BTN update.

With a hat-tip to "ptrich" on the IU Rivals forum, Gerry DiNardo is joining the Big Ten Network as a studio analyst. Who would have thought that failing as an IU football coach could be so lucrative? I can't wait:

Dave Revsine: Gerry, what do you think of Jim Tressel's decision to punt on 4th and 2 in that situation?

DiNardo: Jesus Christ, Dave, I went 3-21 in the Big Ten! Why the hell would anyone want to listen to me second-guess a national championship coach?

Seriously, though, DiNardo and Revsine teamed up for ESPN's Gameday show the last couple of years and I thought they did a nice job. I'm not sure how it will translate to the more formal TV studio environment. DiNardo is a good guy who once was a good coach but who seemed thoroughly burned out by the time he arrived in Bloomington. Hopefully, TV land agrees with him. FYI, DiNardo still lives in Bloomington, where he and his wife own and operate DeAngelo's restaurant.

In other news:

• Still more negative publicity re: the Comcast negotiation, this time from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
• Trouble in Iowa: while Waterloo and Muscatine may be covered, Mediacom, the state's largest cable provider, is not on board, yet seeks to distance itself from Comcast's public pronouncements:

  "They are in a very public battle with the Big Ten Network," Peters said of Comcast. "Their market is not the same as our market, and what they do is entirely different."We are not in an acrimonious situation at all." At the same time, Mediacom hasn't given any indication it will give in by Aug. 30 just to make sure it can show three or four Iowa football games. "If (the BTN) really wants their place on expanded basic, then maybe they can give on the price," Peters said. "We hope we can still work something out."

  Perhaps Mediacom's conciliatory tone is based on this:

  Klatt showed that in recent years, more than half the TV sets in the Des Moines area are tuned to Iowa football when it is on TV, and about a quarter watch Iowa men's basketball when they play.

I still remain mostly convinced that this essentially is a price negotiation. We shall see.