[longjohns_mcgee]

Has anyone heard any details about Bell offering a US College Basketball package this year? I used to enjoy watching this after Christmas and was very disappointed they decided announce that they weren't going to carry the games this year as part of US College Sports.

 

[topherpaquette]

i believe Bell has decided to seperate the football and basketball for NCAA. I have the football package and it was $49.99 for the season. I'm sure Bell has put basketball up for the same price.

Call Bell and ask

 

[gn2]

Anyone know anything about this ? I just got off the phone from Bell, the CSR I talked to didn't know ANYTHING about a college BB pack...

 

[topherpaquette]

with it still being over a month away maybe it just hasn't been anounced yet? did anyone who had it last year notice if it was still showing on self-serve as auto-renew?

 

[GrantDuke]

I did read on Bell's website when they launched the "new" college football package that "there are no basketball games as part of the package his year". Now of course if they split the packages of course they are no bball game as part of the football package. I called Bell but of course nobody really knows anything, as gn2 states, but it does not look good. Don't really see a reason to break up the package unless bball is gone. But this would be a major loss for college basketball fans.

 

[Kloraff]

It looks like NCAA Basketball will be on SD channels 880-886 and HD channels 1531 to 1533.

 

[gn2]

Just had the most frustrating conversation ever with a CSR at Bell. I am tuned to channel 1536, which shows HD NCAA basketball game to begin at 7pm with instructions to call the Bell 888 number to subscribe.

I did this, and apparently, the package is available, but is being advertised for $49.99 on the channel, but when you try to subscribe, they tell you the price is $79.99 ???

What the F u _ _ kind of amateur idiocy is this ???

Since when can a NATIONALLY AVAILABLE, satellite television company BAIT AND SWITCH on the price of a sports package ???

This is beyond insane, but I guess with absolutely NO government oversight, it shouldn't surprise me at all...

Has anyone had any success in actually WATCHING an NCAA basketball game on Bell ?

 

[longjohns_mcgee]

Are you sure about this? Channel 1536 is Us College Football and it was on sale for $49.99. I don't think Basketball has started yet so I don't see why there would be a game on tonight. There is a football game tonight though.

If they do plan on charging $79.99 for basketball, then that says it all as the reason they split up the package this year. Money-grubbing bastards.

 

[gn2]

Are you sure about this? Channel 1536 is Us College Football and it was on sale for $49.99. I don't think Basketball has started yet so I don't see why there would be a game on tonight. There is a football game tonight though.

If they do plan on charging $79.99 for basketball, then that says it all as the reason they split up the package this year. Money-grubbing bastards.

Well I'm glad now I didn't get upset with the CSR, upon re-examining the channels in question, it does seem that the $49.99 price is ONLY mentioned on the football channel, no price is mentioned on the basketball channel(the one BELOW the football channel...). Now I wish I'd just signed up for it at the quoted $79.99 price since it was the first CSR who actually found it AVAILABLE for subscription....damn...

 

[prettysteve]

its on free preview right now.

 

[readytorock]

Schedule

Does anyone know if Bell offers a schedule of games (college basketball) they will be airing?

 

[waterug]

I noticed that the NCAA Basketball package on Bell is actually cheaper than the one advertised on DirectTV. I also notice that Bell does not have any games showing this weekend, yet I'm sure there are basketball games being played. Is the free preview only showing a smattering of games, or are the subscribers also being shortchanged?

 

[longjohns_mcgee]

I subscribed and so far the only games I've seen are the ones being shown on ESPNU. Looking ahead on the guide, I only see games that are on to be televised on the ESPN networks, just like last year when football and basketball were combined. At least they have added a third HD channel to cover ESPNU games on both football and basketball, but I'm still not sure why the packages were split this year when I have seen no real difference in the offering of football games and it appears that they plan to follow the ESPN schedule with basketball, other than a $30 rate hike. I guess time will tell.

 

[mt99808]

Is anybody else disappointed in the number of games offered? Coming from the Rogers/Cogeco Super Sports Pack is this some sort of joke especially after increasing the price?

This past weekend there were only a handful of games on and most were just garbage matchups. Please tell me this gets better as they get into conference play?

 

[Dean W]

I don't have the package, but in the past I think the Bell NCAA BBALL package was just games that aired on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU.

TSN/TSN2 as well as SNET-1 and SNET regionals (and pretty sure SCORE) are airing more NCAA basketball games this year from those sources so in theory that alone will cut into the games in the package.