Barring a major miracle the Pac-12 Network will not be on DirecTV when they begin broadcasting live games this evening at 5:15 p.m. time when Utah takes on Northern Colorado. The latest move in gamesmanship came on the side of the Pac-12 who sent out an open letter urging fans to switch away from the satellite provider:
We've heard from thousands of DirecTV subscribers who don't receive Pac-12 Networks and wonder whether they'll miss out on their teams' most important games of the football season. We have worked around the clock to make sure that doesn't happen, but with only a few hours remaining before the kickoff of the season, we're writing to inform our fans that we do not have a distribution agreement with DirecTV.
This means Pac-12 fans who subscribe to DirecTV are in jeopardy of missing all 35 football games scheduled for broadcast on Pac-12 Networks, beginning Thursday night.
[...]
If you're one of the fans who won't be satisfied without Pac-12 football, or our more than 135 men's basketball games and hundreds of other live events, we recommend finding Pac-12 Networks with another television provider.
The good news is that most Pac-12 fans have options. These fans can switch their television service to one of the more than 30 distributors that offer Pac-12 Networks, including Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox. These providers offer Pac-12 Networks' full season lineup, including some of the most thrilling games of the season and TV Everywhere viewing online, on the iPad and on smartphones later in the season.
In just the first four weeks, Pac-12 Networks will feature all 12 schools, including appearances by #1 USC and two appearances by both #5 Oregon and #21 Stanford. Every weekend thereafter we will have at least two premiere conference matchups, all of which will have postseason implications.
DirecTV spokesman Robert Mercer argued that the best games can be seen on the other networks that carry Pc-12 football:
"The vast majority of Pac-12 football games featuring the most popular teams with national-title implications remain available to all DirecTV customers through the ESPN family of networks and ABC Sports, Fox Sports and FSN, FX, CBS Sports and CBS Sports Network, NBC Sports and NBC Sports Network and several other regional services."
Safe to say that Mr. Mercer is not a college football fan because there are zero Pac-12 games on CBS or NBC Sports, and the game that are on CBS Sports are road games against Conference USA and Mountain West teams which account for just two of their games.
So for those who have DirecTV will have to find an alternate way to watch this weekends Pac-12 football games.
