I feel your pain. I moved back to NW ND a couple of months ago. I went with the local provider for cable just to get the Sioux Hockey games. Most of you don't realize this but these local providers don't give you a large selection of channels let alone HD channels. Also, in western ND you have to wait 4-6 weeks just to get cable hooked up. CBSSN isn't an option for my local provider. So, the option is to get direct tv, but then you miss out on midco games. The other thing is that just becasue Midco will broadcast in HD next year doesn't mean we are getting it in HD. Only MIDCO subscribers are guaranteed it in HD. At this point NCC and RTC have said they aren't switching the broadcast to an HD channel for next years games. I would assume other cable companies will be the same way.