I know the whole ESPN/ABC bias issue against the SEC has been covered ad nauseum on the web (okay, you guys probably didn't read too much about it, but I sure did last year when I had a full eight hours a day to play around on the web...I mean sell things), especially by the geniuses at www.edsbs.com (EveryDayShouldBeSaturday). But this year it has really gone into high gear and the locations chosen so far for College Gameday illustrate the point perfectly.
As we all know, ESPN is owned by ABC and they are blurring the lines between their programming even more this year by calling all sports shown on ABC as ESPN on ABC. ESPN sees College Gameday as one of its most popular and profitable shows, boosting the duration to two hours this year. The two networks also started a new Saturday Night College Football Game of the Week on ABC this season. So, where do you think College Gameday has been the first three weeks so far? How about in Atlanta for Notre Dame/Georgia Tech (coincidentally the ABC Game of the Week!), Austin for Texas/Ohio State (ta da! ABC's Game of the Week again), and this week they are in (drum roll please) Los Angeles for the USC/Nebraska game (I'll give you three guesses who ABC is showing Saturday night in their Game of the Week). Now, I have absolutely no beef with the location last week. It was number 1 vs. number 2, a huge early season, cross sectional showdown which deserved all the attention it got. The Notre Dame/Georgia Tech choice was slightly more dubious, but given Tech's penchant for knocking off highly ranked teams early in the season lately (cough...Auburn...cough) and the fact that it turned out to be a close game it wasn't all that bad of a choice. This week however, is just plain ridiculous.
I just wish I could ask Kirk and Chris (forget Corso, he's too senile to know what year it is) a simple question. It's the third week in a football season that has seen zero major upsets or shifts in the polls so far (I don't consider Texas falling to number 8 a major shift in the polls...if they win out they'll be in the top 4 at the end of the year and possibly even qualify for the BCS Championship Game). This Saturday you have #2 hosting #10...#3 hosting #6...#11 hosting #7...and #4 hosting #19. Which game are you going to go to. Without telling them the teams involved does any reasonable person expect them to say they would choose the last game??? I know all the excuses they would throw at us. It's two of the most storied teams in college football playing for the first time (or at least the first time in a long while)...Nebraska's resurgance...USC's dominance over the past four years...BLAH...BLAH...BLAH. It's partisan BS any way you slice it. They can say they've already been at a Notre Dame game this year and they have been to the UT/UF game several times in the past. They can say they're saving the Auburn visit for the Florida or Georgia game. They can spew all the crap they want. The reality is they are going to pump up the ABC Game of the Week from now on and the rest of the games are secondary. Remember ABC's Saturday night line up is set for the whole season so if the teams they are showing end up tanking and having crap seasons we're going to be stuck with a whole lot of Gameday stories and attention being heaped upon a bad game.
In summation, Gameday sucks now and I hate that. I'd write more about it but I only have twenty more minutes on the computer. I really have to get the internet at home.
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From ESPN.com today:
Great memories
Of the 10 regular-season SEC games matching top 10 teams, we've had the privilege of watching seven from ringside, reveling in the drama. The Tennessee-Florida wars of 2000-02; Auburn's pounding of the Vols, with big Tiger-lover Sir Charles standing next to us on the sidelines at Neyland Stadium; and LSU's heart-stopping OT triumph at Tuscaloosa last year … those are memories that will last.
This is why I believe an explanation is needed for why GameDay won't be in Auburn for LSU's visit this Saturday.
For 13 seasons, the locations of the GameDay road shows have been editorial decisions based on the college football landscape. The basic principle was to (almost) always come from the site of the "biggest game," or occasionally, "the best story." Several times, we have visited the edge of the radar screen to pay tribute to the Mid American Conference's rise (at Bowling Green), the service academies (Air Force and West Point) or the tradition of the Bayou Classic.
Now, the philosophy has been rethought by upper management. For the first time, the competitive landscape of football programming is a frequent consideration. Serving the needs of ABC's new prime-time package of games is often a priority. The decision on GameDay's site is less a clear-cut "best game" philosophy now and is more complicated, made on a landscape where terms like "synergy" and "branding" live.
Please know this: Lee, Kirk and I have no say in decisions on GameDay's location. But as host of the show for 17 years, I am mainly concerned with the show's specific legacy, not the global college football landscape.
The first two weeks of the season were no-brainers. It made sense to follow Notre Dame to Georgia Tech and sit ringside for the first 1-vs.-2 regular-season game in 10 years last week in Austin. This week, the decision was made to come from the Los Angeles Coliseum, where ABC will be set up.
Executive vice president Norby Williamson asked me to relay his reasoning: Nebraska and USC, both visible programs with storied pasts, are colliding for the first time in 35 years, and this might be one of the few chances to showcase a Pac-10 location, keeping the show regionally balanced.
The SEC should feature a lot more big ones in the coming months.
This is important: Williamson said fans still can expect to see GameDay return to the SEC or to Notre Dame for games televised on CBS and NBC. That's a relief to me. LSU's visits to Florida and Tennessee loom large, as does Auburn's trip to the Swamp. Georgia versus the winner of the Vols-Gators clash will be huge.
Any of those games could carry national title weight.
So, who knows? I am hopeful. But just in case we don't make it there quite as often, I would truly miss broadcasting from Gainesville, Knoxville, Athens, Tuscaloosa, Auburn, Baton Rouge and Columbia. SEC campuses have consistently provided the most passionate, colorful and, uh … "spirit"-ed backdrops for the show.
Hands down. No other conference is close.
Even if we don't visit you as much, please don't stop visiting us Saturday mornings. We will continue to give teams from America's strongest football conference, and the Fighting Irish, their due any way we can.
Whatever. If those three put their weight behind it the show could be broadcast from wherever they want. I don't believe that they don't carry enough clout with their producers and executives to choose the show's site.
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