No Cross Country Coverage on The Big Ten Network??

Submitted by ROeditor on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 14:58.

Date:

09/02/2008 - 14:46

( By Matt McGowan )The battle between Ohio Time Warner and the Big Ten Network seems to be over. For more than a year Time Warner subscribers have heard and read numerous ads from the Big Ten Network telling us to contact our cable provider to request the Big Ten Network.

Also, last month The Ohio State University Athletic Director, Gene Smith, sent out a letter to alumni and season football ticket holders to suggest they switch their cable provider if they had Time Warner. When I wrote the Big Ten Network on August 24th I received an email back suggesting I switch my cable provider, (a few hours later an agreement between Time Warner and the Big Ten Network was announced).

Since my cable provider now has the Big Ten Network, the one thing that concerns me is when I go to the Big Ten Network web site and look at the sports they cover; cross country is not one of the sixteen sports they list. The Big Ten Network web site says “Sports televised: Football, men's basketball, women's basketball and other

NCAA-sponsored sports...” Yet, cross country is not listed as a sport the Big Ten Network covers.

Also, it looks like they do not plan to cover the Men’s and Women’s Big Ten Cross Country Championships in Ann Arbor November 2. I have had numerous ads from the Big Ten Network over the year asking me to contact Time Warner and say I want the Big Ten Network. Well, I would like the runners of Ohio, the Midwest, from States which have Big Ten institutions, as well as any cross country/running fan to contact the Big Ten Network office and ask why they are not covering cross country.

Last year after I received an email saying the Big Ten Network was not going to cover the Men’s and Women’s Big Ten Cross Country Championships. After many runners contacted the Big Ten Network to voice their support for cross country the Big Ten Network decided to cover the Big Ten Cross Country Championship held in Columbus.

Over the years the Big Ten has had numerous outstanding team and individual performances at the NCAA Division I National Cross Country Championships. Last year in NCAA Division I National Cross Country Championships six Big Ten women’s team finished in the top 21 and five Big Ten men’s team finished in the top 30.

To read some of my correspondents from last year with The Big Ten Network and some facts on the popularity of cross country at the high school and college level go to –

http://www.runohio.com/archive/news/10-13-07Big_10_network.h...

Here is the Big Ten Network web page if you would like to voice your support for cross country - http://www.bigtennetwork.com/contact

(Please feel free to forward this article and contact info to your running friends and running club members)

If you would like to email a person here are some Big Ten Network officials

Elizabeth Conlisk, VP/Communications

elizabeth.conlisk@bigtennetwork.com

Mark Silverman, President

mark.silverman@bigtennetwork.com

Leon Schweir, Executive Producer/Vice President, Production

leon.schweir@bigtennetwork.com

Mike Feller, Vice President, Programming

mike.feller@bigtennetwork.com