Right: No full carriage! No publicity stunts! No dice!

On Wednesday, Ohio State Director of Athletics Gene Smith took several jabs at Time Warner, Ohio’s largest cable provider and the last of heavyweights who have not signed on to carry the Big Ten Network.

Then Friday afternoon, Time Warner swung like a girl, open-handed and all.

The cable giant proposed a temporary arrangement to Ohio State’s Smith that would of allowed their Time Warner subscribers to see Ohio State football games on a pay-per-view basis until a long-tern solution was signed by both parties.

Time Warner would of let Ohio State set the price and keep all of the revenue, and the cable company would of also provided free converter boxes for those subscribers who didn’t have one in order to watch pay-per-view packages.

Smith forwarded the proposal to Big Ten Network which then on to FOX, who handles the administration and day-to-day operations of the channel.

The network suits responded by saying this nugget of wisdom as reported by Le Doug at the PD:

Time Warner is well aware that it cannot selectively choose to air a network’s programming in lieu of full carriage. In addition, offering to do so to a customer base it has effectively ignored for the past year in not carrying the network is counter-productive and creates both confusion and false hope.”

Basically, BTN is saying all or nothing. Either air the network or don’t. And with just a hair over seven days remaining until Ohio State’s first game, it appears that Time Warner customers are SOL.

Tags: University News by Matt Barker
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Matt’s Morsel of Mental Might

While Gene Smith’s words hit the nail on the head, those of you who have been missing out on the Ohio State’s games that have previously aired on the Big Ten Network, I would assume you have made the switch already.

If not, what are you waiting on!?

I realize there are a select few who may not have the option of going with another cable provider, or having a satellite dish installed. I, for one, have lived in apartment complexes over the years that either forced-fed you Time Warner or structured their leases so that dishes were forbidden.

Last year, I was fortunate enough to have Insight Communications as my cable provider, so I have been able to watch BTN since its inception. This summer, when I moved into an area served by Time Warner, I switched to WOW, which is far cheaper than Time-Warner and they have BTN!

What’s amazing is that Time-Warner has an estimated 600,000 customers in central Ohio alone, and it’s the largest cable provider in the state.

That’s a huge chunk of the market.

With nine days left until Ohio State’s season-opener against Youngstown State, even if there’s an agreement signed today, it’s unlikely Time Warner will be able to broadcast the game in time.

Tags: University News by Matt Barker
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As reported by Bruce Cadwallader of The Columbus Dispatch, Robert E. Haines Jr. was sentenced to three years in prison after writing two bad checks to The Ohio State University for season football tickets in 2003 and 2004. He was also ordered to pay the grand sum of $18,205 in restitution.

What’s astounding is that Haines thought that he was just going to get probation after he pleaded guilty, last November.

“Your honor, I can’t do prison,” Haines said to Judge Michael J. Holbrook in the Franklin County Common Pleas courtroom.

According to Haines’ lawyer, Byron L. Potts of TV commercial fame, he’s broke, even though he did bring a check to cover a small part of the restitution that was order to court.

A check!? It better had been a certified or cashier’s check!

Supposedly he lives in a half-million dollar house on the Far North Side and earns more than $400,000 a year as a financial consultant and restaurant owner, and yet he’s broke. Haines also has health problems, which usually pop up when you facing jail time. Plus he’s has six more pending lawsuits, one of which has been filed by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.

Clearly, the justice system does work sometimes. Kudos to Judge Holbrook. Any relation to Karen?

Tags: University News by Matt Barker
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Arizona State University athletic director Gene Smith has accepted Ohio State’s offer to replace Andy Geiger who is retiring in June. A press conference is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday to announce the hiring.

Smith, who was hired by the Arizona State in 2000, is a member of the NCAA Infractions Committee, the NCAA Football Rules Committee, the NCAA Administrative Review Committee and the BCS Athletic Director’s Advisory Committee.

Smith, a native of Cleveland, is known as an outstanding fund-raiser and academic leader, and has a clean reputation.

Prior to being named athletic director at Arizona State, Smith was athletic director at Iowa State from 1993 to 2000 and at Eastern Michigan from 1986 to 1993.

A search committee was formed in January to find a replacement for Geiger, who will officially retire in June after 11 years at Ohio State.

Tags: University News by Matt Barker
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