Comcast Cracks, Adding NFL Network, ESPNU on Same Glorious Day

Someone must have laced the coffee at Comcast with ecstasy, because the legendarily contentious cable provider -- which once told me it valued the Big Ten Network at the same level it valued Lifetime, and then hired a bear to eat Jim Delany -- has cracked on multiple fronts. ↵↵The long-standing NFL Network dispute: over. ESPNU, relegated to the ghettoes of sports tiers since its inception: coming↵to your city. Quick, someone get Fox Soccer Channel and GolTV on the line before the buzz wears off. ↵

↵↵The NFL Network’s impact is obvious: more Rich Eisen, more analysis, those eight games a year everyone was caterwauling about earlier. The ESPNU agreement is more far-reaching. For one: it’s a happy day for fans of college hockey, lacrosse, Furman and infomercials. And with the occasional BCS football game migrating over to ESPNU last year, this is also excellent news for fans of teams who schedule awful nonconference opponents and don’t have their own network -- Big 12, I’m looking at you. ↵

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↵↵⇥In addition, Comcast will also make ESPN360.com, ESPN’s broadband network, available to its high-speed Internet customers for no additional charge. ↵↵↵In translation this means “Free Gameplan.” Free. Gameplan.↵

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