southpaw

On Dish/DirecTV systems. I can't watch it on cable outside of the Root viewing area. Just like I can't watch Midco outside of the viewing area. DirecTV and Dish have their own set of rules. If DirecTV wanted to pick up UND hockey games and air them, they could do that.

Because.

The regional titles like Atlantic, Central and Pacific are just titles and aren't specifically regional channels. UND home games have been on all three over the years. They're just a way for FCS to split up all of the content they air onto three channels.

The CBS deal applies to national channels which have been designated for years. The national/regional title isn't something new. CBS clearly wanted exclusivity on national channels, which it got. UND is the only team that gets screwed because UND is the only school that has its games picked up on a national channel on a regular basis, although DU has had some games simulcast on FCS and Root. There is a reason Faison voted against the deal as he knew and made it very aware to other schools how much it would hurt UND. If the deal was designed to specifically screw UND then it wouldn't have allowed regional broadcasts either.

No. Fox Sports North can air a Texas Tech vs Texas football game. That's because Fox Sports produces that game and Fox Sports North is a regional entity of Fox Sports. It's different for NHL/NBA/MLB/NFL games due to contracts in place. Obviously, there won't be a lot of interest in a day-time Saturday Texas Tech v Texas football game in Minnesota. However, there are some Pac-12 football games aired on Fox Sports North on saturday nights because there isn't a lot of other live sports options available to them.

I apologize if I come off as frustrated and I understand the designation may be confusing. I didn't make the distinction between regional and national but I understand how it is divided. The regional/national distinction is solely due to cable networks. In Colorado Springs, I can't get Fox Sports North no matter how many tiers I buy. There is no way I can get that channel. It's the same with Midco, Root sports Pittsburgh and any other regional network. I can get FCS (and still do) on my Comcast subscription. Anyone with a cable setup has the possibliity to get FCS (it's up to the cable providers to actually offer that channel). DirecTV and Dish can get all of the regional networks on a tier and can also get FCS, which is put on a tier as well. That doesn't mean anything. DirecTV and Dish are the only two national television providers. They can essentially provide any channel to anyone. Cable systems can't do that. That is where the difference from regional to national exists. The viewership of regional vs national channels makes no difference. It's all how cable systems are setup and what channels they can show.

DirecTV and dish are available throughout the country. Comcast, Midco, etc are not available throughout the country. That's the difference. Regional cable systems throughout the country carry FCS. Regional cable systems throughout the country do not carry the FSNs or Root sports outside of their region. FCS is national because it is available nationally on cable systems. Fox Sports North is regional because it is not available nationally on cable systems. Midco is regional because it is not available nationally on cable systems.

That's why I said cable systems. Dish systems are different.

The FCS channels have no original content. Everything they air is from broadcast partners. Fox Sports North produces their own content and is only available regionally on cable systems. FCS is available nationally on cable systems. Really all FCS does is pick up games and content from other people and then reair it.

The vikings have taken enough scraps from Green Bay lately, I say Minnesota should trade them to the packers in exchange for some other past-their-prime scrubs.

FCS has clearly developed a following with UND fans. It may be small but they're reliable viewers that have been shown to keep coming back for more than just hockey. Plus, it's free, high quality (despite what some people think) broadcasting that fills time slots. FCS is all about filling time slots. They aren't going to be able to air a ton of games so they find the stuff they can and have been pretty consistent with a number of schools.

The Vikings win?

I don't know the numbers of people who park in the lot and pay the $10. As has been said before, people can park near the lot, walk there and get a free ride I believe. The $80 covers the cost of the shuttle bus but what about the cost of the employees at the parking ramp? The employees driving the busses? It's going to cost more than $820 for all of that.

Bartels is going to have some good receivers to throw to in the future

Not odd at all. Just because they're both government programs doesn't mean they just cover the costs. I work at the admin level at a school district. If a high school wants to use some of our equipment, they have to pay for it. Both of our budgets come from the same place but we have to cover the costs of equipment breaking and replacement. Same deal with busses and UND.

