Interesting piece on ESPN and its power (asking for College Gameday boycott)

Donate To GopherHole

That article was pure amateur hour. The entire premise of a GameDay boycott is ridiculous. Rain will be more of a factor if the crowd is down than articles of this one’s standing. If you cut out the moaning and complaining by the author and actually get down to the reasons he puts forward for ESPN having a bias in favor of the SEC, the arguments are paper thin. Basically, to him it comes down to two things.

1.) ESPN owns 80% of the SEC Network while Fox Sports Media Group owns 51% of BTN. He completely ignored the fact that ESPN is the present holder of the Big Ten’s first tier media rights, has been for the past decade, and is expected to make a substantial offer to retain them effective the 2016-17 season. Even with the Big Ten in a bit of a down cycle, it and the SEC are the two most valuable properties in college sports media. It does ESPN little good to deliberately marginalize the Big Ten at this stage. The Big Ten is in a rut and gets less coverage because of it. The guy doesn’t provide a decent argument about why the Big Ten should get more coverage right now or even bring up the ACC, Big XII or PAC-12.

2.) Because some fans think ESPN has an SEC bias (and that has never been substantiated as a majority or even a significant minority by any scientific poll of which I’m aware), the network should follow the mantra that the “customer is always right” and therefore change its stance.

The article ignores the fact that the SEC has the highest average and total attendance of any conference (the Big Ten is #2 in both), draws significant TV ratings, has produced seven of the last eight national champions, and nine of the last sixteen national title game participants. The SEC gets big coverage from ESPN, and all other media outlets, because it’s big news that readers and viewers want to get.
 

I'll be very interested to see what the final TV ratings are for Ohio State @ Michigan State (7 p.m., ABC) vs. Alabama @ LSU (7 p.m., CBS). Those are pretty much the four marquee programs in the two conferences right now, with all due respect to Michigan, Nebraska, Penn State, Auburn, Florida, and Georgia.
 

Sports_Realist said:
That article was pure amateur hour. The entire premise of a GameDay boycott is ridiculous. Rain will be more of a factor if the crowd is down than articles of this one’s standing. If you cut out the moaning and complaining by the author and actually get down to the reasons he puts forward for ESPN having a bias in favor of the SEC, the arguments are paper thin. Basically, to him it comes down to two things.

1.) ESPN owns 80% of the SEC Network while Fox Sports Media Group owns 51% of BTN. He completely ignored the fact that ESPN is the present holder of the Big Ten’s first tier media rights, has been for the past decade, and is expected to make a substantial offer to retain them effective the 2016-17 season. Even with the Big Ten in a bit of a down cycle, it and the SEC are the two most valuable properties in college sports media. It does ESPN little good to deliberately marginalize the Big Ten at this stage. The Big Ten is in a rut and gets less coverage because of it. The guy doesn’t provide a decent argument about why the Big Ten should get more coverage right now or even bring up the ACC, Big XII or PAC-12.

2.) Because some fans think ESPN has an SEC bias (and that has never been substantiated as a majority or even a significant minority by any scientific poll of which I’m aware), the network should follow the mantra that the “customer is always right” and therefore change its stance.

The article ignores the fact that the SEC has the highest average and total attendance of any conference (the Big Ten is #2 in both), draws significant TV ratings, has produced seven of the last eight national champions, and nine of the last sixteen national title game participants. The SEC gets big coverage from ESPN, and all other media outlets, because it’s big news that readers and viewers want to get.
Click to expand...

Here's an article that isn't amateur hour:
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture...spn-and-the-college-football-playoff-20141028
 

My 2 cents on the SEC bias thing

Seems to me that judging by Fowler, et al, reaction, the criticism has hit a little too close to home.

Thou doth protest too much ...

The students ought to come up with some great signs. It's all fun, I guess. ... but for ESPN to deny that it has a vested interest in the whole thing is disingenuous at best. Bottom line is, they can do whatever they want and they know it. People feed off it and the ratings show it.

The thing that gets me is the narrative that is followed when a top-tier SEC team loses to a bottom-tier SEC team, it's because "that shows you how good the SEC is." But when it happens in another league, it's the opposite. Or, how we keep hearing that Arkansas is a good team and "on the come" even though the Hogs haven't won a conference game since Oct. 13, 2012. That may end up being the case in the future, but there's no freakin' evidence to suggest that when looking at Arkansas' recent SEC W-L record.

I also give you, Indiana @ Mizzou. Haven't heard much about that one, have we?
 


SelectionSunday said:
Seems to me that judging by Fowler, et al, reaction, the criticism has hit a little too close to home.

Thou doth protest too much ...

The students ought to come up with some great signs. It's all fun, I guess. ... but for ESPN to deny that it has a vested interest in the whole thing is disingenuous at best. Bottom line is, they can do whatever they want and they know it. People feed off it and the ratings show it.

The thing that gets me is the narrative that is followed when a top-tier SEC team loses to a bottom-tier SEC team, it's because "that shows you how good the SEC is." But when it happens in another league, it's the opposite. Or, how we keep hearing that Arkansas is a good team and "on the come" even though the Hogs haven't won a conference game since Oct. 13, 2012. That may end up being the case in the future, but there's no freakin' evidence to suggest that when looking at Arkansas' recent SEC W-L record.

I also give you, Indiana @ Mizzou. Haven't heard much about that one, have we?
Click to expand...

SEC teams' rankings are still inflated because of what Texas A&M did to South Carolina.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Seems to me that judging by Fowler, et al, reaction, the criticism has hit a little too close to home.

Thou doth protest too much ...

The students ought to come up with some great signs. It's all fun, I guess. ... but for ESPN to deny that it has a vested interest in the whole thing is disingenuous at best. Bottom line is, they can do whatever they want and they know it. People feed off it and the ratings show it.

The thing that gets me is the narrative that is followed when a top-tier SEC team loses to a bottom-tier SEC team, it's because "that shows you how good the SEC is." But when it happens in another league, it's the opposite. Or, how we keep hearing that Arkansas is a good team and "on the come" even though the Hogs haven't won a conference game since Oct. 13, 2012. That may end up being the case in the future, but there's no freakin' evidence to suggest that when looking at Arkansas' recent SEC W-L record.

I also give you, Indiana @ Mizzou. Haven't heard much about that one, have we?
Click to expand...

The bold is what annoys me the most. SEC upsets prove that bad teams are good; Big Ten upsets prove the good times are bad. I'm of the opinion that a conference game should never help/hurt a conference. In every B1G game, the B1G is preordained to come out with a 1-1 record. Same for the SEC.
 

Another part of this whole thing that I find really interesting is how the fans act in regards to the teams within their conference. When I see SEC message boards vs. B10 message boards, it seems as though OOC the SEC is much more pumped when their teams win and almost disown them when they lose. The whole south rallies around each other come bowl season (you know with the whole ridiculous S-E-C chant like a W for Bama= a W for Vandy in some way) where as the B10 for a long long time, which seems to be changing now due to the disrespect the B10 is getting, was that you cheered when the Badgers, Hawkeyes, Wolverines, etc. lost their bowl game because we hate them. Does this whole idea permeate out? I think it does/did in that when you ask who has won the last 7 or whatever championships before FSU, everyone knows it's the SEC. No one says it was Bama 3x, Auburn 1x, Florida 2x, and LSU 1x. Somehow, IMO, the SEC sticking together has thrown the idea out there that the SEC is better than everyone because 4 teams have combined for 7 out of 8 championships and had a bunch of draft picks.

