...It's just a scary thought to maybe be without ESPN for any amount of time because of a dispute.
You got that right! OSU football (my OSU ), was the #1 reason I setup a C-Band system back in 1992. Of course, I find other stuff to like about satellite besides NCAA football, but it is still to this day my main reason for having pay TV.
I don't care for some of the stuff Disney does anymore than a lot of other folks do. But how can you boycott your favorite team? That would be a little like the SWAT team killing the hostages to get to the hostage taker. I realize that example equates college football to a human life, which is absurd. But just because it's not as important as human life, doesn't mean that we don't really really really love college football.
I still maintain a C/Ku Bud for FTA in addition to my DishNet sub... all mainly for OSU sports. I wouldn't drop my DishNet sub because of a dispute with ESPN (even though I wouldn't like it). But I would almost certainly drop DishNet if they were to permanently drop ESPN (which would never happen... I think).
There will always be those who will never understand college football fever. I'm not sure I could even explain it myself. But if you've ever caught the college football bug... you know exactly what I'm talking about.
In summary.... I hope DirecTV is the provider to challenge ESPN.
Cheers