ESPN Pimping SEC

[Randolph Duke 4034]

26 minutes ago, JWinTX said:

I disagree on OU getting into the B1G. Since Nebraska is no longer AAU, that precedent has been set. And they will just pimp out that they take in more National Merit Scholars than anyone else to help ease in. The worst kept secret is the idea that OU and KU are the B1G's next combo to get to 16. 

Why is "16" a magic number? Why even be in a conference if you only play some of the other schools once a decade?

The most likely scenario is that a school's football, basketball, baseball, and Olympic sports all have the option of aligning in different "conferences" for different sports. That will allow schools with similar economic interests to maximize those interests. Like I said earlier, if Univ of Alabama can be in the SEC for most sports and in the Big 12 for others, who not recreate alliances along the economic interests of each individual sport?

The conference network experiment failed to deliver the money that was hoped for. Many conferences are going to struggle as schools cut the number of sports they compete in. Assuming the current conference structure will survive intact is a pipe dream.

Moving forward, at the top-tier level I can see about 70 programs in football, 325 in basketball, and about 50 in baseball. That will be the major program participation level after 2025.

[DanRydell 799]

14 hours ago, notre dame joe said:

So ESPN nearly sextupled the price of those 15 broadcast games and bought nothing else?

They also bought the right to move up to 14 OOC football games and 28 OOC men's basketball games to ESPN+

[Hurtlocker 2219]

I'm kind of done with conferences.   I think they're day is coming.   All it will take is for two of them to realize they make more money combining than not and it will be the beginning of the end.

[Hurtlocker 2219]

3 hours ago, DanRydell said:

They also bought the right to move up to 14 OOC football games and 28 OOC men's basketball games to ESPN+

Yeah and the biggest piece was they can put that #1 SEC game on whenever they want, unlike CBS, which I'm willing to wager will primarily end up in primetime.

[Thiefery 5110]

6 hours ago, Randolph Duke said:

What point are you trying to make?

The current composition of the Big 12 is based on decisions made in the 1990s. Much has changed since then. The considerations made when creating the Big 12 have little to do with the decisions to be made during the next round of realignment.

Most states in the SEC footprint spend below the national average on secondary education. This affects their ability to prepare students for post-secondary education. Look at the state of Alabama. They can't find enough in-state kid capable of handling the level of education offered at Univ of Alabama (which isn't exactly rigorous). Bama relies heavily on out-of-state students to provide sufficient white-collar graduates to sustain the state's economy.

The Higher Education Coordinating Board wouldn't permit UT Austin to pivot to more closely align with the SEC schools. Texas has A&M for that purpose. UT has a completely different purpose, much more closely aligned with the national, academic universities.

I get it now..  Texas wants to stay in the cool club..gotcha

Edited December 11, 2020 by Thiefery

[notre dame joe 205]

6 minutes ago, Hurtlocker said:

I'm kind of done with conferences.   I think they're day is coming.   All it will take is for two of them to realize they make more money combining than not and it will be the beginning of the end.

 

5 minutes ago, Hurtlocker said:

Yeah and the biggest piece was they can put that #1 SEC game on whenever they want, unlike CBS, which I'm willing to wager will primarily end up in primetime.

The implication being that ESPN will move something like Ole Miss @ UTenn to ESPN+ to boost subscriptions?

[Hurtlocker 2219]

1 minute ago, notre dame joe said:

 

The implication being that ESPN will move something like Ole Miss @ UTenn to ESPN+ to boost subscriptions?

Yes.  Disney+ has over 80m subscribers, growing faster than ESPN did, and its going to continue to swell.   ESPN+ is at around 15m I think.  They want to get at least half of Disney, if not match.

[DanRydell 799]

12 minutes ago, notre dame joe said:

 

The implication being that ESPN will move something like Ole Miss @ UTenn to ESPN+ to boost subscriptions?

They can only move OOC games but it does mean they could put something like Florida-Florida State or South Carolina-Clemson on ESPN+ next season (or maybe they'll just toss the FCS games on there).

