Wow! ESPN...I mean ABC taking every opportunity to tell us the B1G is over-rated.


Gotta love the TV crew for the Notre Dame vs. Indiana game.
Yeah... I've been listening and watching.

ESPN must give the 'script' to their announcers for pretty much every game, even when a B1G team is not playing.

By the way, Notre Dame, a future B1G team, does look pretty good. They will give Georgia a game in 11 days
 






I said this in the game thread but I am really disappointed in one of my favorite play by play announcers, Sean McDunough.

It’s like he had a script in front of him and a mission to absolutely trash the B1G. It was right out of the ESPN playbook and he was towing the company line.

He saved his worst tirade for the end at the exact time announcers usually sing the praises of the losing team, reminding viewers how good they were, how it just didn’t come together tonight, lots to be proud of, etc. etc.

Instead it was some of the strongest anti-B1G propaganda I have heard, laced with comments that all but blatantly said Indiana wasn’t worthy of the Detroit Bowl.
 

I said this in the game thread but I am really disappointed in one of my favorite play by play announcers, Sean McDunough.

It’s like he had a script in front of him and a mission to absolutely trash the B1G. It was right out of the ESPN playbook and he was towing the company line.

He saved his worst tirade for the end at the exact time announcers usually sing the praises of the losing team, reminding viewers how good they were, how it just didn’t come together tonight, lots to be proud of, etc. etc.

Instead it was some of the strongest anti-B1G propaganda I have heard, laced with comments that all but blatantly said Indiana wasn’t worthy of the Detroit Bowl.
It seemed like his vendetta was making Greg McElroy uncomfortable. Sean had to start backtracking when Indiana made that late run. It would have been so cool to see them make that last two point conversion to move the game to just eight and see them start sweating! We were inches from seeing a very fun onside kick!!! If that were a Gopher team letting that lead get away I would have been terrified!
 




I get what you are all saying but who cares? BiG got 4 teams in, go out on the field and show everyone that the BiG is the best conference. Sure as hell didn't look like it tonight, yeesh Indiana got their ass kicked bad just like against tOSU. Was rooting hard for Indiana, maybe Notre Dame is that good?
 


As many are saying, you can’t judge a whole season by a high pressure playoff game.

Kiffin is most vocal, but does he realize he’s just campaigning for Alabama over his own team?

You can’t ignore 3 losses no matter the conference. Illinois has an argument but they are a B1G team so no one cares.

The conferences are all represented and we’ll see how it plays out.
 





I personally would've rather watched Alabama, Ole Miss or South Carolina in South Bend last night. If you are an at-large you should be able to point to one quality win..
Well Indiana only had one chance for one. How many losses does a quality win make up for?
 

As many are saying, you can’t judge a whole season by a high pressure playoff game.

Kiffin is most vocal, but does he realize he’s just campaigning for Alabama over his own team?

You can’t ignore 3 losses no matter the conference. Illinois has an argument but they are a B1G team so no one cares.

The conferences are all represented and we’ll see how it plays out.
I’d put South Carolina in before Ole Miss too.
 



What a poor choice of play by play announcers. Didn’t he do ND for years?
 

didn't see the game (was at a HS basketball double-header).

Did the announcers discuss the issue with mega-conferences and un-equal scheduling?

because, IMHO, that is what this really boils down to.

two teams in the same conference:
Team A has an "easier" schedule
Team B has a "harder" schedule

Team A has a better won-loss record than Team B. the easy and simple response is "Team A had a better season." But did they? If Team A played the same schedule as Team B, would they still have a better record?

the difficult (but fairer) solution is to apply a Strength of Schedule multiplier to the records, and to use the 'adjusted' records to determine advancement and/or Bowl Game placement.

with unequal schedules, a team with 8 wins might actually be better than another team with 10 wins.
but that requires nuance - and broadcast TV has a "no nuance" rule, because it's "too hard to understand."
 

The big ten should refuse to participate in a playoff system that doesn’t go out to bid.

I know turner owns some first round games. The big ten will have long term media propaganda issues if espn owns the SEC and ACC and 9 of the 11 playoff games.

Need nbc, CBs, and Fox to at least have the chance to bid on the playoff.
 

didn't see the game (was at a HS basketball double-header).

Did the announcers discuss the issue with mega-conferences and un-equal scheduling?

because, IMHO, that is what this really boils down to.

two teams in the same conference:
Team A has an "easier" schedule
Team B has a "harder" schedule

Team A has a better won-loss record than Team B. the easy and simple response is "Team A had a better season." But did they? If Team A played the same schedule as Team B, would they still have a better record?

the difficult (but fairer) solution is to apply a Strength of Schedule multiplier to the records, and to use the 'adjusted' records to determine advancement and/or Bowl Game placement.

with unequal schedules, a team with 8 wins might actually be better than another team with 10 wins.
but that requires nuance - and broadcast TV has a "no nuance" rule, because it's "too hard to understand."
They didn’t discuss with that much nuance
But I think what you’re talking about here is why it’s so ridiculous Texas is the 5 seed.
 

didn't see the game (was at a HS basketball double-header).

Did the announcers discuss the issue with mega-conferences and un-equal scheduling?

because, IMHO, that is what this really boils down to.

two teams in the same conference:
Team A has an "easier" schedule
Team B has a "harder" schedule

Team A has a better won-loss record than Team B. the easy and simple response is "Team A had a better season." But did they? If Team A played the same schedule as Team B, would they still have a better record?

the difficult (but fairer) solution is to apply a Strength of Schedule multiplier to the records, and to use the 'adjusted' records to determine advancement and/or Bowl Game placement.

with unequal schedules, a team with 8 wins might actually be better than another team with 10 wins.
but that requires nuance - and broadcast TV has a "no nuance" rule, because it's "too hard to understand."
They did for Indiana and SMU, but left Texas off the list.
 

I get what you are all saying but who cares? BiG got 4 teams in, go out on the field and show everyone that the BiG is the best conference. Sure as hell didn't look like it tonight, yeesh Indiana got their ass kicked bad just like against tOSU. Was rooting hard for Indiana, maybe Notre Dame is that good?
Notre Dame is playing as well as anyone right now. I think they will beat Georgia.
 


They did for Indiana and SMU, but left Texas off the list.
It’s so ridiculous when it’s like SEC team should be this place or this seed

Like maybe in a vacuum. But texas is like 1 win vs top 25

They’re SeC but they didn’t play any of the good teams in the SEC

Missed Ole Miss, missed South Carolina, missed Tennessee, missed Missouri

1-2 against bama and Georgia
 

The weirdest thing is that people are so up in arms about the game generally not being very close as if playoff games have always been close. They haven't. Of the last six championship games, the average margin of victory has been 28. Only one of those six games ended within two scores (15 pts in 2021). Three of six were 4+ score games.
 

You take away the 98 yard run and Indiana’s shitty second and third down play calls in the first half before they kicked the field goal and the vibe would be completely different. I gotta say I really like Notre Dame‘s defense and their quarterback.
 

I said this in the game thread but I am really disappointed in one of my favorite play by play announcers, Sean McDunough.

It’s like he had a script in front of him and a mission to absolutely trash the B1G. It was right out of the ESPN playbook and he was towing the company line.

He saved his worst tirade for the end at the exact time announcers usually sing the praises of the losing team, reminding viewers how good they were, how it just didn’t come together tonight, lots to be proud of, etc. etc.

Instead it was some of the strongest anti-B1G propaganda I have heard, laced with comments that all but blatantly said Indiana wasn’t worthy of the Detroit Bowl.
I agree with all your comments. It's one thing if you are making the occasional strength of schedule comments regarding Indiana, but it was the non-stop nature of the comments and then equating that to the questioned strength of the B1G as a whole.

ESPN definitely had a plan in place if things went south for Indiana and that was to have McDonough go after Indiana with his true focus clearly the B1G. I'm sure they had an alternate plan in place that if Indiana had shown up and surprised ND, then all the blame would have fell on ND while pointing to their failures against NIU.

Unfortunately for B1G fans, we will have to hear this for years to come: ESPN and the College Football Playoff have Extended Their Exclusive Media Rights Agreement Through the 2031-32 Season. Lets hope that ORE, OSU, and PSU can live up to the talent on their rosters as there is no dominant team in the SEC this year. It would shut a lot of people up if the B1G could put together back to back Nattys.
 

Yeah, I heard this as well and thought it was so contrived and slanted. This was less about the B1G being weak/overrated and more about how unfair and random the scheduling will be in an 18 team league. I mean, I really hadn’t considered exactly how weak IU’s schedule was until this morning, but it was ridiculous. They didn’t play 6 of the top 8 teams (not counting themselves): Oregon, PSU, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Rutgers.

If you overlaid it against the SEC standings, IU finished in the same spot as Georgia and their conference schedule would’ve roughly been as follows:

Did Not Play: Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Texas AM, Ole Miss, Missouri, Arkansas
Played and Won: LSU, Florida, Vanderbilt, Oklahoma, Auburn, Kentucky, Miss St
Played and Lost: Alabama
 




Top Bottom