Espn's control on College Football

[LOVEMYIRISH]

Yes, everyone is begging for a playoff after the debacle, but my gripe is that whoever ESPN endorses as far as the BCS or Heisman Trophy race always seems to end up the winner. I can not justify LSU at 2 no matter how many different logical ways I try to accomplish it. Jesse Palmer and Kirk Herbstriet are all over LSU's nuts last night, and what do you know, second in the coaches poll with 11 first place votes. THIS PISSES ME OFF! the sec gets way too much credit in situations like this.

I was watching ESPN at the end of the WVU game. The question was asked "what happens now?"

Each of the analysts said "Well, LSU has to move up to #2."

No mention was made of Virginia Tech.

What the hell?

 

[onenybrother]

Kirk apologize to Les

Kirk apologize to Les

ESPN's Herbstreit on inaccurate Miles-U-M report: I will never gather news and report again
December 4, 2007

ESPN and ABC analyst Kirk Herbstreit talked with WDFN-AM Monday about his erroneous report. Herbstreit reported Saturday morning, citing an anonymous source, that coach Les Miles was taking the job at Michigan. Miles agreed to stay with LSU on Saturday.

On if he was surprised that he became the biggest name in sports last Saturday:

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I wasn’t real comfortable with it that’s for sure. I leave it to the professionals to break stories, guys like you and the media and guys that are a little bit more comfortable in that role.

On not being a breaking news guy

I would much rather talk about what teams are doing on the field. One thing I can assure you, you will never see me gathering news and reporting information ever again.

On why he came out with the story

Honestly, the best way to describe it is by the time Friday came around I had some information that trust me on this it was very accurate base on not a source but someone that was going to be involved in the situation. I made the mistake, I guess telling the ESPN bosses it and in doing that they are journalists and they said you’ve got an obligation to talk about that and go with it. You guys know, I as a former player really pride myself on my relationships with coaches and players and just not real comfortable in breaking stories, leave that up to Pat Forde and the others to do that stuff. When they talked about that and really thought it over and over because it was going to happen they didn’t want to get beat on the story and they suggested that I go with it.

On LSU making a huge money offer to keep Miles

I applaud LSU. For having your players sitting around the hotel, you could imagine what was going on in their mind. They decided to get proactive and beat Michigan to the punch and decided to try to lock him in and kind of force him to make a decision probably before he was ready to do so and said listen we cannot afford to have this thing continue to linger, let’s put this to bed once and for all, you know are you with us or against us and decided to have an impromptu press conference, came to some type of agreement evidently and had the press conference and you could see the emotion on the face of Les Miles when he talked to the media and ended up going out and blocking out all of the distractions and winning the game.

On his apology to Miles

I called Les late that night after the Missouri-Oklahoma game and really called for nothing else but to apologize for it becoming such a huge story, such a distraction for him his team to have to have to deal with. It was never my intent, so that was the one thing that I regretted it became such a significant story everywhere, everywhere you turned.

On if you think you made a mistake bringing it out on Saturday:

I think it’s ironic that people from LSU think that I deliberately tried to create a disturbance for them to get ready for an SEC title game and Michigan people think that I tried to prevent them from getting their coach. Are you out of your mind? That’s like bizarre that somebody would actually think that I did that. I didn’t even think about that until people brought that up that people would actually consider that. I simply had a very, very; I wouldn’t even call the person I talked to a source. It was somebody that was going to be involved directly in this move.

On if there was strategy behind LSU to flush out Michigan.

I really believe that he was going to be announced as Michigan’s coach and I think that LSU felt that they were tired of hearing about this and the fact that it was on national TV and the players are sitting around and theirs all this speculation. They needed to do something quickly and they did, give them credit and they have a long term relationship it appears now with Les Miles.

On how people think he’s biased because he’s a Buckeye

One of these years people are going to realize, I went to school at Ohio State, I was a captain at Ohio State, my kids love the Buckeyes. … I’m an analyst. I don’t care, I really don’t care. I don’t have a hard time removing myself from Ohio State. I don’t have a hard time saying great things about USC or Michigan or Florida State. To me, I am evaluating teams and players. I don’t see things through the eyes of a scarlet and grey former player. I know that is really hard for people to grasp but anybody’s whose listened to be the past 12 years, I really don’t care. … My loyalty is to ESPN and ABC and being an analyst, not to Ohio State.

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[Sureal]

I for one like Kirk. Please don't Stone me. But out of most of those guys he usually is the one that makes the most sense when he talks.

Ok I'll shimmy back into my corner...

 

[kjones]

I for one like Kirk. Please don't Stone me. But out of most of those guys he usually is the one that makes the most sense when he talks.

