More Bad Luck/Bad News

Saint Oliver Luck, the man who did unto others and then split, continues to bestow blessings upon us.

His IMG radio deal, which was primarily a thumb in the eye of John Raese and other people Luck didn't particularly like, continues to resemble a dog's dinner.

The latest episode involves the Tunein.com web site and mobile phone app, on which WVU and MSN are prominently advertised and ostensibly have a dedicated channel.  The big Flying WV logo is there on-screen, but if you tuned in, er, make that Tuneined, last Saturday to hear the Mountaineers take on the mighty Liberty Flames you heard the radio call for...the Vanderbilt Commodores versus the Georgia Bulldogs.

Forget that radio has existed for 100 years and the Internet for the last 20-25 of those 100 years, it's clear that many things can go wrong:  dead air, static, loss of power at the stadium, lightning striking the transmitter, etc. etc.  But the one thing you don't expect is the wrong school's - make that wrong schools' - game being broadcast.

To employ one current Internet meme, You Had One Job and in this case You Had A Week - Make That An Entire Offseason - To Prepare.

Faceless individuals in the most far-flung locales around the globe can provide their fellow man with (unauthorized) video and audio streams of live sporting events on a year-round basis, but the so-called Official Partners of WVU, IMG, MSN et al cannot master the basics of delivering the audio for 11 football games lasting 3 hours each (plus pre- and postgame) to a waiting audience.

Despite the frequent, repeated miscues in this rather simple technical area, Luck was and is praised by far too many for his IMG deal, usually by those who imagine that the university has reaped millions in a windfall.  But the WVU Mountaineers are not the LA Dodgers and such riches are mere fantasy.  A sober cost/benefit analysis that includes the simple concept of ACTUALLY HEARING THE GAME might well reveal that the theory and the practice are shamefully incongruent.