ESPN has earned the right to dictate times ... even at our expense

Columbus, Ohio Not that some of you aren't used to this, but ...

This column is going to say nothing.

Or at least nothing relevant to the biggest sports story of the day in The Day: UConn's game against Notre Dame in the Final Four Friday night.

This column will only include the final score, a thrilling 91-89 overtime win by the Fighting Irish, because the game — the second OT game of the night — ended just before deadline. See, this column may appear online, newsprint published at daily intervals containing news, commentary, features, sports, obits, puzzles, etc.

Deadlines are necessary for the paper to get to your doorstep, box, driveway or favorite store on time.

Had the Huskies started at 7 p.m. Friday night, the time designated for Mississippi State vs. Louisville, you'd be reading commentary — pithy, inane, whatever your opinion — on the UConn game. It would have been over in time to make deadline, although it is admittedly more difficult to be profound with the clock ticking.

And we at The Day did our best to help the readers, even moving deadline back as late as possible, but my deadline was still too early.

Why did UConn start at approximately 9:30 and not 7, you ask? A business decision. No, none of us like it. But ESPN pays the NCAA a sum similar to the gross national product of Argentina for the right to broadcast the women's NCAA tournament. That means ESPN dictates start times.

UConn is ESPN's greatest commodity in women's basketball. Hence, UConn games will be played when ESPN believes the greatest number of viewers are tuned in. Carol Stiff, ESPN's Vice President in charge of women's sports programming, identified that as the 9:30-midnight window.

"(UConn) is the No. 1 team in the country and we are serving the entire nation," Stiff said Thursday. "Research will show the later you go into the evening, the more audience you will pull. It's really simple. We're driving not only UConn viewers, but the national audience."

I asked Stiff if she was concerned whether the start time would drive away UConn's fan base, which skews young and old(er).

"A lot of kids are on spring break. There's nothing we can do. Those are the best windows," she said. "Someone who is 7 years old in Los Angeles can watch it. You can't have it both ways."

Nobody in Connecticut is on spring break. UConn fans are understandably chafed. Even if there's no school Saturday, many parents are leery of keeping their kids up until midnight.

UConn fans also feel a bit entitled, perhaps justifiably so. They've sustained the game for many years, filling seats that used to be empty, thus making for good — buzzword alert here — optics. Maybe Husky maniacs feel a quid pro quo is in order. We did for you; now you do for us. Oh, if it only worked that way. But this was a business decision. ESPN needs to keep its sponsors happy. That's tied to ratings. So that means the main event plays in the most desirable time slot. It's no different in baseball. The Yankees almost always play in prime time. Red Sox fans were pleasantly pooped in 2004 when most of the games in the epic American League Championship Series lasted into the next morning.

All those games started after 8 because that's when the most people watched.

Not many other media folks in the history of the world have done as much to promote women's sports more than Stiff. ESPN's willingness to not merely show the entire women's tournament, but do it with some verve, is a wonderful and essential service to the women's sports revolution.

Stiff already has Connecticut. She's trying to market the sport across the country. And keep advertisers happy. It's not easy. We might not like to hear that 7-yearolds in Los Angeles have greater opportunity than 7-year-olds in New London.

Ah, the price of fame. Or as Yankees' radio voice John Sterling says on the air in times of strife, "That's showbiz, Suzyn."

We just happen to have the country's most famous program in our backyard.

Espresso, anyone? Or DVR it and watch in the morning? This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro