Purpose: The short-short introduction for this thread is that, using college basketball television information (with permission!) from Matt Sarz' College Sports on TV site, I will be documenting exactly which college basketball games I get this year and which are blacked out (click the link for my excel spreadsheet) living in Southern Illinois with the Silver 200 package and the Multi-Sports Pack.
Introduction: I'm a lifetime college basketball fan but a brand new DISH subscriber. I've had cable since I graduated college in 2002, so this is a new experience for me. I've never had the opportunity to get many of the regional sports networks around the country, relying instead on the much more restrictive set of three Fox College Sports channels in the past.
I have searched these forums more than once looking for clues on how many extra college basketball games I'd be able to get with the Multi-Sports pack. Well, now I'll know in complete detail, and you'll know too. Depending on how this goes, I hope to continue doing this each year.
Spreadsheet Guide: The spreadsheet I'll be using is separated into worksheets along the bottom of the Excel file.
1. The first tab, "TV Channels", goes over the possible channels which might show a college basketball game throughout the year. I've dividied this into the group of channels I get with my DISH Network setup along with channel numbers and into channels I do not get with DISH with an explanation of what they are and where they are located.
2. Week 1, Week, 2, .... Week 18: Each succeeding tab takes the information found on Matt Sarz' College Sports on TV site and adds columns for DISH Availability, the channel number(s) the game is available on, and whether or not the game was blacked out where I love in Southern Illinois. Note: I may add a notes/HD section which tells people if the game was available in SD, HD, or both if people want that.
Miscellaneous:
1. If I miss a night or two here and there, I would appreciate it if people following this thread could help me fill in the blanks. In those cases, I'll either ask ahead of time if I know I won't be around or I'll ask after the fact if something comes up.
2. If someone who has DirecTV and their Sports Package would like to participate I'm all for it. I realize sometimes there tend to be E*/D* "wars" here and that is NOT my intention. I just think it would be interesting if college basketball fans knew ahead of time what kinds of trends emerge here as far as blackouts go for both providers.
3. I have been going back and forth this year over whether or not to get ESPN Full Court. I have cable internet, and with it I am lucky enough to get ESPN360.com, which broadcasts all Full Court games online. In addition, many of the games on Full Court may be available through the Multi-Sport pack. My lack of tuners (only 2 in a 722k) to watch games on has me leaning in the direction of NOT getting ESPN Full Court this year. If anyone who IS getting Full Court wants to help with blackout information, I'd be happy to have you.
4. Why am I doing this? I figure a lot of people are probably asking this question. The answer is I really, really like college basketball and I'll be watching these games anyway, I'm interested in how sports are presented on TV, and it'll be interesting to see if I can identify certain "rules" of college sports blackouts on the Multi-Sports Pack.
UPDATE: Spreadsheet last uploaded the evening of November 5, 2009.
Introduction: I'm a lifetime college basketball fan but a brand new DISH subscriber. I've had cable since I graduated college in 2002, so this is a new experience for me. I've never had the opportunity to get many of the regional sports networks around the country, relying instead on the much more restrictive set of three Fox College Sports channels in the past.
I have searched these forums more than once looking for clues on how many extra college basketball games I'd be able to get with the Multi-Sports pack. Well, now I'll know in complete detail, and you'll know too. Depending on how this goes, I hope to continue doing this each year.
Spreadsheet Guide: The spreadsheet I'll be using is separated into worksheets along the bottom of the Excel file.
1. The first tab, "TV Channels", goes over the possible channels which might show a college basketball game throughout the year. I've dividied this into the group of channels I get with my DISH Network setup along with channel numbers and into channels I do not get with DISH with an explanation of what they are and where they are located.
2. Week 1, Week, 2, .... Week 18: Each succeeding tab takes the information found on Matt Sarz' College Sports on TV site and adds columns for DISH Availability, the channel number(s) the game is available on, and whether or not the game was blacked out where I love in Southern Illinois. Note: I may add a notes/HD section which tells people if the game was available in SD, HD, or both if people want that.
Miscellaneous:
1. If I miss a night or two here and there, I would appreciate it if people following this thread could help me fill in the blanks. In those cases, I'll either ask ahead of time if I know I won't be around or I'll ask after the fact if something comes up.
2. If someone who has DirecTV and their Sports Package would like to participate I'm all for it. I realize sometimes there tend to be E*/D* "wars" here and that is NOT my intention. I just think it would be interesting if college basketball fans knew ahead of time what kinds of trends emerge here as far as blackouts go for both providers.
3. I have been going back and forth this year over whether or not to get ESPN Full Court. I have cable internet, and with it I am lucky enough to get ESPN360.com, which broadcasts all Full Court games online. In addition, many of the games on Full Court may be available through the Multi-Sport pack. My lack of tuners (only 2 in a 722k) to watch games on has me leaning in the direction of NOT getting ESPN Full Court this year. If anyone who IS getting Full Court wants to help with blackout information, I'd be happy to have you.
4. Why am I doing this? I figure a lot of people are probably asking this question. The answer is I really, really like college basketball and I'll be watching these games anyway, I'm interested in how sports are presented on TV, and it'll be interesting to see if I can identify certain "rules" of college sports blackouts on the Multi-Sports Pack.
UPDATE: Spreadsheet last uploaded the evening of November 5, 2009.
Last edited:
