Outback Bowl ESPN SEC Bias Coverage

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I watched the whole game on TV and I really don't get the outrage some have over the broadcast team. Maybe I am just not easily offended or don't go hunting for reasons to be outraged over the perception of the Gophers.

Auburn was the more well known program, ranked higher, and favored to win the game. Brown is a top 10 NFL draft pick so he is going to get a ton of attention. And yes the SEC is seen as the premier conference in college football right now.

I felt like the announcers had a lot of great things to say about Minnesota and were very complimentary of us. Those upset about the missed TD pass, it wasn't intentional or meant to slight us it was just a mistake....it happens. As for lack of shots of the band, probably a camera placement issue.

Again, some work way too hard to find reasons to be upset. I really don't get where these complaints are coming from though. Thought the coverage was just fine, enjoy the win and stop trying to find reasons to be upset about some perceived slight of some kind.
 

Bennetti is a dink. He wouldn’t know a player from a decoy regardless of the team. (Sidenote). Sat next to a Alabama lady-65+ on the way home. Her reasoning on Auburn ‘s demise, the players are to tired after their strenuous SEC schedule. One thing I have discovered, Alabama women know their football.
 

scools12 said:
I usually don’t notice this and my brother who is far from a homer noticed it and brought it up to me.

I didn’t think the game announcers were bad but the sideline guy at least to me seemed to be openly rooting for Auburn.
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You weren’t at all concerned about what was to come over the next 3 hours when the color analyst did a replay of Morgan’s interception, a “bread and butter RPO play“ when the line was clearly pass blocking, TM rarely has designed zone read keepers, and there wasn't a running back on the field?
 
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MNVCGUY said:
I watched the whole game on TV and I really don't get the outrage some have over the broadcast team. Maybe I am just not easily offended or don't go hunting for reasons to be outraged over the perception of the Gophers.

Auburn was the more well known program, ranked higher, and favored to win the game. Brown is a top 10 NFL draft pick so he is going to get a ton of attention. And yes the SEC is seen as the premier conference in college football right now.

I felt like the announcers had a lot of great things to say about Minnesota and were very complimentary of us. Those upset about the missed TD pass, it wasn't intentional or meant to slight us it was just a mistake....it happens. As for lack of shots of the band, probably a camera placement issue.

Again, some work way too hard to find reasons to be upset. I really don't get where these complaints are coming from though. Thought the coverage was just fine, enjoy the win and stop trying to find reasons to be upset about some perceived slight of some kind.
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Come on now. We all have our triggers. Shall we discuss some of PJF’s quirks ?.

When BTN and Fox and some on air personalities are clearly in the bag for the Big Ten I don’t know that’s it’s so hard to believe ESPN, CBS or any other affiliated partners may be subtly or not so subtly pushing their products and encouraging stereotypes and prejudices. It’s ok to point that out because frankly it’s annoying when BTN/Fox does it and it’s annoying when ESPN does it.
 

Vandy said:
It was a crappy broadcast crew and lousy job they did. I wish I'd have turned off the volume and put the Gopher radio crew on for audio... I'm sure their level of excitement would have been fun to listen to.
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I didn't mind Gilmore but the other 2 weren't great. Where's Clay Matvick when you need him.
 



WindyCityGopher said:
That's because the Auburn band Never. Stopped. Playing.
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The Auburn band and fans were on the side opposite the camera crew. MN band was in the shady corner and likely didn't have a convenient camera angle. Also almost every TD was on that end of the field.

The Witham TD not being shown was entirely the refs fault. The red hat media timeout guy was still on the field. When the refs whistled the play to start, red hat was jumping up and down waving his arms to get their attention. It was too late.
 

hungan1 said:
I just noticed that they missed a very important Gophers play by going into a media timeout - the Seth Green to Bryce Witham 4th down TD pass.
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This was actually the refs fault. The guy who lets them know when they are back from commercials was jumping up and down waving his arms wildly and they ignored him.
 

