On the field, it would be hard to classify BYU and Utah's relationship as friendly and cooperative. Off the field, it seems like a different case.
The two rival schools united last Friday to solicit the services of Kelly Crabb, a Los Angeles-based sports broadcasting attorney, to help explore broadcasting options for the two schools.
At the center of the reasoning for hiring Crabb: the fans. For more than a year now, BYU and Utah fans that are not Comcast customers have been unable to watch a Cougar or Ute football game in the comfort of their own homes. Last year, all nine Mountain West Conference schools signed a contract with start-up TV network the mtn. to offer the first-ever network dedicated solely to a single athletic conference. Currently, Comcast is the only company in Utah that carries the mtn.
The hope of U President Michael K. Young and BYU President Cecil Samuelson is that their cooperation can help find a solution to the distribution problem before the start of the next football season.
"We have been patient with efforts to improve distribution for almost a year," Young said. "We are now exploring all possible options available so that all our fans have access to the games on television."
On Tuesday, the entire Mountain West Conference announced that it would be joining the efforts spearheaded by the two Beehive State universities.
The MWC Board of Directors expressed its concerns about television coverage through a press release and announced that it has also hired Crabb to explore contract options on behalf of the entire conference.
"We look forward to having our representative work with CSTV and Comcast to accelerate distribution in the best interest of the Conference," said Colorado State President and current Chair of the MWC Board of Directors Larry Penley. "Feedback regarding the mtn. programming, for those who have access, has been very positive, but the board believes it is critical to expand the availability of the network to all MWC constituents."
Despite distribution hang-ups, some positives have come from the MWC handing over its television rights to the new broadcast company. According to Tim Fitzpatrick of the mtn., the number of nationally televised MWC football games rose from seven in 2005 to 18 in 2006.
The problem with those figures is ESPN owned the contract with the MWC in 2005, which reaches more than 90 million viewers, while Comcast reaches only 16 million homes nationwide. The mtn. only reaches 1.2 million currently.
But the big service the mtn. network has provided for the MWC has been the flexibility in the athletic schedules, specifically in football.
"Saturday afternoons is when I believe we should play football," Whittingham said. "That's what the mtn. has done. Our home schedule is all Saturday afternoon contests. I think that's a big positive."
Fitzpatrick also noted that the mtn. offers unprecedented coverage within the conference, including on-campus cameras and televised coverage of MWC sports such as swimming, baseball and softball, which are enjoying exposure never seen in the conference before.
In theory, that kind of national exposure sounds great, which is undoubtedly why schools in the Mountain West signed on to the idea the mtn. network carried. The reality, however, is that more than half the fans of MWC schools have limited or no access to football and basketball games that were once available to anyone with a TV and an antenna on broadcast television.
For the mtn. to even touch upon that kind of distribution, it would take major digital television providers DirecTV and Dish Network to start making the mtn. available as part of their service, as well. The process to procure that support has gone on for a year, bearing no fruit.
The mtn. encourages Dish Network and DirecTV customers to contact their satellite television provider and voice their requests to have better coverage.
"It's our desire and intention to secure satellite distribution," Fitzpatrick said.
Dish Network declined to state whether customers had contacted the satellite company regarding the mtn., and declined to release a comment or information involved in channel or network negotiations.
"This is a standard growth process for any new network," Fitzpatrick said. "Typically, networks launch with a solitary source of distribution and grow over time."
While it's possible to concede that what has happened over the past year is just part of the "growth process" as Fitzpatrick said, it's clear that the schools in the Mountain West are exploring all options to rectify the situation for fans immediately.
"I think that, first and foremost, fans are a little bit frustrated right now with the lack of accessibility by the mtn.," U head football coach Kyle Whittingham said. "What the presidents aligned themselves to do is to expedite that process of getting our games in (the fans') homes sooner rather than later."
