Patriot League Men's Basketball TV Schedule - Aggressively Mediocre, or Better Than Nothing?

Thousands gathered in a cheering throng at the gates of the Patriot League headquarters in Center Valley, PA. The doors were silently thrust open, revealing Executive Director Carolyn Schlie Femovich standing atop a shimmering golden pedestal, the confident smile on her face hiding the anxiousness behind revealing the biggest news of the year. Murmers from the crowd slowly grew into a deafening roar as Femovich began to announce The 2011 Patriot League Men's Basketball TV Schedule on CBS College Sports Network!

Okay, so maybe that's not how it went down. Maybe the Patriot League happened to post this announcement on their website two days ago, and that whole deafening roar thing was only inside my head. I'm convinced it's real. Either way, let's cut to the chase and take a look at this thing:

Jan. 16 - Holy Cross at Bucknell, 2 p.m.
Jan. 22 - Navy at Army, 6 p.m.
Jan. 27 - Colgate at Holy Cross, 7 p.m.
Jan. 29 - Lafayette at American, 4 p.m. 
Feb. 6 - American at Lehigh, 2 p.m. 
Feb. 20 - Flex Game, 2 p.m.
Feb. 26 - Flex Game, 4 p.m.
March 2 - Patriot League Quarterfinal, 7 p.m.
March 6 - Patriot League Semifinal #1, 5 p.m.
March 6 - Patriot League Semifinal #2, 7:30 p.m. 

There you go. AU's games are bolded, so you can tune in to the ones that actually matter. Wait...what's that? You don't get CBS College Sports? Well don't worry, I'm sure at least one of your friends, neighbors, coworkers, or at least that fling from high school you still sometimes see in the grocery story and wonder if that guy she's with has-- ok, getting sidetracked, the point is that most likely none of these people have CBS College Sports. Never have I seen this channel in person, and never have I met a person who has.

So it's fantastic that we're one of only two Patriot League teams that gets two televised games, not including the flex games (the other being Holy Cross, but sadly, not our Re-Phil Bender game against them on February 19th). It's great that we can probably up it to three, if not four (pending predicted Patriot League dominance) with the flex games. It's not so great that only about four people who live inside of caves deep in some godforsaken hellhole that closely resembles Worcester, MA will be able to see them. I'm still bitter that ESPN (acknowledging that it was ESPNU 95% of the time, and ESPN2 at best) dropped the Patriot League from its schedule, and the best they could do as a replacement was CBS College Sports. At least I had a fling back in high school who gets ESPNU. While there is no way that a flock of wild Mountain Hawks could keep me from Bender Arena for the Patriot League Championship on March 11th, it's disappointing to know that if I couldn't be there, I'd be hard pressed to find it on any TV within 50 miles.

Of course, for the sake of fairness I decided that I would attempt to put my money where my mouth is and see how much it would cost to become the first person in a major metropolitan area to get CBS College Sports. Their website was incredibly uninformative, unwilling to even tell me how much it would cost unless I gave them permission to spam me with as much junk e-mail as they pleased. Needless to say, I don't have any actual numbers for you, but I can tell you that I still don't have CBS College Sports.

Here's my solution: the Patriot League needs to get better. We need to play games people want to see. Then, networks like ESPN will put us back on channels that at least 5 people watch. Now, this seems like a lofty, idealistic, vague, and expensive goal with no real prescription for how it should be accomplished. While I am prone to doing those things, here's Step 1 -- Patriot League teams need to stop scheduling Division 3 games during the regular season. It's that kind of RPI that relegates us to the channels that even those D3 schools aren't all that envious of.

Finally, for those who really took a hard look at when our televised games are, you might have noticed that CBS College Sports, as a final blow to the nads, decided to schedule us for February 6th. If you're unaware of what's going to be competing for viewers' attention at this time, just know that it begins with the word "Super", and ends in the letters B-O-W-L. Right, so let's say someone theoretically, by some miracle of whatever deity you choose, actually gets CBS College Sports. There is no way that deity has enough power to compel that person to then go ahead and watch AU vs. Lehigh over the Super Freakin' Bowl. Way to go, CBS College Sports, just rub some more salt in the wound.

Am I right? Totally wrong? Should I be more grateful for what we have? Do you actually get CBS College Sports? Let us know in the comments - it's far more refreshing than searching for obscure television channels.

Pro Deo Et Patria,
Josh