Thank you, NCAA -- for having the guts to say, You know what... screw it! Let's give the people what they want! Thank you, Lopez Lomong -- for ruining everyone's Letsrun picks. But most of all... Thank you, CSTV -- thanks, for building a cable channel that would struggle so mightily that you deign to pick up an event which clearly garnered advertising interest only from the sponsoring body of the event itself. (The NCAA took up, what? 85% of the ad time?) Our review, after the jump. +1's on the Coverage:
> There was a cross country race on TV. And...it...was...LIVE!
> The commentators managed to not ruin it.
> Commercials didn't come at inopportune times -- ie. mile, 5k split, 8k...
> It was streamed FREE - crucial considering how few people get CSTV, and the fact that a midday broadcast might otherwise cut out a major chunk of the viewership.
I'm not going to nitpick much. Do I wish they would have shown Lomong once or twice after Rupp and McDougal shook free of him? Absolutely, as the threat of his kick was certainly on the minsd of many folks for the first kilometer or so after the Dyestat Dreamboats took off. Do I wish they would have put a camera on the Gator? That they cut back to the pack to show us the team race developing? Yeah, I do. But I mean, come on... the bottom line is that when I tuned in to watch a major running event, I started getting butterflies of anticipation as they showed the competitors at the line, because I DIDN'T KNOW THE OUTCOME WHEN THE GUN WENT OFF. There is no replacement for that feeling of excitement, one that only built through the slow opening miles.
Tuning in... great for our sport. Following up with an e-mail to let CSTV know that their audience on Monday is a loyal one and appreciates the coverage? Even better. Take just a few minutes and e-mail the CSTV programming department. Don't do it for me. Do it for the kids.
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