[Randolph Duke 4034]

1 hour ago, Thiefery said:

I get it now..  Texas wants to stay in the cool club..gotcha

There is a reason public post-secondary institutions are subsidized by taxpayers - mostly to support the economy of the individual states. Schools such as Tech, U of H, Stephen F, etc are tasked with supporting the regional economies around them. A&M is the state's trade school. UT Austin has always been charged with supplying the white-collar professional leadership and political leadership. The Higher Education Coordinating Board is charged with ensuring programs aren't wastefully duplicated.

Look at the THECB Almanac and one can see the difference in how the various schools are funded. Per full-time student equivalent (the unit of measure used to allocate funding), A&M is funded at $31,500/student ($10,000 provided by tuition, the rest from public funds). For U of H, the per student funding is $28,500. Tech - $21,571. Prairie View - $28,350. For UT Austin - $54,800.

Do the math (subtract out the $10,000 for tuition) and you arrive at the fact UT Austin is funded by the public at twice the level of Texas A&M ($44k/student at UT vs $21,500 for A&M). A&M has 65,000 students on its campus and its operating budget is more than $1B less than that for UT Austin, which has over 20% fewer students. With the med school in full operation, UT Austin will soon be the second individual institution within the UT System whose operating budget is more than the academic budget of the entire Texas A&M System.

Obviously, there is an understanding on the part of the Higher Educating Coordinating Board and the state legislature that the educational experience offered at UT Austin is fundamentally different than that at other schools in the state, especially Texas A&M.

It has nothing to do with "the cool club." The fact is that UT Austin fulfills a completely separate function in supporting the economy of Texas than the other schools. In that light, what sense would it make to have UT Austin simply replicate the "discount" experience of Texas A&M and to affiliate with SEC farm schools and regionally-focused state universities?

It has long served the interests of the people of Texas that UT Austin and Texas A&M have long fulfilled two very different roles in supplying educated workers to the Texas economy. Below is an excerpt from the A&M System financials for this academic year. Under "TOTALS" look at "Research."  A&M represents the entire total of research for the entire system (both academic research and unaffiliated state agency research) as coming entirely from the College Station Campus. In reality, the academic research of the entire Texas A&M System is less than that conducted on the UT Austin campus. In both academic instruction and academic research, UT Austin far outpaces Texas A&M. The two have completely separate functions.

Texas A&M does well being affiliated with the schools of the Southeastern Conference. Since its establishment, Texas A&M has been the agricultural branch college of The University of Texas and the state's de facto trade school. That UT Austin would continue to be be the state's premier academic institution (as it always has) and to be closely associated with the nation's more esteemed academic institutions is perfectly understandable.

It's not about "the cool club." It's about how public post-secondary education in Texas is structured.

Edited December 11, 2020 by Randolph Duke

[kopp0e 1135]

17 hours ago, JWinTX said:

I disagree on OU getting into the B1G. Since Nebraska is no longer AAU, that precedent has been set. And they will just pimp out that they take in more National Merit Scholars than anyone else to help ease in. The worst kept secret is the idea that OU and KU are the B1G's next combo to get to 16. 

Oklahoma isn't about to split away from a state with about 30 million folks, B1G has no recruiting pipelines (as seen by the Nebraska issues)...
Oklahoma & Texas in SEC, or navigate a raid of Washington/ Oregon/ USC/ UCLA/ Arizona/ Arizona State/ Utah/ Colorado & maybe Huskers...

But as to SEC & Disney deal, the biggest news to me is that ESPN+ will now hold rights to all SEC teams to place content on the streaming app...

[Aqua Buddha 14809]

On 12/10/2020 at 5:16 PM, LTtxfan said:

SEC on ABC: ESPN to be exclusive TV home, starting 2024

AP

The Southeastern Conference's signature mid-afternoon Saturday game will move from CBS to ABC starting in 2024 as part of a new 10-year contract with ESPN and the powerhouse football league announced Thursday.

The deal makes ESPN the exclusive media rights holder of SEC football and men's basketball, and will end the conference's relationship with CBS after three decades. CBS has been airing the league's Saturday afternoon centerpiece game and football championship since 1996.

“The SEC has now, has had and will have a 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time broadcast network game. The change will be from CBS to ABC,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey told AP. “So that’s a point of consistency.”

The SEC championship game will also air on ABC.

The SEC and ESPN are already in the midst of a 20-year deal that includes a partnership on the SEC Network. The new deal will line up so both will end at the same time.

