Article on ESPN's role in realignment

[GoFrogs21]

http://espn.go.com/e...ege-realignment

Finding proper alignment

As money in college football grows, so do fans' questions about ESPN's credibility

As the big college athletic conferences trade members the way middle school girls trade friends, many fans, bloggers and other journalists have questioned whether ESPN's influence over this process is appropriate.

It's easy to see why they'd ask.

ESPN recently launched the Longhorn Network, a $300 million, 20-year-deal to distribute University of Texas sports programming (OK, and cultural programming, but it's mostly about sports.) That makes the network financially vested in the success of a single school's athletic program.

ESPN also has big money for contracts with the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southeastern Conference, and recently made the Pacific-12 Conference media rights contract the most lucrative package to date in college sports...

 

[ShadowFrog]

As long as ESPN maintains its journalistic standards and increases reporting resources devoted to college sports -- even as its business interests in colleges grows -- the network should assuage most of its understandably skeptical critics.

How many Frog fans wanna write a blue book response to this one closing sentence?

 

[full house frog]

That place is evil. How anyone can think ESPN is unbiased is beyond me. Shadow, that would be the longest blue book ever.

 

[OmniscienceFrog]

The fact of the matter is that you don't get to be as big as ESPN has gotten, with integrity. You get there with ruthless abandon. They couldn't care less who or what they step on in achieving their goals.

 

[toadallytexan]

Just the iceburg's tip: She quotes De Fillipo at BC as saying. "We followed TV's --ESPN's--advice" [on expansion]...then notes he backs off the statement. She also notes the lucrative deal ESPN and the ACC currently have. She also notes the BE had turned down ESPN's Billion dollar early [low ball] contract renewal bid. Towards the end of the article, the author again notes DeFillipo's statement and says he offered no reason whatsoever to explain why his first statement could have been in error....and he won't return their calls.

Does she go on to note the evisceration that SU and Pitt's defection did to the BE who spurned the ESPN offer? No Does she look into this BIG apparent conflict of interest? No Instead what she does is simply let the "Veil" again cover the scene. Moreover she ends the piece about how courageous ESPN journalists were in reporting the $400k judgment on Old Freal Nasty because that truth looks bad for their customer, mighty UT.

As if the story wasn't out there for the public to see everywhere else. ESPN would have beem laughed at had they failed to cover this. So we're to feel good about their unexplored possible shenannigens that may have killed a conference because of the counterbalance of this story? PULLEEZE! I say, it's a Whitewash job from an "independent" "Ombudsman" type of source ESPN has admittededly partnered with to critically examine itself.

 

[BUGrad95]

ESPN suggested the Big XII to take WVU because the Big East was viable with WVU, but not with Louisville. That alone shows ESPN's desire to kill the Big East. Not to mention Boston College's revelation. So if by taking WVU, the BE likely goes away, or is just a shell of it's former self, ESPN can be directly linked to it. Most believe Louisville and WVU will end up in the Big XII, but by taking WVU first, it makes getting who ever is left much easier. I suspect lawsuits will be forthcoming should the Big East die. Perhaps the Big East itself, or schools like USF and maybe Cincy, that won't be invited into an AQ conference. UConn and Rutgers will likely be taken by the B1G or ACC.

As terrible as this is for some schools, I am glad to be able to watch from the sidelines this time.

 

[Kaiser]

My favorite part was the BE spin. She says the BE rejected ESPN's offer which caused Pitt & Syracuse to decide to leave. When in fact the BE rejected ESPN's offer causing ESPN to tell the ACC who to take; thereby gutting the BE as a viable conference and not allowing NBC/Comcast or Fox to sign anything of value.

This woman's story was certainly assigned & approved by the ESPN PR department.

 

[Frog-in-law1995]

As if the story wasn't out there for the public to see everywhere else. ESPN would have beem laughed at had they failed to cover this. So we're to feel good about their unexplored possible shenannigens that may have killed a conference because of the counterbalance of this story? PULLEEZE! I say, it's a Whitewash job from an "independent" "Ombudsman" type of source ESPN has admittededly partnered with to critically examine itself.

Exactly. I'll be less skeptical when ESPiN breaks a story critical of a partner school/conference. In the meantime, I'll keep my old Antitrust casebook on the nightstand as bedtime reading.
I guess we should be glad they reported on this at all, though. I posted the following in another thread two months ago:

I predict that, within 20 years, Chris Berman will be signing diplomas. Would somebody kindly take the bottle of Macallan 18 away from the ESPN ombudsman?

 

[713frog]

surprised this article even made it to ESPN at all...

 

[FrogAbroad]

That place is evil. How anyone can think ESPN is unbiased is beyond me. Shadow, that would be the longest blue book ever.

Mac takes a shot at ESPN, too.