One barometer for classic sports conflict in the Big Ten is Ohio State and Michigan at the Big House in Ann Arbor. But a percolating fight between the conference and Comcast is evolving into a battle that Keith Jackson, in his rumbling baritone, might call one between two â??big uglies.â?
The two powerhouses are headed for a clash over the newly created Big Ten Network, which the conference vows will satiate its universitiesâ?? fans and alumni as the YES Network has become a TV clubhouse for Yankee fans.
It is, in essence, the Wolverines, the Badgers, the Nittany Lions, the Buckeyes, the Spartans, et al., versus Comcast, which recently won an early court fight against the NFL Network and settled a battle with the MLB Channel, receiving a minority stake in the network partly in exchange for giving millions of its subscribers access to the channel when it starts in 2009.