Bill's Rant

ESPN sticks it to Baltimore

In case you missed the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament games last weekend -- and most of you did miss them, because you don't get ESPNU -- Johns Hopkins, Navy and Maryland advanced to the quarterfinals. UMBC almost upset Virginia before falling, and Loyola hung tough before succumbing to No. 1 Duke.

One of the questions we received upon arriving in the office this morning was: Why, with five area teams in the tournament, didn't any local stations carry games this weekend?

The answer: They couldn't. The NCAA men's lacrosse tournament is the property of ESPN, and it chose to show the games on the college network, ESPNU. The semifinals and final will be on ESPN2 and ESPN on Memorial Day weekend.

But that won't help you again this weekend when you're trying to watch the quarterfinals. It's a shame ESPN didn't make the broadcast available to a local station, because Baltimore is the heart of lacrosse country.

Carrying the games on ESPNU is like having the lacrosse final four in Boston. Oops.