Logo

Athens, GA (Sept 18, 2008) - Mississippi State University (MSU), after their stellar offensive performance in a 3-2 home loss to Auburn last Saturday, travels to Atlanta to take on Georgia Tech this week. ABC passed on this game, so the broadcast fell to Raycom Sports. Common sense would tell you that since Raycom still has the SEC contract through the rest of the season, they should be able to broadcast this game in Mississippi too. Not so fast, as is found in this little tidbit posted on the MSU web site:

Mississippi State's football game against Georgia Tech, scheduled for this Saturday, Sept. 20, will be televised only by ESPN Game Plan in the state of Mississippi, it was confirmed Tuesday.

The game, which will be televised by Atlantic Coast Conference regional syndicator Raycom Sports, will kick off at 12 noon ET at Bobby Dodd Stadium/Grant Field. ESPN’s agreement with the ACC does not allow the league’s regionally syndicated games to air outside the ACC footprint. Raycom, which also serves as the regional syndicator for the Southeastern Conference, requested a waiver of that regulation to allow the MSU game to be broadcast in the state of Mississippi. That request was denied.

The Mississippi State-Georgia Tech game will be telecast in Mississippi on Game Plan, ESPN's pay-per-view network.

So ESPN, which has devastated the business of Raycom with their new SEC deal, goes and adds salt to the wound. If MSU fans want to watch the game, they will either have to pay up to ESPN or just listen on the radio. Classy move on ESPN's part, eh?