Ok I'll shimmy back into my corner...

See Stoney, this is what you do to people. Poor Sureal is so scared you're gonna do something mean to him that he stays in the corner all day. He even made your name into a verb! Bad Stoney!

 

[solo]

Herbie is the best college football analayst out there. How could you not like him? In fact, I love ESPN. It is a network dedicated to sports...nuff said.

For those that think ESPN has an anti-ND agenda...that's just plain stupid. Why would ESPN alientate itself from the biggest name is college football? They report negatively on ND when it gets them ratings and postiively on ND when that gets them ratings. Presently, they have an ND homer in Holtz and an ND hater in May. That's the ultimate for them because they get to play both sides of the ND coin.

Anyway, back to Herbie. Whether you like ESPN or not, how can you not like Herbie?

 

[Sureal]

Solo,

They are the only network out there that covers CFB fully. They are the only ones.
We have no choice, we've been program.

ESPN=1984.

 

[ColonialHead]

To give you an idea of my thoughts on ESPN, here is an excerpt from my latest blog. The blog wasn't about ESPN, it was about the BCS system, but one of my reasons for not supporting a playoff is:

1.) It makes the talking heads over at ABC/Disney/ESPNBA irate. And for a solid month their broadcasting is reduced to a bunch of fast talking used car salesmen in sharkskin suits whining about "the system". This makes ESPN look like the driveling, unprofessional d-bags that they are, and makes me extremely happy.

My hatred for ESPN can be summed up by understanding the monopoly they hold on sports entertainment in this country. Have you ever tried to find something on the tube about sports and not end up on one of the 5000 ESPN channels? Occasionally you can find quality programming on the Fox Sports Network or CSTV, but ultimately, they can't compete with the monopoly that is ESPN. The end result with both FSN and CSTV is usually something along the lines of Colgate versus Andrew Jackson Community College in women's lacrosse. Not that there's anything wrong with women's lacrosse...

I probably wouldn't mind being stuck with the "Worldwide Leader in Nothing" if they didn't employ smarmy, slicked back, fast talking Gomers like Tony Reali, Jim Rome and Skip Bayless. Ultimately though, that is what sells to the 11-17 year old demographic. The sports crazed youth of this country then take what they hear from one of the many ridiculous ESPNBA personalities and regurgitate it amongst their friends at school or on some internet message forum like it is bible truth.

As long as we are on the topic of ESPNFL, did anybody watch the bowl announcement special on Sunday night? I would have avoided it, but like I said earlier, there wasn't another channel with coverage of the event, so I was forced to tune into ESPN and endure the College Gameday crew for three additional hours. Of course, the Gameday crew is probably the one group I can stand on ESPN. At the very least I get to watch Lou Holtz shed a few pearls of wisdom and take some subtle shots at the other losers on the panel.

My favorite part of the special was the June Jones phone interview, when he called Tim Tebow a "system passer". I actually agree with Coach Jones on this one, Tebow is a system quarterback. Reeses Pieces got his panties in a bunch when June Jones made the comment and you just knew that this would become a hot topic for the next three weeks. Not that it is a hot topic, but ESPN is trying to deflect attention from the fact that they completely mishandled and misreported the "Les Miles to Michigan" story, so the best way to do that is to turn some other poor slob into this week's jackass. June Jones opened the door for it, and ESPN wasted no time jumping through. Sure enough, within the first ten minutes of ESPN's return from commercial break, Herbstreit was on his soap box complaining about how June Jones "ripped" Tim Tebow in order to elevate Colt Brennan. The only problem is that people are still more interested in talking about Les Miles and the Michigan job than June Jones' opinion of Tim Tebow.

As for Les Miles, I found it mildly amusing that Herbstreit didn't take the opportunity to talk with Miles about it on the announcement special. Wouldn't that have been the perfect time to clear the air and set the record straight? They had Herbstreit on the panel and Miles as a guest on the show, so why did Reece Davis do all the talking? I think the answer is obvious. Good job once again to ESPN. It's much easier to avoid the subject then muster up the journalistic nuts to broach it on the air with all of the involved parties in attendance.

C-head's Blog

 

[solo]

Solo,

They are the only network out there that covers CFB fully. They are the only ones.
We have no choice, we've been program.

ESPN=1984.

I agree that we don't have options when it comes to all sports programming.

But I take the attitude that I am thankful for the one option we do have rather than upset that we don't have more options. My grandfather listened to one college football game per week on radio. I have a network that covers every inch of college football and can see a plethora of games every week on all the majors stations.

And you know, this is America and can some filthy rich TV execs COULD start a competitive channel if they wanted...Until that happens, my TV will stay on ESPN and I will be happy for the coverage they provide.