Some colleges bypassing TV sports contracts in favor of the Web

The AP reports:

When Yale football coach Jack Siedlecki goes on a national recruiting trip, he hears the same questions over and over again from parents.


"They always want to know, 'Are you on TV? Can I get the games?' " Siedlecki said.

With the exception of the Harvard game, the answer is usually, "No."

The big TV networks are not interested in the little Ivy League.

But the Ivy League and other small conferences may have found away around that -- the Internet.

Many schools, and now some conferences, have begun streaming their football and other sports broadcasts on their Web sites.

"We can produce our own television and reach, literally, the entire world on the Web, without having to go through the issues of, is there cable availability? Is there satellite availability? Is there advertising support?" said Jeff Orleans, commissioner of the Ivy League.

With every website a potential TV station,even the little guy can get more exposure because the marginal cost of putting out video without a formal TV station has dropped.