It doesn't look good for the Olympics, but at least ESPN will stay the course with its NCAA coverage. The all-sports network (and we still want to know why it's the "Entertainment and Sports Programming Network" if they never have any movies) will basically repeat its schedule from last season. There will be three NCAA games on ESPN and 20 on ESPN2 (or, as they so cutely call it, "The Deuce") -- and some of those ESPN2 games will be rebroadcast at various dead hours on ESPN. (But hey, if you're home at 10 a.m. on Mondays, you just might get to see Penn State and Northwestern.)
And the American Basketball League just announced its latest success -- a deal with SportsChannel that will put 14 games on the tube nationally and offer regional SportsChannel teams the chance to show 20 more. Of course, the regional franchise has got to sell enough ads to cover production costs, but at least the opportunity is there.
As for postseason play, there will be plenty of it, both in college and in the ABL. ESPN will show about 15 NCAA games, with ESPN2 adding another 10, while SportsChannel will put an unspecified number of ABL playoff games on the air. (And isn't it about time that the ABL got its act together and decided what the heck the rules are going to be? Like how many teams make the playoffs, how wide the lane is, how many refs there are and little details like that. Camps open in less than two months, and it would be nice for the coaches, if they ever hire them all, to know what game they're playing?)
And then there's the Olympics, where we'll we have to wade through wrestling, men's volleyball and lots of smarmy up-close-and-personal features before we see any action at all. And since it will all be tape-delayed, we'll get no sense of the flow of the game, and no real feel for how good the best women in the world really are.
It's hard to blame NBC, though, because they're in the business of making a profit, and it's hard to blame the Olympics, because without NBC's money, there'd be four teams playing for the gold in a college gym in Indiana somewhere. The object of the Olympics, unfortunately, is not to allow fans of every sport to see every game. (You might recall NBC tried that in 1992, and it was a bomb of "Showgirls" proportions.)
So our best hope is that some enterprising soul tapes all the games and sells us all copies. Otherwise, we'll just have to be satisfied with occasional glimpses of the biggest women's basketball tournament on the planet.
But there is one hope: If the U.S. makes the final in Atlanta, everyone might get to see the whole plate of grits. NBC moved the final to 1 p.m. Pacific time, which would be right in the middle of the last day's action. If nothing else, maybe we'll get to see that.
Or maybe somebody will send us those tapes ...
