The departure of ESPN U from the Buffalo area's largest cable system has been lost in a war of words between The NFL Network and Time Warner. And the loss of the college sports channel will be felt
even more Aug. 26, when it begins carrying the first of 70 college football games out of 290 carried by all the ESPNs and ABC. Time Warner should find a way to carry ESPN U's coverage of the Syracuse
at Illinois game Sept. 16 and the University at Buffalo at Akron game Nov. 9, says
The Buffalo News, which wonders why ESPN didn't follow The NFL Network and file an FCC protest to stay on
after it was removed without the required 30 days' notice. "My guess is that Disney, which owns ABC, all the ESPNs and has ownership interests in other cable entertainment channels, didn't want to
battle Time Warner. The only channel the NFL owns is The NFL Network, so it didn't face that problem." Says Chris LaPlaca, an ESPN spokesman: "We prefer to have those conversations privately."
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