As a family of Indiana fans gather around their table set neatly with Thanksgiving staples like mashed potatoes, pumpkin, stuffing and, of course, turkey, they have some options for viewing material.
They could watch the Chicago Bears take on the Detroit Lions if they wanna watch terrible football, but this family is smart and wants to watch a fun team that has a shot to win. They want to watch No. 4 Indiana women’s basketball take on the defending national champions, No. 7 Stanford University.
It’s a top-10 matchup after all, so naturally they reach for the remote to turn on ESPN. Oh? What’s this? College Basketball Live Scoreboard showing men’s games? Frankly, the family could care less. Instead, they turn on ESPN2 to find… the exact same program.
The confusion increases as they move on to ESPN3 to find Rutgers women’s basketball taking on DePaul University. It’s women’s basketball, but between two unranked teams, neither of which the family gives a hoot about.
Desperation permeates around the table as the family turns to Big Ten Network just to find a rerun of “The Game” between Ohio State and Michigan football. They attempt a hail mary, turning the channel one last time to ESPNEWS.
Their hands reach up to clasp their ears as Stephen A. Smith’s yelling and his guest stammering about LeBron James fills the room rather than the coaching of head coach Teri Moren their poor hearts were misled to believe would be shown.
One family member, who had been on their phone for the last two channels, pipes up — they’d found out how to watch Indiana.
The rest of the family surrounded the phone and the FloHoops website began to load. Despite not finding the Hoosiers on the site’s front page, they pressed on. The foodstuffs each family member selected specifically for their tastes began to cool on their plates as the family collaborated to set up an account.
After signing up they were met with a subscription screen. They needed to pay $30 dollars for a subscription. They’d come this far after all. After a flurry of venmo requests, the children downloaded the app on dad’s phone and they were ready to watch the game.
Or so they thought.
What followed was a hasty attempt to cast the phone’s screen to the television. When they finally had everything set up, they were met with the beginning of the third quarter and Indiana was trailing 37-34.
Finally finished, the family got up to warm their since-cooled plates in the kitchen’s microwave before returning to their seats. The heavily pixelated cream and crimson of Indiana was hardly distinguishable from the white and cardinal red of Stanford.
They’d watch their beloved Indiana narrowly fall 69-66 to Stanford in video quality reminiscent of an early YouTube video. Though they remained thankful for their top-10 Hoosiers, they wished they hadn’t gone through the debacle necessary to watch women’s basketball.
