Big Ten Network not showing track and field

Hard to believe but this conference has never produced a sub 10.00 or sub 20.00 sprinter.

TCU has produced 8 sub 10 sprinters, but no sub 20.00.

There are 21 events outdoors. I'm sure some of the other 19 are pretty good historically. Plenty of NCAA champs have come out of the Big Ten in the past decade across many events, just not often the 100 meters. Although Andrew Riley won NCAAs in the 100m and 110H in 2012, either the only guy to ever pull that double or the second ever to do it.

How many sub 10.00 lacrosse players are there? I'm sure none ever.

They are showing the Big Ten rowing championship, they have several time slots set aside for rowing.

It isn't about the "quality" of the athletes, it's about the quantity of the potential audience. BTN has subscriber profiles, they know with confidence that more will watch LAX than will watch T&F. LAX is a concise and coherent competition. T&F is bloated and disjointed, in comparison. Heck, more would probably watch '01 UM-OSU football replay over T&F. A full conference meet just isn't great or even good tv, believe it or not. I loved being there for all events at the conference meet when I was in college. Now, I just find more compelling options though I'd check out the relays. Maybe there are a lot of alumni who still have a strong interest, though I can't imagine anyone without a major rooting interest would care, like the average sports fan.

Academically, the Big 10 is far more robust than the Big 12 or WAC. TCU is a safety school for most applicants.

Yes, they can package it better, but the purpose of the network is to promote the Big Ten and show what is going on in the conference, not to always suck up to the middle class audience.

Part of it is the announcer they get for their track and field meets, he is extremely boring and doesn't get excited for amazing races. It's like they are trying to sabotage the sport by presenting it in a boring way.

By comparison, the lacrosse final was a mostly boring game, with the final score 14-5, but the announcer was acting like it was the king's coronation party. The announcer was adding excitement. So that's part of my complaint, they aren't even trying to promote track and field.

Also, how do you not get ratings when it is the largest high school sport in the country? There is a giant potential audience, they just have to try to go and get it. I don't think they have ever tried. They just play it at obscure times with no advertising and a boring announcer, then they say "see, it doesn't work."

Starting in 2024/2025, they will have even less time for track. Gotta show all of those USC baseball and UCLA softball games with two storied programs enjoying their first season of Big 10 action and Big 10 rowing action from Marina Del Ray!

This also brings up the racial component. The lacrosse game had maybe three black athletes, in a game between Michigan and Maryland. Are you telling me that those two states have a lack of black athletes?

Lacrosse is a sport played at rich suburban schools, with mostly white student populations. Field hockey and rowing are two other non-revenue sports being promoted by the Big Ten Network, they all have the same racial profile. Meanwhile, track and field, an extremely diverse sport with the highest participation rate, is getting squeezed out.

Track and field has overcome the gender imbalance issues that the NCAA claims to aspire to. But they won't promote the one sport that has already achieved that equality.

They have plenty of time, they waste hours every day on replays, historical games, talk shows, and talk show replays of historical games.

USC and UCLA track programs are as successful as baseball and softball.

Fox Sports Playa Vista doesn't care about T&F nor any little mickey mouse sports.

Track and field is the largest sport in USA high schools, it has the fastest humans ever, the highest jumpers, and the most powerful throwers ever.

Track and field is the granddaddy of whatever game you are talking about.

Has anyone here ever contacted the network to request track and field coverage? I'm actually going to do this after reading this thread.

It’s also a low money maker. Football basketball - the other sports not at all.

track and field doesnt translate to live TV very well - its long and scattered, lots of down time between races, no matter how meticulously you schedule the races nothing starts on time. even in the Olympics they pop in and out. pretty sure Big Ten Network will show cross country live (so does ACC Netrwok) one race, one focus. much easier to make sense of.

Not true, Jesse Owens won the 100 in 9.4 at the 1935 Big 10 meet.

Yes, I have tried to contact the network but they don’t have any contact information on their web site. You could probably send them something on social media.

I noticed that, I was only able to write a request using their virtual assistant. I don't have facebook, Twitter, etc...