Back later....

The Big Ten wants me to be upset that I'll have to go to a bar or restaurant to watch the Badgers play Ohio State today.

Let me get this straight:

The Big Ten wants me to be upset that I won't have to cook...well, microwave, really.

The Big Ten wants me to be upset that I will be able to watch not just the Badger game but a variety of games from around the nation.

The Big Ten wants me to be upset that I can take my computer along with me and use the wireless internet to do a little blogging or clearing out of the e-mail during the game.

Yeah. I'm all broken up about that.

The only thing that I'm a bit upset about is that I'll actually have to leave the trailer, after being away for just over a week. But, that was going to have to happen eventually. So, off to get some wings and nachos and burgers and all that.

Full disclosure time: The Timber Rattlers play at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium. Time Warner Cable and the Big Ten have not agreed to terms on adding the Big Ten Network to the cable lineup. I would have the same attitude about this "issue" if it was Something Else Field at Fox Cities Stadium.

For those of you thinking that I'm imagining that the Big Ten wants me to be upset...

Bob Hunter from the Columbus Dispatch has a good column on the topic.

Ad nauseam pitches by Big Ten Network, cable easy to tune out

Every time I see Jim Tressel on television urging me to call my cable company and tell it to get the Big Ten Network, I wonder what can possibly be next.

Will I catch Thad Matta hanging a Big Ten Network flyer on my doorknob? Will crusty Lloyd Carr call me personally and ask, in his sweet-as-chocolate-fudge voice, if I'd be interested in switching to DirecTV?

I retreat to the sanctuary of my newspaper, where an ad reminds me with the subtlety of a sledgehammer of all the Ohio State games that I'm not missing as a subscriber to Time Warner. I think about how 30 years ago the cost of my current monthly cable bill would have made a payment on a small house, and I wonder how in the heck I'm missing anything.

Will anyone forget Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany using Appalachian State's stunning upset of Michigan, one of his teams, as a way to pump up his network?

"I think it shattered the perception that we didn't offer competitive games (on the network)," he said in his "call your local cable operator" TV huckster voice.

It sort of makes you wonder if Delany didn't pump a fist over Michigan's loss. You know -- take that, Comcast. In your face, Time Warner. See what you're missing, Joe Fan? Aren't you sorry you didn't call your local cable company now, blah, blah, blah?

Hunter has an interesting idea that boils down to let the consumer decide.

Business of Sports blogger Don Walker at jsonline.com has this post:

UW reacts to Big Ten dispute

In a lengthy and largely objective letter to Badger fans everywhere, three prominent UW officials today said that they feel the Big Ten Network is good for Wisconsin. But at the same time they acknowledged there are two sides to the ongoing dispute between the network and major cable carriers.

The three - Chancellor John D. Wiley, athletic director Barry Alvarez and Athletic Board chairman Walter Dickey - posted their letter on the Badger Athletics Web site. The letter was also published in a large ad inside the Journal Sentinel sports section. You can read the letter in its entirety here.

Read his whole post and then follow that link to the letter from the UW. Gotta run. Kickoff is in an hour.