Thursday night’s BCS title game was the last in the series, barring contract changes under future agreements, that will air on over-the-air television. Beginning next year, all four BCS games plus the title game move to ESPN.

This is a problem for some viewers in markets such as Houston, which lags below the national average for cable and satellite penetration, but ESPN executives believe practically anyone who’s interested in watching the games has a dish or a cable connection.

“We believe we have a laundry list of research to back us up when we say that when we and Turner put big events (on cable), they do just as well as they do on over the air,” said Burke Magnus, ESPN’s senior vice president for college programming.

Magnus said BCS games will air next year on the company’s ESPN360 broadband network. Thursday’s game was not on broadband because it aired on ABC. Unlike the NFL, ESPN will not allow over the air stations to air BCS games featuring their home-market teams.

It’s another change in the accepted order and, alas, not necessarily one in the best interest of viewers. In other words, nothing new here, folks. Move along.