The difference in the new deal: The mid-afternoon game is less likely to be the SEC's game of the week. For the first time, ESPN will be able to place SEC games in its Saturday prime-time slot, too.

"So Saturday night, prime time on ABC is the highest profile window, the biggest stage in terms of college football. And we love the fact that we can now bring the ABC platform into the mix, starting in 2024,” ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro told AP.

Sports Business Journal first reported a year ago the SEC and ESPN were moving toward a partnership. The deal would likely have been announced sooner if not for the pandemic.

The SEC's contract with CBS was worth about $55 million per year to the conference.

Both Sankey and Pitaro declined to reveal financial terms, but Sports Business Journal reported the new deal will be worth more than $300 million annually — an amount confirmed to The AP by a person familiar with the agreement on condition of anonymity because the value of the contract is private.

The new deal also gives ESPN the right to place one nonconference football game and two nonconference basketball games from each school per season on ESPN+, the network's subscription-based online streaming service. The company said ESPN+ has 11.5 million subscribers.

“It’s a recognition of ... the changing dynamics around media availability and media consumption,” Sankey said.

Sankey said moving the SEC's media rights under one roof will allow the conference to set start times for more games much farther out. The conference hopes that's a boon for both TV and online viewers as well as fans going to the games.

“I think more than half of our games we can set up (kick-off times) during the summer,” Sankey said. “They’re still going to be some of the 12-day and even maybe narrower adjustments, but those will be limited."

Unlike most major spectator sports, the vast majority of game times in college football are set within two weeks of kickoff. The lack of lead time is a frequent complaint from fans across the country and has contributed to dips in college football attendance.

"It’s common sense, but we have just not operated that way in college football,” Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said. "There is still going to be a lot of flexibility for our partners to adjust and put the more interesting games in the highest-profile windows, but it's a good balance what the league has worked out with Disney.

“It's going to allow fans to have a lot more clarity on when their favorite team's going to be playing a lot earlier ahead of time.”

Sankey said schools will be allowed to set kickoff times for games shown exclusively on ESPN+.

There has been speculation the SEC could buy out part of the remaining three years of its current deal with CBS and hasten the move to ESPN. Asked about that possibility, Sankey said the SEC and its members “look forward to maintaining our strong relationship” with CBS.

ESPN already has exclusive rights to the Atlantic Coast Conference, which also has a network partnership with ESPN, and the American Athletic Conference.

ESPN holds at least partial rights with almost every FBS conference, including the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12.

Pitaro said adding more SEC inventory to ESPN's portfolio would not deter the network from being involved with other conferences when deals come up in the not-so-distant future.

The Pac-12's current deals with Fox and ESPN expire in 2024; the Big 12's end in 2025; and the Big Ten's latest contracts with ESPN, Fox and CBS run through 2023.

“College sports in general will remain a huge priority for ESPN as we move forward,” Pitaro said. “And as each individual deal comes up for renewal, we treat it on a case-by-case basis."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2020/12/10/sec-on-abc-espn-to-be-exclusive-tv-home-starting-2024/43265789/

This is even more interesting in light of Disney's streaming package, which would include ESPN+.  They push the lower tier games to streaming and let the respective schools schedule their own kickoff times.  (Eat shit and die 11 a.m. kickoffs.)  Force the fans that want all the games into the streaming package and that recoups a lot the money being spent on the CBS games.  ABC/ESPN now has a better game in the prime time spot than it did before.

Throw in the other sports onto the streaming package and it makes a lot of sense.  The SEC Network will likely just move to ESPN+.

[RoyalBevo21 961]

https://www.al.com/sec/2020/12/inside-the-secs-decision-to-leave-cbs-for-espn.html

 

Inside the SEC’s decision to leave CBS for ESPN

After being announced as the next Southeastern Conference commissioner in March 2015, Greg Sankey immediately started thinking about his conference’s next media rights deal.

ESPN had the majority of the SEC’s rights locked up through 2034, but the fate of the SEC on CBS package, considered the crown jewel of college football, had long been a source of intense speculation within the sports TV industry. For years, CBS benefited from one of the sweetest deals in sports TV, paying a mere $55 million annually to get the SEC’s weekly top game plus the SEC Championship.


