Goodbye ESPN-Plus, Hello DVR

June 21, 2006 marked the end of an era.\nThe Big Ten Conference last week reached an agreement with its three main media outlets (ABC/CBS/ESPN) to extend its television contract for football and men's and women's basketball. But, what the conference also agreed upon effectively ends a Big Ten mainstay -- the Phillips 66 Studio Show on ESPN-Plus during halftime and between games featuring Mike Gleason.\nHowever, the contract signed last week marked a new era with the creation of the conference's new television channel (and hopefully more commercials featuring Talib Kweli promoting the Big Ten).\nThe Conference created its own television network in conjunction with Fox Cable Networks, thus ending one of my favorite parts of watching IU football and basketball when forced to watch them on ESPN-Plus when they play a bad team (unless it's during the fall then it's IU as the bad football team).\nSo, will Joe Hoosier be able to catch IU football or men's basketball via an over-the-air television signal (such as WTTV out of Indianapolis) if the Hoosiers are not playing on ABC, CBS or ESPN/ESPN2? No, he or she will have to subscribe to the Big Ten Network through a cable or satellite provider.\nBut, with the end of the Phillips 66 Studio Show comes a huge opportunity for the fans of the conference's Olympic sports (everything but football and men's and women's basketball) -- especially at IU.\nTake the seven-time national champion IU men's soccer team. Coach Mike Freitag's coup in the college soccer-recruiting world will become even stronger under the new agreement reached last week, because now 170 hours of Olympic sports programming will air each school year, compared to approximately 25 under the previous contract.\nAnd you better believe soccer will receive a good amount of air time on the new network because for regular season games, it only takes about four cameras to shoot the match (for the men's basketball games you used to watch on ESPN-Plus, those involved about five cameras). Plus, that future striker watching at home may like the potential to play in front of 6,000 fans at Bill Armstrong Stadium.\nEven though DirecTV is the only satellite or cable company to have picked up the Big Ten Network, I think it's obvious Comcast and Insight (among other cable companies in Big Ten markets) will offer the network to its subscribers. Let's just hope cable companies in states like Arizona and Florida pick up the new channel as well for those Big Ten Alumni (and fans) who have moved there for the warmer climate.\nThe 2007-08 school year cannot come soon enough for those anticipating the debut of the new Big Ten Channel.\nJust make sure you have your digital video recorders set to record the 507 hours of television under the new Big Ten media agreement. Thankfully, I have another school year to make room on my DVR.