Jymkata
Member
There are threads with a similar tone on every message board so if you aren't interested in a rant against a national sports news outlet I won't be offended if you decide to read no further. Instead of being outraged that my favorite team or player doesn't get as much coverage as team X or player Y, I am really disturbed by what I saw this year (and especially as bowl season was winding down) as a legitimate conflict of interest.
Last night two top teams with relatively large fanbases played in a BCS bowl and one team clearly dominated the other one. The only thing that could have possibly kept this game from being newsworthy to an organization that prides itself on being "the leader in sports" and runs multiple channels that report on every piece of sports minutiae around the clock, everyday is that the game was played on a competitor network and/or there was a predetermined bias against the winner.
Yes, I am a Hawkeye homer, but I dvr'd every sports news show I could think of (Mike & Mike, First Take, College Football Live, Jim Rome is Burning, Around the Horn, Pardon the Interuption) and I was utterly amazed at how little coverage the game got.
***Mike & Mike spent about 2 minutes on the game - which I kind of expected since they only seem to care about pro sports and Notre Dame. Most of the 2 minutes was just because they had Kirk Herbstreit on and he got to talk about the Big Ten, after that they went into a much more detailed talk about the title game.
***First Take recapped the game quickly and gave a quick graphic about how poorly GT performed but for the entire TWO HOURS they spent about a minute or 2 on the game and the 1rst and 10 guys didn't even reference it as one of the 10 topics of the day! They did have a topic about the title game though!
***College Football Live (this was the one I figured would be my best bet) recapped the game waaayyy too quickly (showed the McNutt TD while the guy made a stupid McFly...hello...McFly joke, then showed GT score a TD to make it 17-14, showed the fake FG, and then showed Wegher TD "that put the game away") no talk about Iowa's defense or GT's offensive problems. If you would have only watched that recap you'd have said it was a very close game between two evenly matched teams. Holtz and May mumbled some quick comments and the other 56 minutes of the show were commercials and talk about the National Championship. Keep in mind this is an hour show whose only topic is college football and they can only manage a couple minutes for last night's BCS game.
***Jim Rome actually suprised me for a minute. On JRIB he made it his 2nd topic and ate a little crow about how he doubted that "6 months of preparation would be enough for us to be ready for GT". He then showed quite a few highlights of our guys stuffing the run and sacking Nesbitt and Edds interception. He then gave "props where props are due" to Norm Parker and the Hawkeyes. I say he suprised me for a minute because he then showed the fake fg, sarcastically called Ferentz "Captain Kirk" 4 or 5 times, and announced that "Captain Kirk you are no Chris Peterson" while insinuating that Parker and the defense saved him from his bad coaching. That was it for anything on the Orange Bowl but he did have guests talk about the National Championship game.
***Around The Horn made an offhand reference to it in the lightning round at the end of the show. It took maybe 20 seconds.
***Pardon the Interuption - I could have missed something but I don't think the Orange Bowl was a single one of the topics that they touched on.
Again, I understand that ESPN is much more interested in pro sports and the SEC because they and their affiliates make money on broadcasting SEC games, but how can a sports news agency cover so little of a major sporting event the morning after it happens on a slow Wednesday? I truly believe that if the Big Ten had been losing bowl games this year and had GT beat Iowa that the game would have been a bigger story, but the conference and Iowa have continuously embarassed pundits this year who have confidently predicted big losses for us.
Growing up in the 80's and going to college in the 90's, ESPN became something I tuned into quite a bit simply because there weren't a lot of choices. It has amazed me how differently I view that organization now. I remember thinking Stuart Scott, Keith Olbermann, and Dan Patrick were cool once upon a time and that Chris Berman and Jim Rome were funny. I can honestly say I detest the whole "ESPN schtick" now. The lame puns and catchphrases irritate me, I turn off the tv the minute I hear Berman's voice. I can't stand Rome. Stuart Scott seems pathetic. Olbermann is insane and possibly the most arrogant guy on earth. Their "experts" like Colin Cowherd and Pat Forde are so annoyed with Hawkeye nation that they come off as unprofessional in their columns and on their shows. Basketball is impossible to enjoy with all the former Dukies and Tar Heels (or Dukie V wannabes) pulling for the ACC.
