GU game may be hard to get on TV

Gonzaga University athletic director Mike Roth spent part of his work day Wednesday answering phone calls from concerned Bulldogs fans with questions about the local availability of Saturday’s telecast of the eighth-ranked Zags’ West Coast Conference opener against Saint Mary’s College.

The game, which tips off at 8 p.m. in the Gaels’ McKeon Pavilion, will be televised live on ESPNU, which means it will be unavailable to many cable system subscribers in the Pacific Northwest.

In a statement released by the university late Wednesday afternoon, Roth expressed his regret that neither the Saint Mary’s game, nor the Bulldogs Jan. 14 home matchup against WCC rival Pepperdine, which will also air on ESPNU, will be available via cable to the majority of Zag fans in the region.

“We understand ESPNU is not available on most cable television systems,” Roth said. “However, the decision to put some West Coast Conference games on ESPNU was a joint decision between the WCC and ESPN, and as members of the WCC, we must abide by that decision.”

ESPNU, a member network of ESPN’s family of services, was launched last March and features 24-hour coverage devoted to all college sports, including select NCAA Division I football and basketball games.

ESPNU is unavailable to Comcast cable subscribers, but, according to GU officials, does have distribution agreements with DirecTV, Dish Network, Adelphia, Insight Communications, Mediacom, Verizon and several smaller cable multiple system operators.

In some instances, however, ESPNU is a premium network and not part of the basic cable or network packages.

Several local sports bars that subscribe to cable or dish networks that have distribution agreements with ESPNU will be able to show live telecasts of both the Saint Mary’s and Pepperdine games. But those who subscribe to only Comcast won’t.

It is recommended that fans hoping to watch the game at a restaurant or sports bar call to check on the availability of the telecast.