ESPN perpetuates this because it is what a broad chunk of people who watch ESPN believe (ie the people in my age bracket that bandwagoned to the SEC champions starting with when Tebow was winning for Florida) and it's in their best interest to pimp these teams out there. I don't care if ESPN has a bias as the talking heads there know no more than many devoted college football fans but for them to claim they don't put the conference out there in a more positive light than others is pure blasphemy. Missouri losing to a bad Indiana barely made headlines, South Carolina's idiotic preseason rankings (which were largely pumped up by ESPN) have continued to push teams in the SEC up (including a just as bad Texas A&M), and a loss within the SEC is the only loss that's ever considered a "good" loss by people because the SEC is so tough despite only winning one meaningful road game against KSU who we really don't know if they're that good at this point in the season. I just would like to see ESPN compare the TEAMS based on the results on the field, not by conference.

Ok sorry for the rant. I'm done.
 

Hate the GameDay crap because it gives even more of a recruiting edge to schools that need no more advantages. Just makes the slope a school like Minnesota has to climb a little bit steeper.
 



SelectionSunday said:
I'll be very interested to see what the final TV ratings are for Ohio State @ Michigan State (7 p.m., ABC) vs. Alabama @ LSU (7 p.m., CBS). Those are pretty much the four marquee programs in the two conferences right now, with all due respect to Michigan, Nebraska, Penn State, Auburn, Florida, and Georgia.
Click to expand...

OSU-MSU is gonna get crushed.
 


It is an individual strength vs group strength.


Alabama
Auburn
Mississippi
Mississippi State
LSU

Is a better group than
Michigan State
Ohio state
Wisconsin
Nebraska
Iowa


But that doesn't mean that Alabama is better than Ohio state.


The conference thing annoys me because people are too stupid to admit that yes, the SEC is better than other conferences....but that fact does not necessarily mean any one team in the SEC is better than any other team.



Alabama and Auburn are better than Oregon because Oregon plays in a worse conference? Nice argument.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Seems to me that judging by Fowler, et al, reaction, the criticism has hit a little too close to home.

Thou doth protest too much ...
Click to expand...

Dan Patrick talked about this the day after the Fowler comments and said pretty much the same thing as you. Granted, DP has a little slant himself, but I found it hilarious that he called The Mothership the "Propaganda wing of the SEC" and said that to claim anything different would be disingenuous.
 



Some guy said:
It is an individual strength vs group strength.


Alabama
Auburn
Mississippi
Mississippi State
LSU

Is a better group than
Michigan State
Ohio state
Wisconsin
Nebraska
Iowa


But that doesn't mean that Alabama is better than Ohio state.


The conference thing annoys me because people are too stupid to admit that yes, the SEC is better than other conferences....but that fact does not necessarily mean any one team in the SEC is better than any other team.



Alabama and Auburn are better than Oregon because Oregon plays in a worse conference? Nice argument.
Click to expand...

Same argument made about Boise State. It's all relative I guess. Pretty sure most mouth breathers thought the great BSU teams couldn't play with the upper tier power 5 teams. The BCS made sure we never found out.

Playoff. Let's hope for a real one someday.
 

Some guy said:
It is an individual strength vs group strength.


Alabama
Auburn
Mississippi
Mississippi State
LSU

Is a better group than
Michigan State
Ohio state
Wisconsin
Nebraska
Iowa


But that doesn't mean that Alabama is better than Ohio state.


The conference thing annoys me because people are too stupid to admit that yes, the SEC is better than other conferences....but that fact does not necessarily mean any one team in the SEC is better than any other team.



Alabama and Auburn are better than Oregon because Oregon plays in a worse conference? Nice argument.
Click to expand...

Do we really know this? I'm being argumentative. This year the SEC is not the SEC you remember.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
The bold is what annoys me the most. SEC upsets prove that bad teams are good; Big Ten upsets prove the good times are bad. I'm of the opinion that a conference game should never help/hurt a conference. In every B1G game, the B1G is preordained to come out with a 1-1 record. Same for the SEC.
Click to expand...