After losing long-trusted TV advisor Chuck Gerber, who passed away that same year, Sankey opted to take his time and do his due diligence. In 2018, the SEC hired Evolution Media’s Alan Gold and CAA’s Nick Khan to guide the conference through the future media landscape. He consulted trusted deputies Charlie Hussey and Mark Womack as the senior SEC leadership weighed all of their options.


After years of consideration, Sankey and the SEC came to the conclusion it was time to go all-in with ESPN.


In a deal announced Thursday, though agreed to nearly a year ago, the premier package in college sports is leaving CBS for ESPN starting in 2024-25. Exact terms of the 10-year deal were not released though sources told AL.com the agreement is for upwards of $300 million annually, a massive increase from CBS’ price.


A key component of the deal will be a weekly SEC game on ABC, giving the league a much-desired broadcast platform once it leaves CBS. That will include a regular late afternoon kick like the SEC on CBS time slot but also the ability to feature the games in primetime for ABC’s Saturday Night Football. The strategy will be to “put the biggest games in the biggest places in front of the most people,” Burke Magnus, ESPN’s executive vice president of programming and scheduling, told AL.com in an interview.


RELATED: Winners and losers of SEC football leaving CBS


Magnus and his ESPN colleagues eyed the top SEC game package for years, waiting for their chance to pitch their plan to the SEC. Sources told AL.com last year landing the entire SEC inventory had long been a major priority for the company. Magnus had buy-in and support from his boss, ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro, and the big boss, former Disney CEO Bob Iger, to pursue a deal. When the conference indicated in 2019 it was ready to have that discussion, Magnus said, “We were ready when the phone call came.”



Beyond the massive cash component, a big selling point was the scheduling flexibility that would come with the SEC only having one scheduling partner. Magnus described it as a “one plus one equals three dynamic” where having every football game helped ESPN offer better distribution and exposure that no other entity could offer the SEC. One expected benefit is the league could schedule game times much further in advance without having to wait on CBS’ game of the week pick.


The opportunity to maintain a traditional broadcast spot plus the flexibility that comes with ESPN, the SEC Network and ESPN+ was too good for the SEC to pass up. Starting next year, ESPN+ can also air one non-conference game per school and up to two non-conference basketball games.


“All of those were important elements of this conversation and led us down the path to decide that the affiliation with the Disney brand, with ABC and ESPN, was going to be the right opportunity for our future,” Sankey told AL.com.


One of the looming questions over the deal will be if it will take until 2024 to go into effect. After ESPN closed in on acquiring the SEC rights last year, there was considerable industry speculation that it would also try to buy out CBS early from its contract with the SEC. According to sources, that desire hasn’t gone away, but no high-level discussions have taken place to this point. Magnus didn’t deny there was interest, though he pointed out it was “entirely outside of our control.”


“We’re not anticipating necessarily, but this partnership is so important to us that if there was an opportunity to discuss something in that regard, we’re open to that conversation,” Magnus said. “But only if it’s a positive development for all the parties.”


Sankey added, “CBS obviously continues to be an important relationship for the SEC and has been for many years, and even in this odd year of 2020, that remains. Our focus has been on the three years remaining in our agreements...and that’s really how we’ve looked at the situation, both at present and as we go forward.”


Once the deal goes into effect, it’ll be a significant financial boon for all 14 SEC schools. The SEC schools, which received more than $45 million last fiscal year, will receive at least an additional $15 million from this new deal alone. For ESPN, it will finally get the chance to televise every game it wants, from the Iron Bowl to Florida-Georgia, that CBS had picked for itself for the last two-plus decades.


“I think increasingly the media business is about must-have content,” John Kosner, president of Kosner Media and a former ESPN executive, told AL.com. “Not just having a lot of stuff, but having the stuff everyone wants to watch. The SEC games every week that CBS had are examples.”

[RoyalBevo21 961]

Winners and losers from SEC football leaving CBS

The aftershocks of Friday’s news that CBS was dropping out of the running for the Southeastern Conference’s television rights are just beginning to be felt.

After a more than two decade relationship, CBS decided it made more sense to invest its money elsewhere as the price tag around the SEC TV rights soared amid a reported large bid from Disney/ESPN. No official deal has been reached yet but the expectation is after the 2023 football season, all of the SEC’s rights will be under the same umbrella with Disney/ESPN.



