If you've been interested in watching GW play away games, or home and away games if you live outside the DC market, you've essentially had to have ESPN+.  It's been a great service for A10 fans, and also has included some very good original programming, the entire 30 for 30 library, college sports covering other conferences (most notably the Big 12 but many smaller conferences as well), plenty of UFC programming, even an annual NFL game.  That annual NFL game has been an overseas one starting early Sunday morning, so at least you could say that by not having ESPN+ and therefore missing this game, it's not a game that you would normally see anyway.

The times they are a changing.  Nobody likes to pay extra for anything they've historically received for free.  No, cable tv is not exactly free, but if you're one of those who have always known cable and would not dare cut the cord, then paying for programming on top of your cable bill seems pricey.  Next month, a Bills-Chargers game will be shown exclusively on Peacock.  Peacock has also increased it's Big 10 inventory (now that ESPN has lost that contract) so if you like that conference, Peacock is becoming a must.  The Bills-Chargers game is nothing in comparison to an actual NFL playoff game being shown exclusively on Peacock in January.  We're still too far away from this but when we reach the point where NFL fans realize that they'll have to pay extra in order to see a playoff game, all I can say is "holy public relations nightmare, Batman."

Back to ESPN.  ESPN+ has been bundled with Disney Plus and Hulu for no other reason than Disney owning a controlling interest in each.  That strategy is going away with the news that a streaming option for ESPN will soon be offered directly to consumers.  Sports programming has contributed greatly towards cable bills so now, there will be an option to buy ESPN  a la carte.  Well, one could say that since the advent of ESPN+, this option has already existed, but ESPN is somehow going to try to convince ESPN+ subscribers that the new ESPN streaming service will offer so much more than ESPN+, despite the fact that this isn't likely to be the case.  Why?  It's money of course.  ESPN would much rather charge $20-$25/month for it's "new" a la carte service than the fraction that it charges right now for ESPN+.  And, if you're like me and want to see as many GW games as possible, then you're just going to have to pony up.

Ideally, ESPN will give us ESPN+ legacy subscribers a nice break.  That said, don't count on it.