So in case you haven't heard, the billionaire hockey owners and millionaire hockey players are fighting over lots and lots and LOTS of money. Your money, actually, since you're the one paying for everything. They love your money, it's just that they can't figure out how to share it, so they're going to miss the start of the season, and likely all of October, and probably November too, to figure it out. Because, you know, the best thing you can do to have people continue giving them money is to stop giving them the product they were paying for. That Gary Bettman- genius, I tell you.
Anyway NBC Sports, which used to be Versus which used to be the Outdoor Life Network, carries a significant amount of NHL hockey games. I know that because the four or five people in Minnesota who can actually get the channel tell me that, but whatever, we'll take their word for it. With the NHL all but guaranteed to be locked out for October, perhaps November, and if they're really, REALLY stupid, ignorant and arrogant- and since Bettman is the one leading this and stupid and ignorant (at least to what's best for the game of hockey) and incredibly arrogant are right in his wheel house- maybe December too, NBC Sports has some programming holes to fill. Holes that's can't be filled with more bull-riding. So they announced they're going to be carrying 20 college hockey games this season, and while you'd expect an East Coast biased whoops I mean BASED network to do things like carry a lot of east coast hockey (and don't worry they did), what you probably didn't expect was that they were going to become the unofficial network for Nebraska-Omaha hockey.
No really. The Mavericks are going to be on at least five times, and if they can beat Army in the Icebreaker Tournament, then six. That's more than any other team including defending national champs Boston College, East Coast biased-loving BU, every f***ing Ivy League school and anyone with a hockey team based in New England, Notre Dame, Michigan State, and- shockingly- even some WCHA teams. And just about every single matchup of WCHA teams involves Nebraska-Omaha. Denver is on 3 times, North Dakota and Wisconsin twice, CC once, and your Gophers will play on NBCSN....zero times. Wait, let me check that number again...yep, it's still zero. The likely preseason #1 team in the country and the self-proclaimed New York Yankees of college hockey are not being nationally televised on NBC Sports Network.
The only reason I can see that Minnesota Gopher hockey wouldn't be on NBCSN is because their contract with FSN and the BTN won't allow it. If I remember right, the few times the Gophers are on the Big Ten Network, then they are not on Fox Sports North, meaning only one network can carry a Gopher hockey broadcast. The Gophers make money for FSN, so it wouldn't be surprising if they told NBCSN they weren't giving up any more Gopher games than they already had to give the BTN, and you can't blame them. While it would be nice to see the Gophers in a "national" broadcast, I'm betting far more Minnesotans get FSN than NBCSN, or as it'll be known now, The UNO hockey network or just UNOHN for short.
I'm guessing that local or regional rights deals that are already in place are the reason you also won't see the University of Michigan on UNOHN, and why they can't show more games of the prominent programs like BC, BU, Wisconsin, or UND. Although the excuse for not showing more UND games may just be because their fans are ***holes, and who wants those people watching your network? Exactly. So good for the new UNOHN for making an attempt to show more college hockey and help grow the game, but until they get more Minnesota, less UNO, and maybe get their network on a decent Directv tier, I probably won't be watching.