m., ABC, CBS, NBC and some PBS stations have coverage starting at 10 p.m.

Jumpin’ Tuesday Links

After being at a jobsite this morning, I’m now back in the comfortable confines of my office ready to provide you with some linkage. It was certainly a busy day on Monday with ESPN signing its landmark deal with the Southeastern Conference, then late last night, the Big Ten Network coming to an agreement-in-principle with Time Warner Cable. Let’s see how this Tuesday fares as I come in smack dab in the middle of the day and not knowing what has happened to now.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today has a look inside the ratings of non-Olympics sporting events this weekend.

From last Friday, the Boston Herald’s Jessica Heslam has a story on the estranged boyfriend and accused batterer of WHDH-TV sports reporter Julie Donaldson, formerly of SNY, saying he has a sex tape made on the same night that he allegedly beat her up. Nice. Real nice. Way to make your case that you’re still in love with the woman. Yeah, before I beat the living shit out of her, I made a sex tape. That must mean something, your honor!!!!

Newsday’s Neil Best who’s supposed to be on vacation, writes that SNY Mets sideline reporter Kevin Burkhardt played hurt on Monday. Neil also blogs that WFAN is now looking in earnest for various cast mates for Mike Francesa’s show this week.

Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun writes that Bal’more finished in the Top Ten of markets watching the Olympics.

Keith Groller of the Allentown Morning Call says Michael Phelps helped to push NBC’s Olympic ratings to gold medal heights.

The Albany Times-Union’s Pete Dougherty says NBC finished the Olympics averaging over a 16 rating. Very good in this day and age.

The Sports Media Watch says the ratings for the Communist China Olympics finished 8% higher than Athens.

The Sports Business Daily/Journal’s Olympics website also has the story on the ratings. And the SBD/SBJ has the day-by-day ratings comparison from 1996 through 2008.

The Washington Post’s Leonard Shapiro says the gamble by NBC Sports & Olympics Emperor Dick Ebersol to convince the IOC to put swimming and gymnastics in the morning in Communist China and primetime in the Eastern US paid off with great ratings.

Joe Nocera of the New York Times wonders what if Michael Phelps had said no to Ebersol’s request to put swimming in the morning in Communist China.

Bill Dwyre of the Los Angeles Times says the Olympics were reduced to blogging and instant gratification for reporters. I think Bill is not enamored with bloggers.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star writes that NBC got these Olympics right.

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail says Canadians can look forward to 22 hours of Olympics coverage every day from CTV’s consortium of networks in 2010 and 2012.

The CBC is happy over a poll that shows most Canadians were satisfied with its coverage from Communist China.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star reports that ratings for the Beijing Games on CBC were 15% higher than Athens.

Paul Thomasch and Ben Klayman of Reuters say even though the next Olympics up for bid by the networks won’t happen until 2014 and 2016, the networks still have to prepare for them.

And Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban writing on his blog predicts that DirecTV could join ESPN and NBC for the bidding for the 2016 Olympics. Cuban who is on top of technology is usually right about these things.

Over to the Schenectady Gazette’s Ken Schott who has a bunch of TV and Radio news and notes, but headlining them is the fact that MSG Network will air the Woodward Stakes from Saratoga this Saturday.

George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal talks with ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit about the SEC vs. the Big Ten (or Eleven as the case may be). And George has a story on the Big Ten Network coming to an agreement-in-principle with Time Warner Cable.

Doug Lesmerises of the Cleveland Plain Dealer says the agreement with Time Warner means subscribers can watch the Ohio State season opener this Saturday.

Jeffrey Sheban and Mary Lynn Plageman of the Columbus Dispatch say Ohio State fans came out the winners in the Big Ten Network/Time Warner cable agreement.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Don Walker writing in his Business of Sport blog details the Big Ten Network/Time Warner deal. And Don has the one of the last major holdouts on BTN, Charter Communications hopeful that a deal can be reached soon.

Jeff Richgels of the Capital (WI) Times says with Mediacom in Iowa just about to sign with the Big Ten Network, Charter is the last holdout on the Big Ten Network.

Over to the SEC now, Tony Barnhart of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution who was all over the SEC TV deals, writes that the agreements with CBS and ESPN will help the conference with recruiting as network exposure will increase under the two networks’ watches.

Ray Melick of the Birmingham News says CBS and ESPN have proven that the SEC matters in college sports.

In searching for news about the Big Ten Network and Mediacom in Iowa, I stumble across this special section in the Des Moines Register devoted totally to gold medal gymnast Shawn Johnson. The paper is even covering her homecoming live on its website tonight!

Back to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bob Wolfley says the local CBS affiliate will be fed Brett Favre’s regular season debut with the Jets in Week 1 of the NFL season (scroll down).

Maury Brown from the Biz of Baseball recaps Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s interview with ESPN’s Stuart Scott about his love for the White Sox and other subjects. And Maury says ESPN’s hack E:60 newsmagazine looks at the Tampa Bay Rays tonight.

Quite a few links there. More than I expected. That’s all for now.

BREAKING NEWS: Big Ten Network and Time Warner Cable Reach Agreement

Holy Toledo! And people in Toledo will be happy to read this. I never thought I would see this so soon. After some lengthy bickering, the Big Ten Network and Time Warner Cable have reached an agreement this evening and subscribers in Ohio and Wisconsin will, I repeat, will be able to watch the Big Ten Network starting this Saturday. Here’s a brief joint announcement:

JOINT STATEMENT FROM TIME WARNER CABLE AND THE BIG TEN NETWORK:

Time Warner Cable and the Big Ten Network announced today that they have reached an agreement-in-principle on terms of carriage for the Big Ten Network and its high-definition and video-on-demand programming on Time Warner Cable’s line-ups throughout the Big Ten territory, including Ohio and Wisconsin. The pending agreement will ensure that Time Warner Cable’s customers across these Big Ten states will have access to this Saturday’s Big Ten college football season openers and all future Big Ten Network programming on an expanded basic level of service.

I had asked the Big Ten Network about Mediacom in Iowa as an announcement had been expected today, but this is definitely big news.

More on this on Tuesday.