What does that mean? AL.com takes an early look at the big winners and losers from CBS’ decision to walk away and the likely outcome of the negotiations.


WINNERS:


Disney/ESPN


If Disney/ESPN lands the premier SEC football package, as is widely expected in the aftermath of CBS bowing out, it is the clear biggest winner of this situation. ESPN already had a close relationship with the conference, including launching the SEC Network, but annually missed out on marquee games like the Iron Bowl, the World’s Largest Cocktail Party and the SEC Championship. Landing these rights gives the company all that plus increased scheduling flexibility and no need to coordinate with CBS each week on time slots. It should also lead to increased advertisements and sponsorships as companies now know they have to go through Disney/ESPN if they want their products associated with the SEC’s televised games.


Greg Sankey


The SEC commissioner hadn’t had to make a groundbreaking decision until now after taking over the job from Mike Slive in 2015. This could be one of the defining moves of Sankey’s tenure, and while some might be upset about moving away from CBS, the SEC commissioner has his league primed to receive a massive financial windfall with this upcoming deal. Insiders said Sankey has been instrumental behind the scenes working to build consensus among the league’s chancellors and presidents for this move.



Paul Finebaum


Already the face of ESPN’s SEC coverage, Finebaum becomes even more valuable to the network as it readies to invest hundreds of millions more into the conference. Finebaum is heavily utilized on SEC Network and ESPN and should factor in to however the company decides to handle these big SEC games. With reports of Finebaum meeting with former ESPN boss John Skipper about a possible role at DAZN, it becomes even more imperative for ESPN brass to keep the SEC’s dominant voice for when it officially acquires the rights.


Gary Danielson haters


The Gary Danielson haters, of which there are many, were delighted by Friday’s news that the SEC games would be leaving CBS after 2023. CBS’ primary SEC analyst isn’t exactly a fan favorite -- some of the criticism is admittedly overblown -- and his legion of haters now know they only have to watch a few more seasons of the former Purdue quarterback. With an expiration date now attached, it will be interesting to see if CBS lets Danielson finish out the contract or if it makes a change for a younger analyst as it recently has with its PGA Tour coverage.


Inside the SEC on CBS contract discussions

LOSERS:


CBS


The obvious loser here is CBS which has broadcasted the SEC’s premier games since 1996. The network has long had an extremely advantageous deal with the SEC, only paying $55 million annually for the weekly top game, and wanted to keep the relationship going but wasn’t willing to go above $300 million for the TV rights. Instead, CBS will bank the money for what should be a highly competitive -- and expensive -- bidding war to keep its AFC NFL rights. CBS still has the NCAA Tournament and the annual Army/Navy game but will essentially be out of the college football business in 2023 unless it adds a different conference’s rights. Even if CBS does add college football rights -- the Pac-12′s deal comes up in 2024 -- nothing it adds will do the monster ratings the SEC consistently delivered for the network.


ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12


These three conferences will all fall even further behind the SEC (and the Big Ten) as the league is expected to get a huge financial deal likely upwards of $330 million. Starting in 2023, SEC schools should get at least $65 million each and that number could easily be $70 million, more than double what Pac-12 schools received in 2019. Further, all three of these conferences will lose relevance and exposure with ESPN as it becomes even more financially invested in the SEC. Disney/ESPN will be financially compelled to push the SEC even harder which isn’t great news for the other conferences.


FAANG + DAZN


There has been years of speculation that an alternative or over the top platform would make a major play for live sports TV rights but yet again a premier property is expected to stay with a traditional partner. Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google were never serious contenders for these rights, and the SEC was never going to give its best games to an OTT platform like DAZN. OTT might be the future given the way major companies are investing in their own platforms but the traditional players still carry weight for the big TV rights.

[Mdhorn 6166]

SEC, it just pays more.

[atomheartbevo 90670]

20 minutes ago, RoyalBevo21 said:

These three conferences will all fall even further behind the SEC (and the Big Ten) as the league is expected to get a huge financial deal likely upwards of $330 million. Starting in 2023, SEC schools should get at least $65 million each and that number could easily be $70 million, more than double what Pac-12 schools received in 2019. Further, all three of these conferences will lose relevance and exposure with ESPN as it becomes even more financially invested in the SEC. Disney/ESPN will be financially compelled to push the SEC even harder which isn’t great news for the other conferences.

