going to get to see the Rutgers/KState game from the Texas Bowl in Houston. It's on the NFL network and the local cable people are in a big lawsuit (not just in Joisey but all over the country) over wheter or not the NFL Network will be a part of the basic cable package or a premium service. I wonder if enough political pressure can be brought to bear to force the NFL Network to make a 1 time exception for the bowl game, or will they resist so it doesn't hurt their court case.
That's an absolute disgrace! Comcast customers like me can see it, but there are 1 million other cable customers with no access. We have Senator Lautenberg involved , but we need the governor, the NFL Giants and Jets to use some leverage and apply pressure. All bowl games should be nationally televised. From what I can see , this will be a tough game for Rutgers who are not facing a stationary QB. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/football/ncaa/12/06/rutgers.nflnetwork.ap/
If .... <t>The NFL network is doing the game pray Bryant Gumball is not announcing. He is beyond awful. The game is a bad matchup anyway.</t>
The Big East doesn't have great bowl ties in, especially when you get beyond the top 2. They still have to prove themselves. Last year, Rutgers traveled well to their bowl game. If they can duplicate last year, eventually some one will take notice and that will enhance future bowl tie ins. As far as their opponent, Rutgers is getting the same treatment K-State used to get, when they turned in great records and went to lousy bowls. I see this like I saw the Penn State bowl game last year. If they win, they were supposed to win, if they lose, well then they lost to a 5 loss team and lose respect. I haven't seen much of K-State other than a little of the Texas game. They played much better towards the latter part of the season and they have a big QB who runs well, so that doesn't bode well for a defense which likes to apply pressure on QB's. I see this as a very tough game against a K-State team that might be better than their record indicates. We had a little glimmer of hope that maybe, the strong team chemistry might carry them to a BCS bowl, but that was asking too much. They just have to keep chopping away and keep building the program brick by brick.
I don't know how good KState is, that game vs Texas was sort of a perfect storm for them. Besides knocking out our QB on the first series, they completed back to back halfback passes on us. They have a DE who was the Defensive player of the year in the B12, and Josh Freeman is a rising young star, he was slated to go to Neb and play for Callahan, but after KState hired their new coach he lured him away. KState HC was Al Grohs OCoord I believe, don't really know if he's good or not....time will tell.
TV viewing of the Rutgers game is resolved. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/football/ncaa/12/12/nfl.network.ap/index.html