Posted on Tue. PM, Nov. 15, 2005
South Carolina negotiating to move Clemson game off pay-per-view and broadcast live on network TV
Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina is negotiating to get the Gamecocks' Saturday night game with Clemson on either free or cable TV, athletic director Eric Hyman said.
The negotiations were continuing Tuesday evening, said Hyman, who didn't say what networks South Carolina athletic officials were talking to.
Last week, none of the Southeastern Conference's broadcast partners - ESPN, CBS and Jefferson-Pilot, chose to show Saturday's rivalry game, forcing it to pay-per-view.
That has outraged both Tiger and Gamecock fans, who have been able to watch the game either on free television or cable for 19 straight years, to a degree not seen since the War For State's Rights.
State Rep. John Graham Altman, R-Charleston, suggested in a new interview of deporting the TV executives who passed on the game to Guantanamo Bay.
The executives did something "I and probably every other Carolinian didn't think was ever possible, and that is to actually unite Clemson and South Carolina fans this close to the game," Altman said.
It would appear that TV executives underestimated the importance of the game to the region and the passion it infuses within the respective fans.
South Carolina negotiating to move Clemson game off pay-per-view and broadcast live on network TV
Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina is negotiating to get the Gamecocks' Saturday night game with Clemson on either free or cable TV, athletic director Eric Hyman said.
The negotiations were continuing Tuesday evening, said Hyman, who didn't say what networks South Carolina athletic officials were talking to.
Last week, none of the Southeastern Conference's broadcast partners - ESPN, CBS and Jefferson-Pilot, chose to show Saturday's rivalry game, forcing it to pay-per-view.
That has outraged both Tiger and Gamecock fans, who have been able to watch the game either on free television or cable for 19 straight years, to a degree not seen since the War For State's Rights.
State Rep. John Graham Altman, R-Charleston, suggested in a new interview of deporting the TV executives who passed on the game to Guantanamo Bay.
The executives did something "I and probably every other Carolinian didn't think was ever possible, and that is to actually unite Clemson and South Carolina fans this close to the game," Altman said.
It would appear that TV executives underestimated the importance of the game to the region and the passion it infuses within the respective fans.