Peacock-ed

Old guy in a Purdue sweatshirt. Let's begin there this morning, shall we?

Old guy in a Purdue sweatshirt (or Indiana sweatshirt ... or Ohio State ... or Michigan State ... doesn't really matter) sitting in front of his TV set on a winter's night, watching Zach Edey post up some poor schlub from Whatsamatta U. Outside, it's so cold the old guy can feel it in his bones, the way he feels almost everything in his bones these days. Gettin' old ain't for sissies, and that's the name of that tune.

Anyway, he and the missus are watching their Boilermakers. They've kicked in to get the Big Ten Network so they can, even though they're on a fixed income and discretionary spending comes dearer every year. But they've gotta have their Boilers, so they pay up.

Old guy in a Purdue sweatshirt.

That's who I'm thinking about today. That's who the Big Ten and a lot of other corporate athletic entities stopped thinking about a long time ago.

See, I'm reading this press release here, and it's telling me the Big Ten and Peacock, NBC's online streaming service, have joined forces to take a little more away from folks like my old guy. Peacock, the release tells me, is partnering with the Big Ten for exclusive rights to more than 30 Big Ten basketball games this winter. 

Six of those will be Purdue games. Five will be Indiana games, including Purdue-Indiana in Assembly Hall on January 16. The release makes this sound like the neatest deal ever.

Me, I just wonder when old guys in their Purdue sweatshirts will have nothing to get them through the cruel winters -- crueler every year, when you get up there in years -- except reruns of "The Big Bang Theory."

"But it's just pennies to buy these games!" you're saying now. "Just pay it and quit you're bitchin'!"

Yeah, well. Easy for you to say.

Me, I want to know when enough is enough, if you're the Big Ten. The Big Ten Network is already sluicing a river of money into the conference's pockets, and that will only go up once USC, UCLA and Oregon come aboard next year. That will give the conference access to the New York TV market (Rutgers), the L.A. market (UCLA and USC) and everything in between. 

Now they've got this deal with NBC, and with it Peacock. How much is enough? When do these vandals decide to stop continually getting in people's pockets for more, more, more?

Look. I get it. I'm a cranky old guy myself, shaking my fist at the damn neighbor kids. Cable has been taking dollars out of people's pockets for decades, and now the streaming services are, and this is just the world, old-timer. Welcome to modern times.

Again, I get it. Shoot, I'm on four or five streaming services myself nowadays. It is what it is.

But here's the thing: I can afford to be on four or five streaming services. Lots of folks can't.

And the hell of it is, a lot of those folks are some of the most devoted followers of the Big Ten and its member schools. They grew up listening to Purdue or IU or Michigan State or Ohio State games on the radio, because back then there were only the three major networks and you didn't get but a couple games a week on TV.

Now there's all this technology, but for them it might as well be the old days again. They're back to a handful of games on "regular TV", just like when Rick Mount was dusting that falling-out-of-bounds jumper from the corner. 

Or when George McGinnis was muscling in a layup in the old fieldhouse at IU. Or when  Magic was dropping a dime on Greg Kelser for the Spartans in Jenison Fieldhouse, that dear old relic.

Of course, that was back when conferences saw college athletics as just college athletics, and not some gussied-up ATM endlessly pumping out tsunamis of cash.

And you, old-timer, sitting there in your Purdue sweatshirt while the wind moans around the eaves like all the devils of hell? 

Pay up or shut up.