NHL or MMA: What got Vs. back on DirectTV?

Hockey Betting Lines

03/16/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - After months of haggling over carriage fees and other points of contention too boring to rehash, Versus is finally back on DirecTV.

DirecTV dropped Versus a month before the NHL season began due to an argument over how much Comcast -- the telecommunications behemoth that owns the sports channel -- was charging the satellite giant to carry Vs.

That meant for the first five months of the season, nationally televised hockey games on Vs. were nowhere to be found in the homes of an estimated 18 million DirecTV subscribers.

The important thing for Versus is that the channel is back as an option in millions of American homes and it's on the same DirecTV sports programming package as it was when the satellite giant dropped the station back in August.

Still, it's hard to say who won the battle since financial terms of the new deal were not revealed.

DirecTV seemed to have caved under the pressure, but the issue for them was always the fees Comcast was charging. Since we don't know what the carriage fees on the new deal are, or even how long the new agreement will last, it's difficult to guess if Comcast or DirecTV benefited more from the standstill.

If Comcast gets less than it was receiving from DirecTV before the previous carriage deal ended on Aug. 31, it probably won't be fatal. The Philadelphia- based company doesn't exactly have to pinch pennies, judging from Comcast's impending purchase of NBC Universal. The three digits on my last cable bill also convince me that Comcast won't need a government bailout any time soon.

Hockey fans will boast that DirecTV was forced to cave now that the Stanley Cup playoffs are less than a month away, but that certainly wasn't the only factor in getting Vs. back on the air.

The NHL is one of the four major sports, so it's largely assumed that the biggest draw on Vs. is professional hockey. That's because the mainstream sports media largely ignores mixed martial arts, which continues to increase in popularity.

The numbers also suggest that the DirecTV spat hurt Versus more in the realm of MMA than it did in terms of NHL viewership, possibly because MMA is bigger than hockey in rural areas of the country where Comcast is not as prevalent.

The first WEC (World Extreme Cagefighting) event after DirecTV drew 419,000 viewers -- over 250,000 less than had watched the previous WEC card on August 9. WEC is also staging its first pay-per view on April 24 and DirecTV will now be allowed to carry that event, which will feature Urijah Faber in the main card. Faber's previous three appearances averaged 1,112,000 viewers for Versus, making him the Alex Ovechkin of WEC.

Comcast may have even felt more pressure to get Vs. back on DirecTV in light of the cable station's first UFC event, which is scheduled for Sunday night.

Whether it was DirecTV's fear of missing out on the NHL playoffs or Comcast's desire to get its MMA programming back on the right track ratings-wise, the clear winners are satellite subscribers.

Versus may never step into the same league as ESPN in terms of viewership and power, but the station has acquired enough niche sports to make its presence essential to many Americans.

The NHL gives Vs. consistency and the respect that the sports channel desires, while MMA has been able to deliver the occasional huge ratings night if the right guy is fighting.

Together, the NHL and MMA have made Vs. a bit player in the world of televised sports something that seemed impossible just a few years back,

OVECHKIN SUSPENSION

Speaking of the Urijah Faber of the NHL, Washington Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin's two-game suspension by the league was a no-brainer.

The Russian sniper drilled Chicago defenseman Brian Campbell near the end boards on Sunday, sending Campbell headfirst into the dasher.

The hit itself was not exactly dirty but reckless, the exact word that the NHL used to describe the play in its press release announcing the suspension.

Yet, the fact that Ovechkin was given a major penalty and a game misconduct by officials made it easy to hand out the two-game sanction. Campbell also broke his clavicle on the play and will reportedly miss the rest of the regular season.

Not to mention, Washington has already clinched the Southeast Division and with a huge lead atop the Eastern Conference standings, missing their best player for two games will not likely stop the Caps from taking the East's top playoff seed.

As for the impact this will have on Ovechkin, it's safe to say that this suspension won't change his style of play one bit. Ovie has been the same player since he entered the league in 2005-06, one who skates the thin line between aggressive and dirty. That's part of what makes him a great player, and certainly the reason he is the NHL's biggest draw.

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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25

NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.

No. 1 always seems to fit USC.

Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.

Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.

Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.

"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."

Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.

"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."

The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.

"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."

Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.

"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"

USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.

"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."

While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.

As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.

But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.

Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.

The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.

The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.

The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.

No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.

Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.

Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.

The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.

South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.

The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.

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