I live in a college town. Actually, it's a city and the university is but a small part of it. However, the University of New Mexico sports teams are our equivalent to the NFL and NBA. There is great civic pride in these teams. You can't drive down a street without seeing a business sign reading "Go Lobos."

Which is why it's a little perplexing that our conference has decided to make it really hard to let us watch our college football and basketball games.

In years past, we were able to watch many, if not most, away games on local network TV. Apparently, this situation wasn't sustainable. There was always great consternation when contracts for basketball and football games on local TV were being negotiated. And, until now, they came to an accommodation.

Not that an agreement hasn't been reached this year, but the agreement is this: we have to pay for it.

A new cable station has been created to cover Mountain West sports. Called "the mountain" or "mtn" or some such thing. It varies according to which newspaper you read. It might even vary according to which university spokesman you talk to. The bottom line is this: you can't watch local university sports in Mountain West cities unless you get cable. And not just regular cable, but digital cable. At the moment, there is no deal to broadcast on dish networks, so if you have one of those things on your roof, you are SOL. And since Comcast half owns the network, I'm thinking there won't be a dish deal any time soon.

So, for an average household, watching UNM play--which used to be over the air free--will cost at least $720 a year.

A season ticket to UNM football (in the cheap seats) is $84 for all home games. A season ticket to men's UNM basketball (also cheap seats) is $207. A season ticket to women's UNM basketball is $153. These prices are cheaper if you go to school or are on the faculty. They are more if you want really good seats. In the case of home football games, they are free to students.

So, $444 to see all the home games for football AND men's basketball AND women's basketball (these are the three main fan sports--baseball and soccer, while they do have quite a few fans, are much less popular and are rarely, if ever, broadcast on TV) in person. But to watch all those away games, you have to shell out even more: close to double the price.

I'm not alone in Albuquerque in thinking this is a bit much. We may be up and coming for business and films and tourism, but we ain't the richest people in the world.

Now, I have cable (basic plus), which costs around $50 a month. I'd have to upgrade to get the UNM games. An extra $10 or so a month, which means $120 extra a year to get one extra channel I want.

I already get too many channels I don't watch at all. If a la carte was available, I'd cut the damn thing down to 20 channels or so. And this new channel I'd only watch about six months out of the year. If that. All for eight football games, and maybe 20 basketball games--some I'm sure I'd be too busy to watch anyway.

I get appeals from UNM all the time to donate money to the college. Y'know, in appreciation of all the good my degree has done for me. And now, to be a real supporter of UNM sports, I gotta donate to Comcast?

I already know what's going to happen. I won't be buying season tickets. I won't be upgrading my cable. I'll have to find a bar on those days and nights when I want to see UNM sports. And I'll have to hope they aren't completely full of tons of other people just like me: people who support UNM sports, but can't afford to watch them at home anymore.

When I think about it, if I go to the bar ten times, that'll be more than $120. But the beer and burgers will make up for it. Interestingly, this will make me a criminal most of the time, because I'll be legally drunk when I'm driving home (it doesn't take many beers to blow a 0.08). Thanks UNM.

Universities always bitch and moan about fan support in lean times. How about supporting us fans sometime?

Matt Worley loves the Lobos.