I'm not going to be surprised if Amazon or Netflix makes a play.    And Disney could make a play for another conference and put them on Hulu, to sell Hulu subscriptions.  They are now keen to stream the fuck out of everything.

Not the PAC I mean, that conference is a dumpster fire.

[Mdhorn 6166]

No way Nike lets Oregon drift.  There's still some major money that could make plays.  Bezios reminds me of Galactus right now--for the comic nerds.  He really could toss money around and build whatever he wants.  Also, the ACC and Pac have a lot of college basketball history, so it'd be strange to watch them disintegrate.

[Macanudo 13338]

The idea of Amazon or Netflix getting involved in CFB makes me think of the scene In Big when Tom Hanks (CFB fans) says to the other executives (in this case, Amazon/Netflix fucking around with this idea) at the meeting: I dont get it.  What you're doing makes no sense. 

[Parliament 14618]

The advent of streaming services was supposed to free us from the cable company mafia racket, where I need some big expensive "package" to get the BTN. We got freed alright, but just sent to new masters.

[RoyalBevo21 961]

4 minutes ago, Parliament said:

The advent of streaming services was supposed to free us from the cable company mafia racket, where I need some big expensive "package" to get the BTN. We got freed alright, but just sent to new masters.

Streaming is just cable all over again. They all have their own apps and only allow original content on their platform. 

[Kyle 207]

3 minutes ago, RoyalBevo21 said:

Streaming is just cable all over again. They all have their own apps and only allow original content on their platform. 

I keep laughing that in a year someone is going to come out with an amazing new app that will consolidate all of your streaming content into a single platform. I already am over all the platforms and signing in and yada yada yada.

A great example like Blockbuster-Netflix or Kodak-digital cameras ... old institutions resisting change .. not sure why cable didn't break its own system 10 years ago and let everyone charge by channel, even if each had a different price - $2 for ESPN and $25 for Lifetime.

[RoyalBevo21 961]

9 hours ago, Parliament said:

The advent of streaming services was supposed to free us from the cable company mafia racket, where I need some big expensive "package" to get the BTN. We got freed alright, but just sent to new masters.

Double post

Edited January 5, 2021 by RoyalBevo21

[satyanash 15656]

  Ben Axelrod: ESPN’s College Football Playoff coverage makes for a miserable, negative experience

Quote

College campuses hosted FBS playoff games for the first time this weekend. But instead of celebrating the first-of-its-kind matchups and incredible scenes, ESPN spent the entire weekend bashing schools, criticizing fans, and generally making it a miserable experience.

It started Friday night when Cinderella Story Indiana played Notre Dame in the first playoff game in South Bend. Indiana coach Curt Cignetti failed to back up his pre-game trash talk and the Hoosiers lost to the Fighting Irish 27-17. The ten-point margin was flattering to Indiana, but by the end of the telecast, you would think you were watching a replay of Georgia beating TCU 65-7 in the national championship game a couple of years ago.

Never one to hide his opinion, ESPN play-by-play person Sean McDonough got the anti-party started late in the fourth quarter. With the game well out of reach, instead of focusing on the amazing job Cignetti did in taking a team ranked 17th in the Big Ten preseason poll to the playoff, McDonough instead questioned Indiana’s worthiness of making it in the first place.

If that wasn’t enough, McDonough then decided to throw the entire Big Ten as a conference under the bus in bemoaning the stranglehold that the Power 2 have over college football.

Imagine you’re an Indiana fan watching that game. What would your response be to having the best season in school history wadded up and thrown in a trashcan like that? It probably wouldn’t make you feel great. But it was just the beginning of ESPN spending the entire weekend being the wicked stepmother trying to keep Cinderella locked up in the attic.

The next morning on College GameDay, Kirk Herbstreit piled on and went even further. He said that Indiana was outclassed, shouldn’t have been on the field, and that it was a mistake that the committee gave them a playoff berth instead of “other teams.” But at least it wasn’t a knock on Indiana, according to him…

Who those “other teams” should have been Herbstreit did not say. Is it Alabama that who went 9-3 including a loss at Vanderbilt and could only muster 3 points against a 6-6 Oklahoma team? Is it three-loss Ole Miss that gave Kentucky its only Power Four win at home? Or maybe it’s three-loss South Carolina, who probably ended up with the best resume but lost to both Alabama and Ole Miss. Maybe it was two-loss Miami, as he hinted later in the program.

