The Few, the Proud, the Longhorn Network viewers: A critique from someone who actually saw it, Kevin Benz, CultureMap Houston
The headline is a little misleading. This wasn't a "critique" it was gushing by a UT-Austin fan who's so anxious to see this fledgling network not bomb objectivity was thrown to the side. As a regional network with a small viewership I think TLN has a chance. As a "game-changing force" or something that other universities will want to copy? No.
Contrary to the writer UT-Austin are not the "Joneses" of College sports, they're a top-tier program to be sure, but trust me when I tell you that the Big X (XII) and the SEC are not shaking in their boots because Samantha Steele will be bringing her blonde tresses to Austin. Neither will Notre Dame, who has NBC for all of their games, or the PAC X (XII) who will soon roll out their own network. Hell, even BYU had a network in place before UT-Austin. If anything the Mormon's in Utah are the Joneses that UT-Austin desperately wants to be.
As for TLN being a recruiting tool? Right now it can be viewed by around 5,000 people, which means that the Rice game will be viewed on TLN by slightly more people than regularly attend a Rice home game. In contrast, LSU and Oregon are going to get the National ESPN slot, the SEC game of the week will be covered by CBS and each will draw audiences in the hundreds of thousands. As long as they're not allowed to broadcast HS football games (and I expect that the NCAA will put the kibosh on that for good soon) then I would argue having some of your home games on closed-circuit TV is detriment to recruiting.
Which leads us to the programming, which is mainly going to consist of the Rice game, the Mack Brown Show and Women's volleyball for the first few weeks. While this may appeal to the dyed-orange-in-the-wool UT-Austin T-shirt fan, for most of us it's drier than cracker juice. It's telling that the most effusive praise Mr. Benz could offer was that they showed Mack Brown acting "Like a coach" (which, unless I'm wrong, is still his current job title right?) And this is leading up to the season. Even the Big X (XII) Network has problems filling time during the off-season, and they have 12 teams to cover. Once the newness has worn off I predict UT-Austin fans will migrate back to ESPN and the Networks, except during games. God help them if UT-Austin goes 5-7 again. There's nothing worse than a coaches show when things have gone terribly wrong. Except for a coaches show when things have gone wrong for the second year running.
Now, granted, I don't consider CultureMap Houston to be a serious news provider. In truth they're a bunch of Houston Chronicle "star" section cast-offs who are trying desperately to punch out controversial material to drive readership. But when they branch out into sports or political reporting the results are quite often a train-wreck.
This story was no different. As a letter from a fan it was humorous and very revealing of the delusion experienced by most UT-Austin fans. As a critique of the station it was a complete, unmitigated disaster.
Much like all of the other CultureMap sports "reporting".
