I’m so happy that tomorrow we can all enjoy the BYU basketball game against Michigan St. It’s going to be a great match up between #20 and #9 in the nation and broadcast to BYU fans around the world on BYU TV.

The best part is it looks like it was suppose to be on Versus, but BYU basically stuck it to them. Here’s what it said on the BYU Athletics site:

BYU controls the live television broadcast rights to the game and had offered live nationwide broadcast rights to Versus and BYUTV, and local broadcast rights to KJZZ Channel 14. BYU received notice Thursday that Versus has decided not to air the game.

“We are excited for the opportunity to air the BYU-Michigan State game nationally on BYU Television,” said BYU Director of Athletics Tom Holmoe. “Our goal is to continue to find ways to broadcast live sporting events to our fans across the United States and throughout the world. We appreciate the long-standing relationship we’ve enjoyed with BYUTV.”

Many could argue that playing on BYU TV will mean that recruits won’t see BYU play. However, I just can’t believe that recruits are more likely to find BYU playing on Versus than BYU TV. It’s a wash in my book. Not to mention BYU playing on BYU TV is going to mean that a ton of Michigan State fans are going to learn about BYU TV. Sounds like a good idea to me.

Most importantly, I’m just glad to see a ranked cougar team matching up against the third top 10 basketball team this year. These match ups can’t do anything but help us come March.

The MWC’s deal with CSTV has been absolutely ridiculous. The tv coverage for football has been horrible. All of that said, I have to give BYU a little credit for already getting a couple BYU basketball games streamed free on BYU TV. The online stream of BYU vs. Portland just started and the previous BYU TV coverage of Louisville was great too.

I wonder how much it would cost for BYU TV to purchase coverage for all of BYU sports games. It would be interesting to find out and see if BYU fans could put together enough donations to make it happen. Ok, so I understand that won’t get exposure to recruits, would never happen, etc etc etc. That doesn’t mean we can’t still dream about watching BYU sports.

At least we can enjoy BYU basketball streamed on BYU TV tonight.

I don’t think there are many BYU fans that are really holding out hope that BYU will get into a BCS bowl game. I mean seriously, Tulsa beat us. Or maybe if we decided to play the first half against UCLA we’d have a good argument.

All of that said, there is a really wild outside chance that all the stars will align and the BCS gods will smile down on BYU. Here’s that the Trib said BYU needs to have happen to have a shot at a BCS bowl game:

BYU must beat San Diego State
LSU must beat Tennessee - A close one so far
Arizona must beat Arizona State
UCLA must beat USC - UCLA has too many turnovers already
Va. Tech must beat BC - Va Tech Wins
Washington must beat Hawaii
Oregon State must beat Oregon - Beavers are playing tough

I’ll try to update this as the day goes on (or follow on ESPN yourself). I think USC is going to be our heart breaker.