Okay, I've thought this for a while but I'm finally going to air my gripe. My son just started school at a D3 college. They live stream every single varsity sport home game they have except for Cross Country (for obvious reasons). Most have student announcers to go along with the live stream video.

My question is why the heck can't we do that? We've got one of the best radio/TV programs in the country and I can't believe we can't make a class out of this area. My roommates were all R-TV guys and they were driving all over SE Ohio doing high school football and basketball games on the radio. I can't believe it would be hard to find students who wouldn't love the experience as on-air personnel, production and cameramen. I'd also take it a step further and have Marketing majors take a class where they come up with ways to promote our sports.

Now I'm sure some of you who are a lot smarter than I will come forth and tell me why we can't do that.

Well, that would mean the academic side would need to embrace the athletics side.

I want to buy eight hot dogs and eight hot dog buns to go with them. But no one sells eight hot dog buns. They only sell twelve hot dog buns. So I end up paying for four buns I don't need. So I am removing the superfluous buns. Yeah. And you want to know why? Because some big-shot over at the wiener company got together with some big-shot over at the bun company and decided to rip off the American public. Because they think the American public is a bunch of trusting nit-wits who will pay for everything they don't need rather than make a stink. Well they're not ripping of this nitwit anymore because I'm not paying for one more thing I don't need. George Banks is saying NO!

I think the original conspiracy was when someone convinced people that a hot dog is food.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on what it is then, if you don't believe it is food. Now if your argument is it isn't an appetizing/healthy/whatever type of food fine...but I'm not sure why shaped meat trimmings are anything other than food...

People appear unable to extend their time horizon past the most recent Facebook/Twitter/Snapchat update.

It's because of the MAC deal with ESPN. Ohio can't just throw a stream on their website, neither can the MAC. Every sporting event must be professionally produced. Student help? Of course.

ESPN owns the rights to every MAC sporting event, from football to cross country.

Here's the beauty of ESPN3 owning the rights .... you don't have to worry about available time slots to stream the game!

It's the freakin' internet. You can run anything thru that "channel"

All Ohio would have to do is setup the equipment at Bob Wren or the soccer/field hockey fields and setup the stream.

Other MAC schools have seemed to have figured it out

http://www.espn.com/watch/search/Toledo
http://www.espn.com/watch/search/Akron
http://www.espn.com/watch/search/Ball

Ohio looks like they do most home volleyball games ... probably because the equipment is already installed in the Convo. Seems to be the case for just about every MAC team when it comes to volleyball.

From what I understand ... ESPN3 provides a platform to give MAC events "air-time"

BUT ...

It's on each of the schools to invest in the equipment and set-up. That is why Ohio was one of the last schools to go from coaches-cam/radio pumped in basketball broadcasts on ESPN3 to actual TV-like broadcasts. They chose not to pony up for the equipment until years after schools like Ball State, WMU and others.

So it's not ESPN3 to blame here ... Ohio has the platform to air any sport they want on ESPN3 ... they are choosing not to do it. Whether that's a financial decision or staffing decision, I'm not sure? But I do know that a high number of students work on the ESPN3 basketball broadcasts behind-the-scenes.

Same goes for other schools that don't air soccer, field hockey, etc.

My guess is that it's more of a financial burden to commit resources to it ... maybe not a belief that students will be a reliable workforce?

Either way ... this isn't an ESPN3 issue ... it's an individual school issue.

That's who the finger gets pointed at. ESPN3 has done the bare minimum in outfitting these schools ... but each gets the graphics package and platform to air their product. It's just on them to produce it and staff it.

I donate what I can, thank you.

It's mostly a joke. I've had my share of hot dogs and while I do try to eat healthy most of the time and limit my meat/meatbyproducts intake, I'm far from a food snob.

Ohio does have some control to what they broadcast. Each university has a minimum amount of events they must produce. I believe it is 75 a year?

That being said, I agree that the MAC doesn't do much at the league office level. It's a mess over there. I was just trying to point out that's it's not just on Ohio. There's issues in terms of marketing, video content, etc. But the ESPN deal puts schools like Ohio in a tough spot. They must choose where to send those limited resources, and a field hockey game isn't going to picked over a volleyball match.

Also, it's a lot easier to produce an event inside the Convo than at Pruitt.

So am I understanding this right that if Ohio wants to live stream a Bobcats golf match, they can't just throw it up on their on, but they can put it out on ESPN3 using all their own production?

My thoughts on this topic is it would be nice to see what we do stream on ESPN3 streamed around campus and Athens. It would be a good advertisement for the students if one could walk into the Pigskin every Saturday and see the Ohio game on TV to go along with other major broadcasts. Same with men's basketball. I remember being in Memphis 10 years ago just outside Fedex on game night Memphis vs. Tulsa basketball and seeing bars packed all of which had the game on CBSSN. People weren't necessarily watching it but it really added to the atmosphere. There is a perception by some that OU is not a school you can follow, follow on TV so tough to get into.