You'll also noticed that when a low-ranked or unranked SEC team beats a highly ranked SEC team, the team that wins will move up the rankings more than the team that loses moves down. Just look back a few weeks when LSU won an ugly game over Ole Miss 10-7. LSU moved up seven spots in the AP while Ole Miss dropped just four. Only one team that LSU moved ahead of lost. Utah won over USC and moved up one spot, while Nebraska dominated at Northwestern and dropped down a spot.

Fowler made himself look stupid going off on that rant.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Do we really know this? I'm being argumentative. This year the SEC is not the SEC you remember.
Click to expand...

We don't know this. I agree with you. Most people think it, as do I


Even if it is true, my point is, it shouldn't be used as a basis for saying an individual team is better than another individual team. It can be argued, but that's a bad argument if someone chooses to use it.
 

With a few outliers it seems like most of the Bowl games are pretty competitive. It seems logical to conclude that the differences between the conferences are far less than conventional wisdom.

It's human to want to rank and stratify every aspect of sports and make heroes out of joes and put the SEC up on a pedestal. The actual competitive advantage in college football is pretty slim. For example, teams that enjoy a one star roster advantage over their opponent only win about 2/3 of the time. There is a lot of leeway for coaching, luck, "want-to", homefield advantage (bowl season?) and team chemistry to affect outcomes

Don't buy the hype. The SEC bleeds like everyone else.
 

I should point out , regarding the committee there are really only 3 guys I'd take any advice from: Alvarez, Willingham, Osborne. Maybe Haden and that's a biiiiiig maybe.

The rest are just opinions. I wonder how deferential they are to the ex-coaches. I wonder how much the coaches butt heads. It's really too bad the meeting minutes are secret. That would be pretty fascinating reading on several levels.
 

Why would any fan want something that's been to Fargo twice?
 

I have a bias against paying for television. Don't have ESPN. There, problem solved.
 

Kansas St vs TCU

SelectionSunday said:
I'll be very interested to see what the final TV ratings are for Ohio State @ Michigan State (7 p.m., ABC) vs. Alabama @ LSU (7 p.m., CBS). Those are pretty much the four marquee programs in the two conferences right now, with all due respect to Michigan, Nebraska, Penn State, Auburn, Florida, and Georgia.
Click to expand...

I'll actually be watching Kansas St vs TCU.
 

I don't know about bias, but I boycott GameDay because it's a terrible show. Same goes for most things ESPN does when they aren't broadcasting a game.
 

Maximus said:
SEC teams' rankings are still inflated because of what Texas A&M did to South Carolina.
Click to expand...

But didn't deflate because of what Indiana did to Missouri or what Wisconsin was doing to LSU until they couldn't complete a pass.
 

Sorry if posted

http://awfulannouncing.com/2014/college-gameday-clock-west-virginia.html

Gameday at SEC site
Time Spent on:
SEC – 1:02:08
Big Ten – 15:59
Big 12 – 15:19
PAC12 – 10:57
DIV III – 5:00
Ivy League – 1:08
ACC – 0:43

Following week, Gameday in West Virginia
SEC – 36:30
Big 12- 17:51
PAC 12 – 14:00
Big Ten – 11:00
C-USA – 2:50
ACC – 2:14
Independents – 2:10

"Will Muschamp nearly received more airtime than the whole of the Big Ten (and the Big Ten’s time included nearly 4 minutes of Dave Brandon’s resignation)"
 




Jike Spingleton said:
I don't know about bias, but I boycott GameDay because it's a terrible show. Same goes for most things ESPN does when they aren't broadcasting a game.
Click to expand...

I really agree with the bold. Gameday used to be a great show about 4-5 years ago. Now it has turned into a circus of non-sense. For me, as a viewer looking to get some more "knowledge" on teams I may not watch as much, Gameday is certainly not the source. It is pretty much just a spectacle for the Gameday crew to say stupid things in front of a bunch of screaming people.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
http://www.elevenwarriors.com/colle...day-in-east-lansing-ohio-state-michigan-state

Just about nails it.
Click to expand...

95.gif
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom