Peacock is better than Pac-12 Network, but let’s not set the bar that low

Feb 22, 2020; Boulder, Colorado, USA; Detailed view of a CBS Sports microphone before the start of the game between the UCLA Bruins against the Colorado Buffaloes at the CU Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

There are so many different outlets for games. The good news is that nearly every game has an outlet of some kind. This is something sports fans in the 1970s lacked. Only a handful of games in any major sport were available on television each weekend. Today’s sports media world enables fans to watch college football from 9 a.m. to midnight on the West Coast, flipping channels which cover several dozen games. That’s all great, and it does mean several different corporate entities will hold the rights to various games in various conferences.

What this means, though, is that the diehard fan with enough disposable income will pay for streaming services for his or her own team. The diehard USC fan will pay for Peacock to watch USC-San Jose State.

When we consider something such as USC-Notre Dame, however, that kind of treasured cultural centerpiece in American sports should be accessible without having to pay extra. Why? It’s actually a simple answer: That kind of game was shown on ABC in the 1970s, back when fans could watch only a select few college football games on a given Saturday.

If a game was free in the 1970s, it should be free today (on over-the-air network television). If it’s not, that’s basically price-gouging, even if no one is willing to call it that.

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