BAMANEWSBOT
Staff
Honk if you think that ESPN's partnership in the SEC Network means the Worldwide Leader in Sports is biased toward the Worldwide Leader in College Football.
I hear you, Bo Pelini. You, too, Jimbo Fisher.
I understand your concerns. I really do. ESPN and the SEC are business partners in the SEC Network so naturally they both want that venture to succeed. The relationship deserves some honest scrutiny.
But don't trade in your ballcaps for tinfoil hats just yet, boys.
ESPN has business relationships with every other Power 5 conference, too, as well as the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, etc., etc., etc. The network partners with a lot of leagues in a lot of sports, and it's long walked a fine line in trying to promote those partners from a marketing standpoint as well as cover them journalistically.
There's nothing wrong with holding the most powerful sports media company in the world to a high standard, but it's helpful to use facts in making accusations of bias.
ESPN attempted an awful lot of journalism on Cam Newton and Auburn and Johnny Manziel and Texas A&M, the two most prominent college football players of the last five years. Not all of that journalism was fair or accurate, but no one could suggest with a straight face that the network turned a blind or even a kind eye toward the issues involving Newton and Manziel.
The coverage of Jameis Winston, who happens to be the most prominent college football player of the last two years, has everything to do with what he's accomplished on the field and what he's been accused of off the field. It's not unlike the coverage of Newton and Manziel, and it has nothing to do with the conference Winston inhabits.
As for the notion that ESPN has something to do with the College Football Playoff committee putting three SEC teams in the top four or four in the top six by singing the league's praises at every turn, did it ever occur to the conspiracy theorists that the SEC has earned some respect on the field? Which league has won seven of the last eight national titles and came up just short of going 8 for 8?
Hint: It wasn't the Big Ten or the ACC.
Oh, and have you ever listened to Danny Kanell? Where did that SEC antagonist with a bully pulpit on ESPN play ball? That's right. Florida State.
Not that it really matters among true professionals, but have you ever noticed the college affiliations of the agenda setters on College GameDay? Look at the four big names who flanked host Chris Fowler during his rant last Saturday against the "stupid, uninformed" notion of ESPN cheerleading for the SEC.
Sure, David Pollack played at Georgia, but Kirk Herbstreit - ESPN's most prominent college football voice - played at Ohio State and Desmond Howard played at Michigan. Lee Corso played and coached at a number of schools, none of them in the SEC.
As for Fowler, he's a Colorado grad.
Look, ESPN doesn't need me to defend it. Fowler provided a pretty passionate defense of his employer, but as someone who gets amusingly accused of bias on a daily basis -you're a Barner; you're a Bammer - I feel his pain.
Oh, and one more point for the people who see black helicopters shuttling between the SEC footprint and Bristol, Conn. Everyone can agree that ESPN and its advertisers love ratings, right? In the ranking of the highest-rated BCS Championship Games, that All-SEC rematch between Alabama and LSU in January of 2012 was third from the bottom. Not exactly gold for anyone's bottom line.
So put that in your tinfoil hat and smoke it, preferably alongside some pork from SEC country. Like the college football played here, it's simply the best.
Continue reading...
I hear you, Bo Pelini. You, too, Jimbo Fisher.
I understand your concerns. I really do. ESPN and the SEC are business partners in the SEC Network so naturally they both want that venture to succeed. The relationship deserves some honest scrutiny.
But don't trade in your ballcaps for tinfoil hats just yet, boys.
ESPN has business relationships with every other Power 5 conference, too, as well as the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, etc., etc., etc. The network partners with a lot of leagues in a lot of sports, and it's long walked a fine line in trying to promote those partners from a marketing standpoint as well as cover them journalistically.
There's nothing wrong with holding the most powerful sports media company in the world to a high standard, but it's helpful to use facts in making accusations of bias.
ESPN attempted an awful lot of journalism on Cam Newton and Auburn and Johnny Manziel and Texas A&M, the two most prominent college football players of the last five years. Not all of that journalism was fair or accurate, but no one could suggest with a straight face that the network turned a blind or even a kind eye toward the issues involving Newton and Manziel.
The coverage of Jameis Winston, who happens to be the most prominent college football player of the last two years, has everything to do with what he's accomplished on the field and what he's been accused of off the field. It's not unlike the coverage of Newton and Manziel, and it has nothing to do with the conference Winston inhabits.
As for the notion that ESPN has something to do with the College Football Playoff committee putting three SEC teams in the top four or four in the top six by singing the league's praises at every turn, did it ever occur to the conspiracy theorists that the SEC has earned some respect on the field? Which league has won seven of the last eight national titles and came up just short of going 8 for 8?
Hint: It wasn't the Big Ten or the ACC.
Oh, and have you ever listened to Danny Kanell? Where did that SEC antagonist with a bully pulpit on ESPN play ball? That's right. Florida State.
Not that it really matters among true professionals, but have you ever noticed the college affiliations of the agenda setters on College GameDay? Look at the four big names who flanked host Chris Fowler during his rant last Saturday against the "stupid, uninformed" notion of ESPN cheerleading for the SEC.
Sure, David Pollack played at Georgia, but Kirk Herbstreit - ESPN's most prominent college football voice - played at Ohio State and Desmond Howard played at Michigan. Lee Corso played and coached at a number of schools, none of them in the SEC.
As for Fowler, he's a Colorado grad.
Look, ESPN doesn't need me to defend it. Fowler provided a pretty passionate defense of his employer, but as someone who gets amusingly accused of bias on a daily basis -you're a Barner; you're a Bammer - I feel his pain.
Oh, and one more point for the people who see black helicopters shuttling between the SEC footprint and Bristol, Conn. Everyone can agree that ESPN and its advertisers love ratings, right? In the ranking of the highest-rated BCS Championship Games, that All-SEC rematch between Alabama and LSU in January of 2012 was third from the bottom. Not exactly gold for anyone's bottom line.
So put that in your tinfoil hat and smoke it, preferably alongside some pork from SEC country. Like the college football played here, it's simply the best.
Continue reading...
