Hope you caught last night's first telecast of the high school boys basketball season on ESPNU, between Campbell Hall of California and St. Edward of Ohio.

Truth be told, I hope you didn't watch that game or any of the other 14 games on the ESPNU schedule between now and February. I would be perfectly happy if the whole distasteful concept of nationally televised high school games went away.

Simply put, the notion of bringing kids from three time zones away during the middle of the week for two hours of television programming is entirely antithetical to the educational process. The Campbell kids almost certainly missed three full days of class time so that Jrue Holiday, a Campbell player voted ESPN's No.5-ranked player this season could get introduced to a national audience now before he goes to college next year.

What coach, athletic director, principal, or area superintendent could have thought this was a good idea for the team?

Look, it's not ESPN or Fox Sports Net or any national channel's responsibility to put the interest of the kids first. Their job is to provide compelling programming, no matter the cost. If it means pulling kids out of class from a time zone or two or three to play games, when there would almost certainly be good contests in their area or state, so be it.

And in this day and age when otherwise well-meaning parents seek every chance to get their kids exposure for college scholarships and to put them on the radar of professional observers down the road, they can't be counted on any more to be vigilant.

No, it has to be up to educators to place limits on how far athletics are allowed to intrude into academics. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.