When Pat McAfee is emerging as the voice of reason asking to let all the games play out before issuing hot takes, you know things are getting weird. It went from bad to worse when another at-large team, SMU, got soundly beaten by Penn State in Happy Valley. The Mustangs threw a pair of first-half pick-sixes in a game that was never really in doubt as the Nittany Lions rolled to a 38-10 victory.

Again, some of the network’s personalities (specifically those on the SEC Network side) were quick to tear into SMU’s playoff presence as a joke. But were there any celebrations over the fact that SMU’s first season in the ACC resulted in their first playoff berth? The job done by Rhett Lashlee? Was there any credit given to Penn State and James Franklin for clutching up in a playoff game when his big-game resume is such a target?

How about the white-out crowd at Penn State being one of the toughest environments in the sport? Nope, just more gatekeeping from the likes of Paul Finebaum and Lane Kiffin from their couches at home.

At least the pearl-clutching was calmed down during Texas’ 38-24 win over Clemson since the Tigers won an automatic bid by winning the ACC. Besides, Clemson has been one of the most successful teams of the 2000s, so their spot in the in-crowd is safe. They already “belonged.” But if the narratives were moving a certain pro-SEC, pro-brand name direction heading into the Tennessee-Ohio State game on Saturday night, they got blown up in a major way.

At least they should have. But that wouldn’t have helped ESPN’s effort to crush the underdog and continue to treat the College Football Playoff as their own exclusive country club. Ohio State dominated Tennessee from start to finish in a 42-17 trouncing, the most impressive performance of the first round. But again, instead of celebration, the game was used as a prop for Kirk Herbstreit to continue his totally bizarre feud with Buckeyes fans and share his frustrations about the state of college football fandom with everyone.

By saying 20% of one of the largest fanbases in sports were “lunatics” the message was clear. If you’re not on board with how Herbstreit or ESPN wants you to see it, you don’t belong.

But here’s what’s really curious. At no point during the blowout did Herbstreit give Tennessee the same energy that he gave to Indiana earlier in the day. There was no mention of Tennessee, an at-large selection by the way, being “outclassed” or perhaps ceding their spot to other teams who would have made for a better game. There was no discussion of whether Tennessee was a paper tiger or the truth that Indiana was more competitive in Columbus than the Volunteers were.

Instead, after the Tennessee game on SportsCenter with Linda Cohn, Herbstreit doubled down again with even more gatekeeping when asked for his one takeaway from the first-round games.

Herbstreit called out “fringe fans” once more for daring to value wins over who looks better getting off the bus, (someone please call Herm Edwards), and asked the committee not to listen to social media when making their selections next year, as if Warde Manuel and company are following the tweets of every Barstool campus affiliate to see who makes the best case for their school.

But at least he didn’t hit fans over the head with the tiresome “fat guys in their underwear living in their mother’s basements” gag. Nick Saban beat Herbstreit to that on Friday’s episode of College GameDay.

Once more, there was no mention of Tennessee because they are one of the haves. They have national championships, the SEC, and the preferred status at ESPN that comes along with it. They fit Herbstreit and ESPN’s definition of someone who belongs. It’s great to hold people in the sport accountable and not blindly be a cheerleader for everyone and everything, but why do it so selectively where only those outside the power players receive that treatment? And why put your own fans and viewers in the crosshairs?

And in case you were wondering, in the 24 hours after the Tennessee game, there were no tweets from Paul Finebaum bashing the CFP committee for giving the Volunteers the 8 seed and producing another “blockbuster.” Scott Van Pelt was the only ESPN person willing to go there. What message does all of this send?

Well, if you watched ESPN all weekend long, you would think that the 12-team playoff was an abomination and an embarrassment for college football. You would think its fans are on the level of English soccer hooligans of the 1980s. And you would think there is no point playing any of these games and that we should just give things to teams that have great brand names who we “think” are “best.” You would believe college football is in a total crisis because it turns out it’s really hard to win a playoff game on campus.

