Tuesday's Daily: Breathing Room

With J Hutcherson -- For those of you no longer enamored with the wider world of American sports, the college bowl season is throwing up some very high viewer numbers. Somewhat surprising, considering the game that will decide the championship has yet to be played.

What this version of the bowl season has figured out is that the games draw better if they're not lumped together. In other words, there's something to be said for exclusivity.

That's becoming increasingly rare for professional soccer, club and country variants. With three full-time soccer channels, they need enough games to fill their slots. It's enough of a churn to get past the bright lights of Europe fairly quickly, not to mention what's available in the United States.

Very rarely does one game get enough of the stage to make it their show. The glut of games pushes down the audience for say, one available English Premier League game on a Saturday morning rather than five or six.

For all the American diehards that must see their Euro club week in and week out, the end result is about what you would expect. The big names can push the ratings to over 200,000 viewers, while the rest end up in that same ratings purgatory as MLS regular season games.

There's an exception. Thursday nights on ESPN2 did fairly well last year, all things considered. They put up numbers in the same conversation as what a big EPL game can get on Fox Soccer Channel or Setanta. What that means isn't as much a statement of the League's growing popularity because the ratings are right back down two days later for the national Saturday night game on FSC.

Instead, it's the same thing the bowl season is showing. Give a game an exclusive time slot where no other option in the same sport is breathing down its allegorical neck, and the ratings will improve.

At least that's the idea.

Moving on, we should consider ourselves past the point where soccer is lumped into the niche category for American pro sports. What with the three television networks and all. Still, there are some comparisons we can take from ... wait for it... polo in Argentina.

On TV

Copa del Rey on GolTV: Atletico Madrid - Barcelona at 2pm. Carling Cup on Setanta: Spurs - Burnley at 2:40pm. InterLiga on Fox Sports en Espanol: Tigres - Club America at 8pm and Chivas - Atlas at 10:30pm. All Times Eastern

The Wonderful World of Soccer Media: Europe

Cautionary tales of when more equals less -- from The Times' Matt Dickinson: "I'd have gone to Spurs for more money if only they'd let me," Haynes said, rather deviating from the script.

REVEALED - The £1.5m fund for World Cup bid 'sweeteners' -- from The Daily Mail's Charles Sale: t is extraordinary that the FA should be so open about their international funding intentions.

Fuming Hughes keen to dump three Manchester City rebels -- from The Guardian's Daniel Taylor: The priority for Hughes, according to well-placed sources inside the club, is to bring in new players.

Big Phil Won't Get A Penny -- from The Daily Express' Tony Banks: But he has been told he will not even get any of the £12million the club picked up at the weekend from the transfer of Wayne Bridge to Manchester City, until the summer.

Carlos Tevez alerts Real Madrid after Alex Ferguson fall-out at Man Utd -- from The Telegraph's Rod Gilmour: Who wouldn't want to play for Real Madrid?"

Bargain basement ripe for January sales -- from The Herald's Martin Greig.

Clough agrees to take over at Derby -- from The Independent's Sam Wallace: It will be a significant move for Clough, 42, whose father won the title with Derby in 1972 and led them to the semi-finals of the European Cup the following year.

The Wonderful World of Soccer Media: Americas

Naming of soccer team delayed -- from The Daily Times' Amy Brisson: “We don’t want to compete with the Eagles’ playoff run,” said Nick Sakiewicz, CEO and operating partner of Keystone Sports Entertainment.

The U.S. soccer fan's 2009 almanac -- from SI.com's Greg Lalas: Unless you're the GM of a team or the father of a highly touted prospect, you're not going to watch the MLS draft live on TV.

Sounders sign Eylander as backup -- from The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Gary Washburn: He is the fifth player to sign a free-agent contract with the Sounders FC.

Comments, questions, solutions to problems that have yet to present themselves.  Please, tell me all about it.