Ron Kantowski on a TV contract that costs the MWC much more than money

By Ron Kantowski

Thursday, June 7, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.

Every time I see Javan Hedlund, the Mountain West Conference's publicity chief and one of the nicest guys you'll meet, our conversation ends with him telling me what a good deal this controversial contract with College Sports TV and The Mtn. is for league members and fans.

And with me saying that I'll be first to write a column when I'm convinced of it.

This isn't it.

I'm still not drinking the Kool-Aid. More important , neither are the presidents at what arguably are the conference's two marquee schools.

Frustrated by the Mountain West's inability to cut a satellite TV deal, Brigham Young and Utah have retained a lawyer to, as a story in the Salt Lake Tribune delicately put it, "explore" broadcasting options.

Utah President Michael K. Young told the Tribune that CSTV and Comcast, part-owners of The Mtn., were the right choice insofar as controlling the conference's sports product but that the transition has been difficult for fans. "We aren't second-guessing the decision, but there needs to be some serious table pounding done," Young said.

I've got news for Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson or the satellite and cable bigwigs or Rick Majerus or whoever is responsible for this travesty of a TV deal. He is second-guessing the decision. That's why he hired a lawyer.

On further review, the MWC presidents are pulling a Billy Donovan. They're flip-flopping like John Kerry.

Maybe Thompson was their point man in these TV negotiations, but they are his boss. They were the ones who agreed to take the CSTV money and run last year. Now they appear to be having second thoughts about saying ESPN's grandmother wears army boots.

The Utah schools have retained Kelly Crabb, a partner in the Los Angeles office of the international law firm Morrison and Foerster . Whenever I see "international" in front of "law firm," the first thing that comes to mind is that the plaintiff must be pretty upset.

"We've asked Kelly to investigate our situation with the conference's television contract and recommend a new course of action," BYU President Cecil O. Samuelson said in a statement.

The rest of the MWC presidents voted unanimously during their meeting this week in Santa Fe, N.M., to have Crabb represent them in an attempt to clarify and establish a strategy for TV distribution.

The presidents wouldn't speculate on whether that means suing somebody. But again, isn't that what lawyers usually do after they're through recommending courses of action?

If push comes to shove, it could be good news for Rebels fans with satellite dishes, because the louder a wheel squeaks, the faster it's likely to get some grease.

The Mountain West received a lot of grease on dumping monolithic ESPN for gnat like College Sports TV and The Mtn., a regional network that probably exists only so CSTV can show Alabama play Kentucky in football instead of getting stuck with New Mexico vs. San Diego State.

Each MWC school was getting about $800,000 from ESPN, which would have been cut to about $500,000 after a contract extension. Under the CSTV agreement, Mountain West schools will get about $1.1 million annually for 10 years.

With ESPN, when you're a minnow swimming among the BCS whales, you also have to play on Thursday and Friday night. That supposedly is what prompted the Mountain West to seek a greener sea. But by playing on Thursday and Friday nights, when there is little TV football from which to choose, you also get a potential viewing audience of 90 million homes with ESPN.

With The Mtn., you get a few viewers in Wyoming trailer parks who wrap aluminum foil around a coat hanger and attach it to the TV antenna.

The Mtn. now reaches 1.2 million homes, including many in Las Vegas and San Diego , thanks to Cox Communications' big heart. If not for Cox cable picking up The Mtn. in December, a lot of UNLV basketball fans would have missed out on some pretty exciting road wins.

Digital cable subscribers in New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Idaho - Idaho? - also can get CSTV and The Mtn. for a fee, which may or may not be nominal. Fans in New Mexico, for instance, pay $60.49. Plus tax.

Obviously, that the Mountain West embarked on this TV endeavor without a firm distribution plan is a pretty good indicator it was counting on the law of supply and demand to force the cable and satellite suppliers' hands.

But the Mountain West isn't the Big Ten or Southeastern Conference, where passionate fans gather 'round the boob tube and wave a big foam finger at it whenever Ohio State or LSU is playing.

The sad truth is a lot of viewers in this part of the country would rather watch a caterpillar morph into a butterfly in high definition than watch another UNLV or San Diego State scoring drive morph into a fumble.

And that's why it is probably going to take a bunch of lawyers and a gallon-size jug of Kool-Aid before this thing works out to everybody's satisfaction.