(To be fair, maybe college football is in a crisis, but it’s certainly not because of all that.) This was the defining theme from ESPN from the College Football Playoff weekend – the outsiders that lost are frauds and fans that care a little bit too much are sickos. And not in the fun Sickos Committee kind of way, either.

None of this is helpful or healthy. No other sport treats its fans or teams with such open disdain except for college football, specifically if this is how ESPN operates. It’s a direction of tribalism, of haves and have-nots, and where anyone who is not part of a 10-year, $3 billion deal is not a big enough box office attraction to be part of the show.

Maybe someone should tell ESPN that college football has never been more popular and that there are great stories and terrific positives to consider and promote? Hopefully, after this weekend, ESPN will take a long look inwardly and ask themselves if this is really where they want to take College Football Playoff coverage, and the sport as a whole. Because there must be a better way than the constant drumbeat of negativity they peddled this past weekend.

Do you know why America loves March Madness so much? It’s because we don’t spend hours trying to re-litigate who got in and who didn’t once the tournament begins. We celebrate Cinderella instead of trying to tar and feather her. And we have fun. We celebrate the beauty of it all and why we love sports in the first place. Maybe ESPN’s College Football Playoff coverage should take the hint and do likewise.

 

[WBT 20997]

It is strange how much espn is shitting all over the playoff they built/bought.  And hope to make money off of.

[Nivek 17424]

3 hours ago, WBT said:

It is strange how much espn is shitting all over the playoff they built/bought.  And hope to make money off of.

Have to keep the controversy machine going somehow. 

[mdmost 44110]

I think there's just way too much kneejerking over the first round of games which weren't too dissimilar from NFL Wildcard games which usually go chalk and at times are massive blowouts between a team that did well and a team that barely got in. I think the massive difference is the home teams in the CFP will all have such a tremendous advantage over the visiting team because that's naturally baked in. A team going to visit Jerry World isn't going to be as intimidated or unused to that type of environment. Ultimately after a few years of this, we may just find that 8 was probably the better number as most of the teams that make it to the 2nd round will be the top 8 ranked teams and maybe it should've just been a push to go to 8 and then 12 or 14 later if it made sense. The SEC blowhards can't say Alabama, Ole Miss, or South Carolina definitely deserved a spot when Tennessee's performance nullifies that entirely given 1 of them already lost to Tennessee and then the remaining all beat each other. No one got screwed here. You were left out because you lost 3 games, one of which was to a not that great opponent or to each other.

Edited Monday at 11:29 PM by mdmost

[demos 3042]

It is strange how much espn is shitting all over the playoff they built/bought.  And hope to make money off of.

Not just espn. There was even an article in WSJ.

The media acts like we haven’t seen blowouts pre-playoff, pre-12 team playoff, or any fcs playoffs.

It’s dumb.

[LTtxfan 50035]

Crowds at 1st Rd home games were great...

[wood 11770]

3 hours ago, demos said:

Not just espn. There was even an article in WSJ.

The media acts like we haven’t seen blowouts pre-playoff, pre-12 team playoff, or any fcs playoffs.

It’s dumb.

Yeah it's incredibly dumb. Wait til there's a major upset in the playoff (and there will be). There'll be no end to the circle-jerking about it. All these same little bitches will be telling us how they said all along it was gonna be the greatest thing ever.

[Satchel 6983]

3 hours ago, demos said:

Not just espn. There was even an article in WSJ.

The media acts like we haven’t seen blowouts pre-playoff, pre-12 team playoff, or any fcs playoffs.

It’s dumb.

So true. There nothing unusual about the margin of defeat in the playoff era, since postseason games have never really been close The average score of a CFP game from the four-team era was 40-21. The average BCS Championship: 33-18. The NFL doesn’t redesign playoffs because the NFC West champ doesn’t belong in the minds of some. The faux outrage from the media cartels is nauseating.

[DreadHead 136]

6 hours ago, Nivek said:

Have to keep the controversy machine going somehow. 

This. All these writers, media heads, and pontificating podcasters screaming bloody murder about this and that... all have made these playoffs the most talked about ad nausea, in history. It's been great for ratings... we live in a world where rage-baiting makes money, and I would expect nothing less from the media.

The playoffs have been awesome... this whole year has been the best in years, and not just because Texas is winning... the whole season was exciting imo.