A FRONT ROW VIEW: TV Blackout was a travesty

Call the town scribe. I think his number's listed. And while you have him on the phone, tell him to remember to bring his brand new set of fountain pens and a fresh bottle of jet black ink. If he asks what for, just tell him there's been yet another down-to-the-wire thriller in the Big 5, and we need him to record it for us in the illustrious annals of Philadelphia college hoops. Don't worry, he'll understand. Oh, and one more thing -- tell him to make sure that bottle of ink is a big one. He'll need plenty since we want him to be really specific with this one. We want him to include every shot, turnover and timeout. Why this desire for detail, you ask? Well, partly because Villanova's 78-74 win at home over Penn last night was truly a spectacular game. But mostly because only 6,500 people got to see it. The eagerly awaited city showdown was not televised. That's right, the vast majority of 'Nova fans, Penn fans and college basketball fans in the City of Brotherly Love were shunned last night in a big way. So how did this happen? Well, try to contain your surprise, but it all comes down to contracts, obligations and money. The Big East conference has a contract with ESPN granting the all-sports network exclusive rights to any Monday or Wednesday night games in Big East markets. Obviously, last night's game fit that description, so ESPN owned the rights. PRISM, the local cable station which carries Big 5 games, was not able to gain permission to air the contest in the Philly market. Some blame PRISM. Others blame Villanova. Villanova blames the Big East. In the end, though, does it really matter? Not if you ask me. I was fortunate enough to be there, but most of you (and most of Philly, for that matter) couldn't watch last night's game. This is a joke. If PRISM had pressed the issue, the game would have been on. The Big East frequently grants such exceptions to SportsChannel and the MSG Network so New Yorkers can watch St. John's and Seton Hall locally. I find it hard to believe similar permission for one game was impossible to obtain. Furthermore, any over-the-air (non-cable) station could have picked up the game, but they all were against cancelling network programming in prime time. After all, what would we do without Beverly Hills, 90210 and Roseanne on a Wednesday night? A lot of people who missed the game knew of this travesty a few days ago, and so they tried desperately to get their hands on a ticket. A lottery with few winners, however, meant no such luck. But don't blame the folks down at Weightman Hall, because it's not their fault. Once people figured out there would be no TV, there was a crunch on tickets. That meant plenty of wealthy and well-connected Villanova alumni to take care of. To make matters worse, Villanova was as generous with its Penn ticket allotment as the Grinch is on Christmas Eve. Those of us from Quakerland who got tickets were stuck way, way up in the rafters. Even Philadelphia mayor and Penn fan Ed Rendell was up there with us. When the mayor gets banished, you know there's a pretty big demand surplus for tickets. Most of you probably knew you had been shafted. So you resigned yourselves to a cruel fate, clicked on the radio, and settled in for the long haul. But a few of you just might have turned on the good old cathode-ray tube hoping to see Jerome Allen and Kerry Kittles go head-to head. If you did, you most certainly have a right to be disappointed. All was not lost, however. After all, you still had two quality programming choices. There was boxing from the Blue Horizon on PRISM, and there was an epic Seton Hall-Miami clash on ESPN. Better tell that scribe to make it quick. Lee Goldsmith is College junior from Huntingdon Valley and a sports writer for The Daily Pennsylvanian.

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