I could live with all this if it was just a part of them targeting young viewers but if the news coverage stayed solid. Sadly, there are many better resources to use for that information nowadays and this latest slight against the team, the conference, and the sport that I hold most dear has become too blatant to ignore.....So bye bye Bristol. That's it, rant over
Last night two top teams with relatively large fanbases played in a BCS bowl and one team clearly dominated the other one. The only thing that could have possibly kept this game from being newsworthy to an organization that prides itself on being "the leader in sports" and runs multiple channels that report on every piece of sports minutiae around the clock, everyday is that the game was played on a competitor network and/or there was a predetermined bias against the winner.
Yes, I am a Hawkeye homer, but I dvr'd every sports news show I could think of (Mike & Mike, First Take, College Football Live, Jim Rome is Burning, Around the Horn, Pardon the Interuption) and I was utterly amazed at how little coverage the game got.
***Mike & Mike spent about 2 minutes on the game - which I kind of expected since they only seem to care about pro sports and Notre Dame. Most of the 2 minutes was just because they had Kirk Herbstreit on and he got to talk about the Big Ten, after that they went into a much more detailed talk about the title game.
***First Take recapped the game quickly and gave a quick graphic about how poorly GT performed but for the entire TWO HOURS they spent about a minute or 2 on the game and the 1rst and 10 guys didn't even reference it as one of the 10 topics of the day! They did have a topic about the title game though!
***College Football Live (this was the one I figured would be my best bet) recapped the game waaayyy too quickly (showed the McNutt TD while the guy made a stupid McFly...hello...McFly joke, then showed GT score a TD to make it 17-14, showed the fake FG, and then showed Wegher TD "that put the game away") no talk about Iowa's defense or GT's offensive problems. If you would have only watched that recap you'd have said it was a very close game between two evenly matched teams. Holtz and May mumbled some quick comments and the other 56 minutes of the show were commercials and talk about the National Championship. Keep in mind this is an hour show whose only topic is college football and they can only manage a couple minutes for last night's BCS game.
***Jim Rome actually suprised me for a minute. On JRIB he made it his 2nd topic and ate a little crow about how he doubted that "6 months of preparation would be enough for us to be ready for GT". He then showed quite a few highlights of our guys stuffing the run and sacking Nesbitt and Edds interception. He then gave "props where props are due" to Norm Parker and the Hawkeyes. I say he suprised me for a minute because he then showed the fake fg, sarcastically called Ferentz "Captain Kirk" 4 or 5 times, and announced that "Captain Kirk you are no Chris Peterson" while insinuating that Parker and the defense saved him from his bad coaching. That was it for anything on the Orange Bowl but he did have guests talk about the National Championship game.
***Around The Horn made an offhand reference to it in the lightning round at the end of the show. It took maybe 20 seconds.
***Pardon the Interuption - I could have missed something but I don't think the Orange Bowl was a single one of the topics that they touched on.
Again, I understand that ESPN is much more interested in pro sports and the SEC because they and their affiliates make money on broadcasting SEC games, but how can a sports news agency cover so little of a major sporting event the morning after it happens on a slow Wednesday? I truly believe that if the Big Ten had been losing bowl games this year and had GT beat Iowa that the game would have been a bigger story, but the conference and Iowa have continuously embarassed pundits this year who have confidently predicted big losses for us.
Growing up in the 80's and going to college in the 90's, ESPN became something I tuned into quite a bit simply because there weren't a lot of choices. It has amazed me how differently I view that organization now. I remember thinking Stuart Scott, Keith Olbermann, and Dan Patrick were cool once upon a time and that Chris Berman and Jim Rome were funny. I can honestly say I detest the whole "ESPN schtick" now. The lame puns and catchphrases irritate me, I turn off the tv the minute I hear Berman's voice. I can't stand Rome. Stuart Scott seems pathetic. Olbermann is insane and possibly the most arrogant guy on earth. Their "experts" like Colin Cowherd and Pat Forde are so annoyed with Hawkeye nation that they come off as unprofessional in their columns and on their shows. Basketball is impossible to enjoy with all the former Dukies and Tar Heels (or Dukie V wannabes) pulling for the ACC.
I could live with all this if it was just a part of them targeting young viewers but if the news coverage stayed solid. Sadly, there are many better resources to use for that information nowadays and this latest slight against the team, the conference, and the sport that I hold most dear has become too blatant to ignore.....So bye bye Bristol. That's it, rant over