Pete smith said:
Bennetti is a dink. He wouldn’t know a player from a decoy regardless of the team. (Sidenote). Sat next to a Alabama lady-65+ on the way home. Her reasoning on Auburn ‘s demise, the players are to tired after their strenuous SEC schedule. One thing I have discovered, Alabama women know their football.
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You should have responded to the Alabama lady that perhaps Auburn should consider scheduling Duke, Southen Miss, NM State, and Western Carolina (for a late November game) to avoid such a strenuous schedule.
 



Buck_Buchanan said:
You should have responded to the Alabama lady that perhaps Auburn should consider scheduling Duke, Southen Miss, NM State, and Western Carolina (for a late November game) to avoid such a strenuous schedule.
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Or Samford...
 


More credit to the Gophers for winning the game despite the biased media coverage.

Seriously - who gives a flying bleep? I watch the game and come to my own opinions. I don't need a TV analyst to tell me what to think about a game.

IMHO, most broadcasters over-broadcast. Play-by-play guy should describe the action. Color man should point out aspects that fans might miss - strategy, execution, how a particular play was blocked or what scheme the defense was running. they don't need to talk non-stop. It's TV - let the pictures tell the story whenever possible. Sure sign of a poor or unprepared broadcaster is when they come into a game with 2 or 3 talking points and just keep repeating them all game long, no matter what happens in the game. (also know as the Dave Lee method of broadcasting).

BTW, if you listened to the radio, the radio broadcast was several seconds ahead of the TV broadcast, so you heard the call of the play on radio before you saw it on TV. hard to watch a game that way.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
More credit to the Gophers for winning the game despite the biased media coverage.

Seriously - who gives a flying bleep? I watch the game and come to my own opinions. I don't need a TV analyst to tell me what to think about a game.

IMHO, most broadcasters over-broadcast. Play-by-play guy should describe the action. Color man should point out aspects that fans might miss - strategy, execution, how a particular play was blocked or what scheme the defense was running. they don't need to talk non-stop. It's TV - let the pictures tell the story whenever possible. Sure sign of a poor or unprepared broadcaster is when they come into a game with 2 or 3 talking points and just keep repeating them all game long, no matter what happens in the game. (also know as the Dave Lee method of broadcasting).

BTW, if you listened to the radio, the radio broadcast was several seconds ahead of the TV broadcast, so you heard the call of the play on radio before you saw it on TV. hard to watch a game that way.
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You nailed it. In this case the analyst didn’t even know what an RPO scheme is. There just aren’t many insightful announcers at any level. I don’t get it.

Someone mentioned in the game thread this is normally a baseball crew and do a decent job at that.
 



UpAndUnder43 said:
This was actually the refs fault. The guy who lets them know when they are back from commercials was jumping up and down waving his arms wildly and they ignored him.
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I take it there wasn’t a time out countdown like at TCF Bank Stadium.
 
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PitinoFan said:
I rewatched the game, and paid close attention to this. I don’t think they were biased, tbh.
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I also rewatched it yesterday and take back my earlier opinion... It was actually a decent broadcast, maybe even above average from what we've seen in the past.

Perhaps it is the "heat of the moment" in watching live where it is easier to be emotional about what you are seeing or hearing?
 


Vandy said:
I also rewatched it yesterday and take back my earlier opinion... It was actually a decent broadcast, maybe even above average from what we've seen in the past.

Perhaps it is the "heat of the moment" in watching live where it is easier to be emotional about what you are seeing or hearing?
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Yes, I thought they were biased the first time I watched it too. They clearly expected Auburn to have the advantage, but who didn’t? As time went on, they started pointing out that the Gophers were winning the battle in the trenches, which spelled trouble for Auburn. I think this was in the first quarter. They weren’t wrong.
 

