gmj81 wrote:

They know who their daddy is... While I agree they could do a better job in picking their headline stories, I'm sure they're just trying not to make it seem like the 'BYU network', just like Vegas doesn't want to be known as the 'BYU bowl'. They want to keep the other teams happy too.

Plus, it's like the news... Why don't they do the weather and sports at the beginning of the broadcast? Becuase they know people would just turn it off after their done and go to bed. That is what people stay up for. I'm sure it's the same deal here. They want to mix it up a bit so people don't just tune in for the BYU highlights and then shut it off. They want people to see the other stories and watch the stuff that's advertised during the commercials.

Before anybody attacks me and says "What, do you work for the Mtn?" like usual when I bring up what I think is a valid point in defense of the network, I'm not trying to make excuses for them, I just think that would be good business. Besides if you watch more than half an hour of it, you'd see that they do cater to BYU big time with all their other programming and commentary. But that's just how I see it.

I agree, I think they just don't want everyone else in the conference to see them as pro-BYU.

I have to add, though, that since most people who watch the news are middle-aged women, sports is the least-watched segment. So it's placement isn't nearly as important as the weather, which is the most-watched.

Just a little-known fact I thought I'd throw out there.

I wrote an email to the MTN asking to explain this, and here is their response.

Thank you for your email. We'd like to take this opportunity to explain
to you why we made the decisions that we did regarding the Mountain Cap
last Saturday night.

There are a number of factors that go into the decision of what stories
are led with and what goes at the top of the show and what goes in
later
in the show. Not the least of which is keeping more compelling segments
a little further in the show and teasing it so that our audience
doesn't
turn us off in the beginning of the broadcast thinking they have seen
all there is of significance. The factors vary week to week.

A factor that played a part in this past weekend and why we led with
Air
Force was that they completed their regular season in a game that
wasn't
available on any TV anywhere. While there were many other compelling
stories associated with that game, such as the most wins by the program
in recent memory and the turn around that Coach Calhoun has engineered
there, the factor that weighed heaviest was that their regular season
was completed on that day.

Not putting a story as the lead doesn't mean that we don't find it
important. We do. In fact, we think the entire show is informative and
entertaining and we try and balance the entire MWC membership and try
to
vary coverage from week to week not showing favoritism to any one
school, nor glossing over accomplishments of any one institution. We
are
running a one hour pre game program this weekend for the BYU Vs Utah
game which other schools may not think is fair, but we feel makes good
programming and therefore made the editorial decision to do so.

We thank you so much for your thoughts and feedback. Thank you for
watching The Mountain Cap!

Best Regards,

The Mtn.

The Mtn. is still lame!!

Seldawg wrote:

We are running a one hour pre game program this weekend for the BYU Vs Utah game which other schools may not think is fair, but we feel makes good programming and therefore made the editorial decision to do so.

I'm sure the two other schools' fan bases (that aren't BYU or Utah) that have the .mtn are fuming in disgust....