Golden Age?

In the early nineties, my cable carrier had a sports channel called Prime on it. I don't remember what they showed during the week, but on weekends during the college hockey season they showed an eastern game early, generally around 6 pm, and then later on showed a Denver University game (can't remember if it was just home DU games or not.) This channel was vital as otherwise I was just stuck with Minnesota on the Midwest Sports Channel. In the mid-nineties, my cable carrier dropped Prime in favor of the Golf Channel. I remember telling my brother in disgust: "Great, now I get to watch Grant Show out on the driving range." (actual viewing!)

Things were then tough for years as for college hockey viewing I only got the Gophers on MSC/FSN. Every so often, one of the local independent stations would make a run at showing St. Cloud State games, but those efforts never lasted long. Three years ago or so, I signed up for a sports package with Comcast. Now I get some Fox Sports College Sports channels and College Sports TV that show college hockey. This season, the NHL Channel - also available on this sports package - has started showing college games. Last season, channel 23 began carrying home games from either Mankato State, St. Cloud State, or Minnesota-Duluth. Throw in the readily affordable UND webcasts of home games and suddenly there is all kinds of college hockey available for viewing.

Tonight on my Comcast there were SIX games available for viewing:

Minnesota vs. Alaska-Anchorage on FSN North and FCS Central
St. Cloud State vs. Michigan Tech on channel 23
Ohio State vs. Michigan State on Big Ten Network
Notre Dame vs. Northern Michigan on CSTV
(something called) Yale vs. Union on the NHL Network
and Denver vs. Colorado College on FCS Central for the late game

Me, I watched North Dakota vs. Mankato State on the webcast and then tuned in the last period and OT of DU vs. CC.

I put the question mark in this post's title as 1) only the Big Ten Network shows college hockey in HD, and 2) I believe once NCAA regional finals roll around again next month, those of us without ESPNU will be denied viewing. But the college hockey viewing buffett is a lot bigger than it was just a few years ago.