So an observation about the schedule and wondering how y'all feel about it.
BTN has in essence "unbunched" the conference's schedule. Used to be, you had a mess of Saturday games, a lot of Tuesday or Wednesday and the odd Sunday or other random day ESPN needed something. But I was looking forward, we have five three-game days and five four-game days and one five-game day the rest of the way (through early March). But you also get at least one game almost every night.
Do we like this?
I don't. It used to be clear weeknights were T-R, weekends were Saturday and occasionally Sunday. So you'd play once each, with your allotted bye weeks. Now I'm not sure how they do it. MSU plays Thursday, but not at all all weekend, then 3 times next week. I'm guessing Monday's game against Maryland counts as a weekend game? Who knows.
Even aside from that, I don't think "more" is better, because it's never appointment viewing. Aside from the whole not scheduling a Friday night around college basketball; even on nights in, I used to be pretty free to watch T-R, and then Saturday and Sunday afternoon, knowing that Mondays, Sunday nights, Fridays if we were in, we'd watch a movie and something we had DVRd, but when Big Ten played, it was appointment viewing. Now there's constantly a game, so while you always COULD watch, you never feel like you need to, and it makes me end up watching less, because I can always just catch the next one. Same with football, I watch less off Saturday games than I used to, simply because it used to feel like Monday Night Football, and even Thursday night college football, were your only two chances off Saturday-Sunday to see football, so I'd watch, even for a lousy matchup. Now, I just tell myself, meh, I'll watch tomorrows game, but then I tell myself the same tomorrow. When it was appointment viewing, I'd find myself scheduling around it, now I find excuses to avoid it. Sunday night, I've just watched enough sports, I can't get into it. I absolutely hate the Sunday evening/night Big Ten games, and it's like pulling teeth to watch when MSU participates. If MSU isn't playing there is a less than 5% chance I watch, if MSU is, it's 50/50.
And that's aside from a firm commitment not to watch any of these Friday night Big Ten games, just because I want them to go away, and while Delany is relying on us to still watch, even if we dislike it, I can at least do something, albeit insignificant, to let them know I won't.
