For anyone who attempted to watch football Saturday afternoon, ESPN had a surprise for football fans.
Many areas that received the Maryland-Boston College game on ABC (including the Northeast) were supposed to get Florida-Florida State on ESPN2. Instead, many cable and satellite systems saw the game blacked out. On DirecTV, part of the game was aired before it was suddenly cut off.
This was an unusual move, since ESPN rarely blacks out games with no logical reason. Representatives at DirecTV said it was ESPN’s decision to not make the games available, and no one at ESPN could be reached for comment last night.
This was annoying, particularly for fans of the Gators and Seminoles. This was probably the second or third most important game of the entire day, and it was not seen in its entirety by most markets in the East. This may end up hurting Tim Tebow’s chances to repeat as the Heisman winner, as many voters did not see the game.
Let's hope this was an aberration.