Louisville Cardinals Basketball games have not been televised, and Louisville fans are not happy!
Here’s the story of one fan, for example, we’ll call him Bob.
Bob waits all week for the big game on Saturday; Bob invites his friends over and orders pizza and wings for the pre-game. Bob dresses up in his finest Louisville Cardinals Gear to cheer on the team he has watched religiously for over 35 years. Bob and his friends play games, trash talk and have a few beers while watching the clock count down to game time. Game time comes, Bob and his friends gather around the 70-inch big screen in his Louisville Cardinals themed man cave. Then for the next hour they switch between channels on dish network, trying ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU or even ESPN News, no no no and no, they check the locals and again a big NO. Frustrated and upset they check their smartphones to confirm game time and channel. It comes up as ESPN3, and there is no such channel on Dish Network. More research tells them that the only way they can watch the Louisville Cardinals play this basketball game today is via the internet. Bob and his frustrated friends do not have the ability to watch their favorite team play today. So they spend this time checking scores on their phones and posting to social media expressing the frustrations of today’s Louisville fan.
Bob isn’t alone, below are a few of many posts made on the Louisville Basketball Fans Facebook page.
If you have an unlimited high-speed internet connection, Xbox or an HD streaming device you might dismiss the “Bob and his friends story” because you don’t have that issue, but many Louisville fans know the frustrations of Bob and have experienced that on several occasions so far this year. The Louisville basketball team is three games into the 2015-16 season, and all three games were not televised, plus the upcoming game on December 5th vs. Grand Canyon again will not be televised.
So whats the problem here? Does it have to do with the ACC or ESPN?
ESPN owns the broadcasting rights to all ACC games in all sports; ESPN has a multi-million-dollar deal with the ACC. So one of ESPN’s channels ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU ESPN News should show the games, right? Not necessarily, Sadly some are shown on the WatchESPN app and ESPN3.com.
What do you think? Comment below.
