Writing this in the wee hours of the morning after watching the series finale of Damages on DirecTV not once, but twice to try and figure if investing five seasons was worth it. I think it was, but to be honest, the entire series as a mindfuck. And I think the producers intentionally made it that way. Well, with Damages finished, I cannot look forward The Amazing Race and the second season of Homeland.
Ok, to the thoughts written in bullet form.
- Notre Dame’s decision to join the ACC in all sports except for football and hockey makes both ESPN and NBC winners. ESPN has rights to the ACC in a new contract that took effect in May and will last through the 2026-27 season. NBC has rights to Notre Dame home games through 2015 and will most likely renew when the rights come up again.
The Fighting Irish under its new affiliation agrees to play five ACC teams a season in football while remaining an independent. Expect NBC to get 2-3 of those games at South Bend. ESPN’s Family of Networks would televise 2-3 at ACC sites. Plus you know that ESPN loves to air Notre Dame when the team is playing one of the conferences where it controls the rights.And for basketball, ESPN gets the Irish in ACC conference games playing its old Big East rivals Boston College, Miami, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Virginia Tech along with ACC stalwarts Duke, Maryland and North Carolina.
Of course the big loser is the Big East as it attempts to get some semblance of big money as the ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC did. The Big East left a lot of money on the table after rejecting an offer from ESPN last year. It cost the conference Pitt and Syracuse as well as its commissioner. Now the Big East has to limp along this season with three lame duck teams while hoping it can still land a Megabucks TV deal.
- On Wednesday, Dan Patrick mentioned on his syndicated radio show that NFL Network is testing out a new camera that would be place on top or next to the pylon at the goal line to give a true view of the plane as teams attempt to score. I’m quite intrigued with a Pylon Cam. Usually, the NFL’s TV partners would have a motorized cart bringing a sideline camera to the goal line, but it’s not the linear concept that would be a true goal line camera. Upon hearing Dan discuss the Pylon Cam, I asked an NFL Network spokesman to determine if the concept would be brought to Thursday’s game involving the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers. I was told that NFL Network “is a few weeks away from it being used in a game.” I like the idea of bringing viewers closer to the game.
Since I wrote this at 3 a.m. and fell asleep, I figure I won’t hold onto to this any longer. I’ll have some more thoughts later tonight.