My only issue with ESPN that day was that they wouldn't show any highlights of the Gophers win (did they even mention the game?) during the halftimes and in between the Rose and Sugar Bowls. But they had plenty of time to show Alabama beat Michigan. There's little doubt they show highlights if Auburn had won. I get Bama and Michigan are bigger names but it's bizarre they couldn't show a few clips when there was only 4 games all day.
 

They didn’t show replays of some Gopher penalties either. On one of them the crew was talking about something completely unrelated to the play and penalty. They really struggled with the basics.
 

Announcers and officials are always scheming against us.
 


Yes, re-watching the game seem to clean my Big Ten eyeglasses. Maybe there is not as strong a bias after all although you cannot escape the distinct SEC flavors to the broadcast. They did compliment the Gophers on a lot of things.

I just wish that they set up the bands better so that the Gopher fans can hear the U's band. The on the field coverage can be a little balanced.

It is disappointing that ESPN immediately switched to the Rose Bowl. I think the fans in attendance can appreciate a ceremonial awarding of the trophies.
 

jonnyganas said:
The Auburn band and fans were on the side opposite the camera crew. MN band was in the shady corner and likely didn't have a convenient camera angle. Also almost every TD was on that end of the field.

The Witham TD not being shown was entirely the refs fault. The red hat media timeout guy was still on the field. When the refs whistled the play to start, red hat was jumping up and down waving his arms to get their attention. It was too late.
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Four of the 7 TDs were scored in the endzone near the Auburn band.
 

I thought the booth guys were okay. Play-by-play guy tried to be a bit too clever a few times, but it wasn't over-the-top terrible. I thought the sideline guy was pretty bad. As far as bias, they pumped up a couple of Auburn guys, both of whom are likely to be high draft picks, but that was probably due to familiarity instead of any innate bias. I thought they gave the Gophers sufficient props throughout the game.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
The broadcast crew were seemingly bickering about how motivated Auburn was all game. Benetti would out of the blue wonder about motivation level and his compatriot would shoot that down. Went on seemingly all game. I agree with you Hungan, just not a lot of redeeming value there of any sort. Droll delivery, tired stereotypes, baffling analysis. The crew doing the Indiana game OTOH was pretty fun. Of course, we all have our favorites for different reasons. I’d imagine even Joe Buck has a lot of fans out there.
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Joe Buck has a lot of fans?
How big is his family?
 

short ornery norwegian said:
More credit to the Gophers for winning the game despite the biased media coverage.

Seriously - who gives a flying bleep? I watch the game and come to my own opinions. I don't need a TV analyst to tell me what to think about a game.

IMHO, most broadcasters over-broadcast. Play-by-play guy should describe the action. Color man should point out aspects that fans might miss - strategy, execution, how a particular play was blocked or what scheme the defense was running. they don't need to talk non-stop. It's TV - let the pictures tell the story whenever possible. Sure sign of a poor or unprepared broadcaster is when they come into a game with 2 or 3 talking points and just keep repeating them all game long, no matter what happens in the game. (also know as the Dave Lee method of broadcasting).

BTW, if you listened to the radio, the radio broadcast was several seconds ahead of the TV broadcast, so you heard the call of the play on radio before you saw it on TV. hard to watch a game that way.
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Nice post. Not many Tony Romo's out there.
 



PhillyGopher said:
I thought at the time that the crew was fine/good and the gushing was generally equally distributed.
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This. I have yet to re-watch the game on my DVR, but I didn't see any particular "bias" favoring either team. I did see unequal treatment in certain comments, but based on typical perceptions (e.g., SEC is so fast, how could a team like the Gophers stick with their speed; Auburn didn't seem like they tried a couple years ago, but they seem like they are trying today; Minnesota hasn't had this type of season in a very, very long time), I thought they were reasonable comments by a decent announcing crew; even if they are not quite the most exciting crew on ESPN's team.

Additionally, Bennetti is from Illinois, and announces White Sox games. It is highly doubtful he would be pro-Auburn. As a footnote, Bennetti has a significant disability and has overcome a ton. I would assume Bennetti might favor something like a "Row the Boat" mantra.
 


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