In a recent conversation, a cable executive had this to say about the Big Ten and its attempt to push its fledgling television network on the public.

"It's either arrogance or they are misinformed or they really think they are that powerful."

Likely a little bit of all three.

For certain, there is no shortage of arrogance on the part of the Big Ten, the athletic conference to which Penn State belongs. It's a powerful group of prestigious universities that has made hundreds of millions of dollars from athletics and wants even more through the Big Ten Network.

Instead of merely placing its hand even deeper into the pocket of faithful alumni and passionate fans, the Big Ten now wants people who don't give a hoot about the league, or sports, to pay up. The conference is asking cable providers to place The Big Ten Network on their expanded basic package, the one most available to viewers, and to pay $1.10 per customer.

To put that money in perspective, Comcast, one of the largest cable providers in the country, has about 5.7 million customers in the eight states that encompass the Big Ten. At $13.20 a year per customer, that comes to $75.2 million annually.

According to The New York Times, there are 18.5 million cable subscribers in the conference's eight states. If all the cable providers signed up at the asking price of $1.10 per month per customer, the network could gross $244 million -- every year.

No wonder the Big Ten is pushing this so hard.

The product the Big Ten is offering simply is not worth the asking price. There will be a handful of good football games and a few more good basketball games. Of the league's top 47 football games, 41 go to ABC, ESPN and ESPN2. The preponderance of the events will be second and third-rate football and basketball games and other sports such as soccer, volleyball, wrestling and swimming.

In effect, the Big Ten is asking the general public, many of whom care nothing about sports, to subsidize its product. Quite correctly, the cable providers want no part of that.

Where the Big Ten Network belongs is on a special sports tier, where only those who want it pay for it. In the case of Comcast, that would be the Sports Entertainment Pack, which costs $6.95 a month and includes: The Tennis Channel, NBA TV, HorseRacing TV, the Fox Soccer Channel, the Speed Channel and the Fox Movie Channel.

Obviously, such a positioning would not bring in nearly the expected revenue for the Big Ten, which is countering with flawed logic.

Penn State athletic director Tim Curley said last week, "In the last five years, we've probably had three games that haven't been on some form of television. The majority of Pennsylvania falls under Comcast and most would get shut out if we don't get a deal."

That might scare some people but the vast majority of the cable television audience is not worried about losing these four Penn State games: Florida International, Buffalo, Indiana, Iowa.

What's particularly galling about the Big Ten stance is that many of those games were free last year before the conference changed its deal with ABC and ESPN.

The Big Ten has a right to start its own network. Fans who want a steady diet of conference sports have a right to watch it. Just don't ask the rest of us to pay for it.

KDKA continues search

KDKA-TV is interviewing candidates to replace John Steigerwald, whose contract was not renewed. Steigerwald will continue to work at the station full time until October and after that on a limited, part-time basis.

KDKA is hopeful of bringing a new person on board early next month to replace Steigerwald as its reporter covering Steelers games. Steigerwald has been handling those duties since about 1989. The ideal situation would be to have a replacement at the station by Labor Day, giving him a week to get somewhat up to speed on the team before the Sept. 9 opener at Cleveland.

It's possible contractual situations will not permit such a quick turnaround.

One candidate is Dave Briggs, a Colorado native, who is working with the NBC affiliate in the Boston area. Briggs previously worked in Tulsa and Rapid City, S.D. Mike Zappone, currently at the station as a producer and on-air personality, also has been interviewed. Ryan Burr, formerly of FSN Pittsburgh and now at ESPNews, also might be a candidate.