In the slowest part of the college sports year can make it difficult for The Mtn, CBS College Sports, ESPNU, and The Big 10 Network to find consistent and more importantly entertaining program. ESPNU and The Big 10 Network show minor sports as wrestling, lacrosse, baseball, and other sports of that type for programming.
Just take a look at the week of MWC sports schedule and there is only the Texas A&M at TCU baseball game out of about 30 games this week on television. There are a few on BYU-TV but in regards to the leagues network package there is just the one game. The Big 10 broadcasts basically every sport and in high-definition, so why does The Mtn not show more baseball to fill for live program.
Or if one thinks about it college football is king and a year round topic and quite popular, so why not follow in ESPN's shoes and televise spring games.
First all it would be great for The Mtn to have more live programming, and being football would be a huge boom to the channel that plays a lot of infomercials to pay the bills. Also, summer is even a more dead period then April and May so by broadcasting the teams that have a spring game/scrimmage/practice it would provide around 20 hours of relevant content instead of re-airing the 2008 TCU vs. Utah or Utah vs. Oregon State game.
This broadcast does not even really need a full broadcast crew but would be nice, and the topic could be about the upcoming 2010 season, position battles, and anything relating to the upcoming season. Talking about the game specifically is not even all that relevant for the broadcast besides players who are to step up. The Mtn is missing a huge money making opportunity by showing these games which would bring in some ratings, and this is an opportunity to promote the channel even more, because I had zero interest in the LSU or North Carolina spring game but tuned in just to see some college football.
Get a clue Mountain West college football is a huge and would attract the eyeballs and cash that the channel needs, plus it would give fans who can not go to the spring game or live too far to see the team. This extra programming would be excellent to replay during the summer instead of always re-airing old games from two years ago.