I got an e-mail from the Michigan Athletic Department announcing a Big Ten Network open house Wednesday, August 8 at 12:45pm. It will take place at the Junge Family Champions Center (so you can see where a recruit goes to be wowed). Big Ten Commissioner and Angry Letter Writer Jim Delany will be in attendance as well as the Mark Silverman, Big Ten Network President.

The e-mail and the event is being coordinated through the Michigan Athletic Department, so I'm kind of curious if this will be traveling show that will hit up every Big Ten school. It would seem a little weird to only have this event on one campus. It's not as though Michigan is the only fan base who have their reservations.

It is definitely a ploy to try to control the dialogue. The most politically drenched section:

We at Michigan are extremely excited about the network and believe that local cable companies have an obligation to look out for the community's interest. Their competitors, DirecTV and AT&T, are both carrying it on basic cable, and we think big cable is abusing their position in the market place.

The rest of the letter is basically logistics and posturing. It's weird that it just went out in a direct e-mail without any corresponding link on mgoblue.com. Varsity Blue will be providing full team coverage. We'll also be covering media day on Monday. Should be a big week.

Labels: big ten network, press conference

This entry was posted by Paul, on Friday, August 03, 2007. You can leave your response.

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