The best thing that could happen for UND sports (and Midco) this season is for Root, Altitude or some other regional network carried on DirecTV and Dish to make an agreement with Midco to pick up the feed of UND hockey. That way it is more accessible to more viewers. However, it would most likely involved Midco just giving away their signal for free, something that they aren't likely to do because then there is no incentive for DirecTV or Dish owners in Midcoland to switch to Midco.

Of course they did. It's the same way UND got FCS to originally air sports other than hockey. It's why the NCAA sells all of its rights (except basketball) to one entity. You want Notre Dame football, you also have to air Notre Dame hockey and basketball. You want UND hockey you also have to air UND football, basketball and volleyball. I highly doubt Notre Dame hockey gets any money from NBCSN.

Hockey East already had a contract with NBCSN prior to Notre Dame joining. By adding Notre Dame, the number of non-ND games on NBCSN went from a whopping 4 last year to an incredible 5! Adding Notre Dame did nothing to help Hockey East's broadcasts get on NBCSN. There was nothing stopping them from getting NBCSN as their broadcast partner after Notre Dame went to Hockey East. Except that NBCSN doesn't care about airing college Hockey East games, so why would it care about airing NCHC games? CBSSN aired 8 Hockey East conference matchups last year, compared to the 4 on NBCSN. What good is a tv contract/partnership if it doesn't really benefit the conference? CBSSN is airing 15 regular season league games plus the playoffs. The network is airing two non-NCHC games this season. Seems like a pretty great television deal. NBCSN is capping their broadcasts of Hockey East games to "up to 12" total over two years. The only positive to that deal is that there isn't an exclusivity clause, otherwise it's a meaningless deal and is crap compared to the NCHC/CBSSN deal.

For the same reason that UND doesn't have the FCS setup anymore. Notre Dame wanted their own broadcast deal in addition to any NCHC broadcast deal. The NCHC wouldn't cave to that (just like it didn't for UND) but Hockey East did. The NCHC was officially formed in July, with Western Mich and SCSU added in September. The CBSSN deal wasn't finished until January. The NCHC members chose the CBSSN deal (except for UND, who didn't want the exclusivity clause). NBCSN didn't sign a new deal with Hockey East once Notre Dame joined, they just reupped their existing contract. There is no exclusivity clause in that deal, other than during games broadcast by NBCSN. However, Hockey East is only getting 17 games aired on NBCSN, one fewer than the NCHC on CBSSN. 12 of those are Notre Dame home games. I'm sure UND fans would have been just fine had UND only been part of just a couple of the games aired on NBCSN. The CBSSN agreement is better for the NCHC than the NBCSN is for Hockey East. The NBCSN deal would have been better for UND, as games would have been allowed on FCS. Although, who knows if the NBCSN deal would have been available to the NCHC had Notre Dame joined.

Actually, my source who told me about Faison being the only one who voted against the CBSSN deal also said the NCHC decided to move on from Notre Dame. The NCHC got fed up with Notre Dame dragging its feet as the school was trying to decide between the NCHC and Hockey East. Apparently, talks had gone back and forth and it seemed like ND to the NCHC was imminent several times, but the NCHC got tired of being played and the schools felt they needed to make a decision on an 8th member so they said no thanks to Notre Dame.

Yup... just a simple press of a button while pointing the camera at the ice. It was difficult to watch because their "tight" camera (the one that looked like crap) was only slightly tighter than the wide one. Pretty brutal to watch.

I can already tell that Midco/UND has changed how they're sending the game to AmericaOne this game. It's the straight truck feed where in past weeks it went to Midco HQ and then was uplinked. It could be that the internet at the Alerus is not strong enough to handle this high quality of the stream. It could be that the computer UND uses for football isn't fast enough. Lots of different possible reasons, just wish they could get it figured out so we get the HQ feed without the buffering issues.

Nice to see AmericaOne/Midco are now sending the widescreen feed of today's football game. It looks pretty nice, although it's buffered more than any of the hockey games I've seen this year.

It is not a Midco sports net production. It's being produced by whatever company does Miami games. It's just being picked up on the UND webcast because Miami also does Neulion. No clue about HD or quality.

One huge reason why Minnesota is often able to skate the puck in is because they play most of their games on Olympic ice so they have the room to do that.