First Football Post!
Today is the first UT game of the season. We're playing Rice at home in Austin. However, there's a huge problem for any of us who can't see the game in the stadium: The Longhorn Network.
UT last spring decided that they needed their own exclusive TV network dedicated to UT sports. Good idea, right? Allow people from all over the state to watch games! Well, so far, all it's done is make a HUGE mess. Only a few random TV providers have signed up to carry LHN. This creates a GIANT problem for everyone in Texas since the major carriers - AT&T, DirectTV, and Comcast - can't show it. I've been trolling the message boards this morning to see if I can find a bar in Houston that will be showing the game. Even the official Texas Exes bar downtown can't get the game. They're having a listening party instead. Literally 95% of Texans (Rice or UT fans) will be listening to the game on the radio. There's only one bar in the entire AUSTIN area that will be carrying the game on TV. ONE.
This has backfired so massively it's almost spectacular. The several bar owners I talked to this afternoon trying to find somewhere to watch said that they were ticked off because the unavailability of the game is causing them to lose revenue. I don't blame them. I'd be pissed, too. All LHN can say on their FB page is to continue to call our tv providers to request it. Because LHN has made it prohibitively expensive to carry the network, the main providers are balking at the moment.
All anyone can say thus far today is that UT has become just a bunch of greedy fuckers who don't actually care about their fans, just the exclusivity of the concept.
Texas A&M was offered a halfsies deal when UT first was kicking around the idea of its own network. A&M declined the offer. Now they're trying to get in on the deal and UT has said, "No." Because of this, A&M has decided that they want to leave the Big 12 conference for the SEC. Literally, UT and its greediness has pushed several teams out of the conference: Nebraska and Colorado State. I've heard that the Big 12 are kicking around the idea of adding TCU, Houston, or SMU instead, but who would want to be in our conference when UT is acting so completely selfishly?
This is the first time I'm truly disappoited in my university. I hate feeling this way. HATE IT.
I have another 5 hours to wait before I get to tune my radio to the station that will carry the audio of the game. So pissed off right now.
UT last spring decided that they needed their own exclusive TV network dedicated to UT sports. Good idea, right? Allow people from all over the state to watch games! Well, so far, all it's done is make a HUGE mess. Only a few random TV providers have signed up to carry LHN. This creates a GIANT problem for everyone in Texas since the major carriers - AT&T, DirectTV, and Comcast - can't show it. I've been trolling the message boards this morning to see if I can find a bar in Houston that will be showing the game. Even the official Texas Exes bar downtown can't get the game. They're having a listening party instead. Literally 95% of Texans (Rice or UT fans) will be listening to the game on the radio. There's only one bar in the entire AUSTIN area that will be carrying the game on TV. ONE.
This has backfired so massively it's almost spectacular. The several bar owners I talked to this afternoon trying to find somewhere to watch said that they were ticked off because the unavailability of the game is causing them to lose revenue. I don't blame them. I'd be pissed, too. All LHN can say on their FB page is to continue to call our tv providers to request it. Because LHN has made it prohibitively expensive to carry the network, the main providers are balking at the moment.
All anyone can say thus far today is that UT has become just a bunch of greedy fuckers who don't actually care about their fans, just the exclusivity of the concept.
Texas A&M was offered a halfsies deal when UT first was kicking around the idea of its own network. A&M declined the offer. Now they're trying to get in on the deal and UT has said, "No." Because of this, A&M has decided that they want to leave the Big 12 conference for the SEC. Literally, UT and its greediness has pushed several teams out of the conference: Nebraska and Colorado State. I've heard that the Big 12 are kicking around the idea of adding TCU, Houston, or SMU instead, but who would want to be in our conference when UT is acting so completely selfishly?
This is the first time I'm truly disappoited in my university. I hate feeling this way. HATE IT.
I have another 5 hours to wait before I get to tune my radio to the station that will carry the audio of the game. So pissed off right now.