When I was in College I would get really excited when Purdue was on national TV. There was almost a ranking of the networks. When it was on the local Big Ten channels, things were rather bland. ESPN 2 brought a little bit of excitement, ESPN even more. If the game was on ABC, I was ecstatic. Also, the time the game started was important too. The later the better.

None of this had anything to do with me actually watching the game. I went to every home game and many away games. When I didn't go, the game was always on a local channel that I could watch. It dealt more with getting the team viewed across the state, region, or nation. It takes that kind of exposure for the team to become really great year to year.

My sophomore year I was lucky enough to enjoy something that most college kids don't get to enjoy. College gameday came to Purdue and I was one of the people in the crowd. We were ranked 5th in the nation and were playing a top ten ranked Wisconsin team. The game was on ABC, started in prime-time, and was seen coast to coast. Although we lost in a last second fumble (which is a sob story for another day) it was one of my favorite days. My school was on national tv, looked great, and actually was a legitimate top ten team.

Now I get excited when I get to watch Purdue on TV. It doesn't matter if its on ESPN, ABC, or PBS. I don't care as long as its on. However, with the season the team is having, I don't know how great this is. I went to the season opener, which was a win, and they also won a game that wasn't on TV. They've also played Oregon, Notre Dame, Penn State and Ohio State on TV. Three of those games were on network and the other was on ESPN. They lost all four.

I'm not sure if showing the entire nation how pathetic we are is a good thing. We're in transition stage right now and we really don't look good at all. It's almost hard to watch for me. Chances are we're not going to break the .500 mark and won't be going to a bowl game this year. It's almost to the point that I'd like to watch the game on-line or maybe listen to it over the Internet. That way know one would notice that we're that bad. They'd just see the score and not ask questions.