As I promised, I am addressing ESPN's ill-advised decision to break away from the UConn/Pittsburgh game in Connecticut on Sunday.

I received a couple of e-mails from ESPN in advance of their "February Frenzy" including one that stated the whiparound coverage would not be applied in home markets. What that means is that all of Connecticut (except lower Fairfield County which is considered to be part of the New York market) should have seen the UConn/Pitt game in its entirety.

I just received an e-mail back from one of the two media relations contacts at ESPN I reached out to looking for comment on the matter. She said she is checking into the issue.

Believing it is my job to offer ESPN a chance to comment before I let fans do the same, I believe I held up my part of the deal. If they offer a comment, I will certainly pass it on.

As far as I can tell based on the readers who e-mailed me, it seems to be a satellite issue with DirecTV and Dish Network subscribers being the ones who could not see the second half of Sunday's UConn game. Obviously I was at Gampel Pavilion so I could not channel surf to see if the UConn game was being televised on another of the ESPN stations but I am a DirecTV subscriber and taped the game. The second half, the Iowa State/Texas game was being shown in place of UConn/Pitt.

I know that in Madison, Comcast Cable subscribers were able to see the entire game.

Now here are some of the comments. I left the names off just in case people don't want their names associated with this entry but the comments pretty much speak for themselves. Before I publish them, I will say that ESPN would be well advised to rethink their approach to whiparound coverage. I realize they are contractually obligated to show a certain number of games and with one day like Sunday, they can live up to those obligations by 16 games being televised in one afternoon. However, in Connecticut fans love their Huskies and deserve to be able to watch the entire game. Save me the "game is a blowout" shtick. Something tells me that when the New England Patriots were blowing out pretty much every team en route to an undefeated regular season, viewers in Boston did not have to worry about the second half of Patriot games not being shown so the third and fourth quarters of the Jacksonville/Tennessee game could be televised. Could you imagine the backlash if that were the case?

Now without further delay, here are some of the comments:

"I was really miffed when ESPN cut off the game at the half, they switched to the Texas vs. (Iowa State) game. I kept watching thinking they would go back. They did not even give an update on the score."

"Yes, I know that the Women's team "blew out" Pitt yesterday but it wasn't because I was able to watch it. With the infinite wisdom only bequeathed to television bigwigs, ESPN switched away from the game to some other contest at halftime. What about all of the young girls that aspire to play for the likes of teams similar to UCONN? How are they supposed to watch a well played game when the coverage is switched?

"Please do something about this for the sake of UCONN fans. The team is the number one team in Women's basketball. I wonder if it was the men's team would it have been switched? Or Tennessee? The only good thing about ESPN's coverage is Kara Lawson's unbiased, knowledgeable and honest comments during the talking heads moments.
"Since it nationally televised games are the decision of the conference, the Big East should not allow this bait and switch to happen. It is pitiful. I appreciate watching the UCONN games because of the beauty of the game itself. Thankfully, CPTV affords us the opportunity to enjoy the entirety of the games which makes the fund-raising efforts bearable."


"I live in Guilford and have Comcast with the additional sports package. I was also one of the many people watching on ESPN HD. After watching 7 or so minutes of the second half (not UCONN), I was switching to listen on the radio. It was then that I discovered that the UCONN game was on regular ESPN, not HD. Both channels had the same listing, so I had assumed that both channels had the same coverage. Very frustrating when you consider the cost of the various cable packages. Thank you for looking into this for the many UCONN fans."


"I live in New London, and I have DIRECTV! I went to the game and TIVOed the whole day 1pm to 7pm. When I got home my buddy in Bloomsburg, PA called me that PA and CT only got the first 1/2! I then watched my TIVO and the 2nd 1/2 was NCST v VA & mostly TX v IAST and Marshall & SOMISS! There's nothing ESPN can do to fans to make it up, but it shows the fans/bill payers are the last considered!
Thanks for taking an interest in righting a wrong!"

"I was thoroughly disgusted with ESPN's decision to not show the entire UConn/Pitt game on Sunday. I had thought, as you stated, that they were doing "regional" broadcasts and that meant a commitment to the UConn game. I was watching it on ESPN-2's HD channel (203) via Comcast cable (I live in Bloomfield). Interestingly, though, for some reason I decided to look at the "non-HD" ESPN channel (30) and, lo and behold, our game was being broadcast there! I do not understand the semantics here but I was just grateful to see the game at all.

"One major beef with Comcast in Connecticut is that they do not offer ESPNU in any way, shape or form - which means that every year we can not see a fair amount of the Big East Tournament games and an occasional regular season game as well. For whatever reason, they can not seem to come to terms with an agreement with ESPN to carry ESPNU. They are too darn independent and obviously do not care about their customers - that is what happens when you are pretty much the "only show in town".


Thanks to everybody who responded.