Rolling Stone calling out sEcSPN....

So it's been painfully perplexing to witness ESPN use its outsize influence to prop up a Southeastern Conference that, for the first time in a decade, is arguably in a state of decline.
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:bowrofl:
 
coit said:
:bowrofl:
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It has some bits of truth in it. Outside of the 4 in the west and Georgia the rest of the conference has not been doing that hot. Of those 4 Bama hasn't really yet played to the level most people think they are at either.
 
I was trying to find a list of SEC non-conference opponents to see how they are doing out of conference. Does anyone have a link? Here's a list. Pretty weak in my opinion.

First to worst

1. Georgia: Clemson, Troy, Charleston Southern, Georgia Tech
2. Tennessee: Utah State, Arkansas State, at Oklahoma, Chattanooga
3. Missouri: South Dakota State, at Toledo, UCF, Indiana
4. Arkansas: Nicholls State, at Texas Tech, Northern Illinois, UAB
5. South Carolina: ECU, Furman, South Alabama, at Clemson
6. Auburn: San Jose State, at Kansas State, Louisiana Tech, Samford
7. LSU: Wisconsin (Houston), Sam Houston State, Louisiana-Monroe, New Mexico State
8. Florida: Idaho, Eastern Michigan, Eastern Kentucky, at Florida State
9. Ole Miss: Boise State (Atlanta), Louisiana-Lafayette, Memphis, Presbyterian
10. Kentucky: Tennessee-Martin, Ohio, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisville
11. Alabama: West Virginia (Atlanta), FAU, Southern Miss, Western Carolina
12. Texas A&M: Lamar, Rice, at SMU, Louisiana-Monroe
13. Mississippi State: Southern Miss, UAB, at South Alabama, Tennessee-Martin
14. Vanderbilt: Temple, UMass, Charleston Southern, Old Dominion
 
They did pretty öööö well this season. Off the top of my head:

Beat Clemson (UGA)
Beat K state (AUBURN)
Beat W VA (BAMA)
Beat Wisconsin (LSU)
Beat Boise State (Ole Miss)
Beat ECU (USCe)

Lost to Oklahoma (Tenn)
Lost to Indiana (Mizzou)
Lost to Temple (Vandy)

The article was disappointing to me. I expected more thorough examples and even smoking gun type documents.
 
GTCrew4b said:
The article was disappointing to me. I expected more thorough examples and even smoking gun type documents.
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Yeah, but it was good for me because I didn't realize that ESPN had an ownership stake in the SEC Network.
 
GTCrew4b said:
They did pretty öööö well this season. Off the top of my head:

Beat Clemson (UGA)
Beat K state (AUBURN)
Beat W VA (BAMA)
Beat Wisconsin (LSU)
Beat Boise State (Ole Miss)

Lost to Oklahoma (Tenn)
Lost to Indiana (Mizzou)

The article was disappointing to me. I expected more thorough examples and even smoking gun type documents.
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I agree, this article just regurgitated everything you see people scream about on message boards. I mean yeah I get that there is some SEC Bias, but I dont see another conference better than them this year either, even with the east being a bit down.
 
coit said:
Yeah, but it was good for me because I didn't realize that ESPN had an ownership stake in the SEC Network.
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Oh wow, that was the first thing a lot of people noticed about the SEC Network deal.
 
etc79 said:
Oh wow, that was the first thing a lot of people noticed about the SEC Network deal.
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Eh, I don't really pay very close attention to things like that. I hear SEC Network and pretty much automatically tune out most of the time.
 
coit said:
Eh, I don't really pay very close attention to things like that. I heat SEC Network and pretty much automatically tune out most of the time.
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If you ever tune into the SEC network, you'll notice their logo pretty quick:

sec-network-logo.jpg


sec-network-from-Ark-Athletics-whole-hog-sports.jpg


SEC-ESPN%20Logo.jpg
 
I've watched a few games on there, never even noticed that!
 
I don't believe there is a conscious SEC conspiracy, but I do believe there is a hype cycle and maybe a subconscious conspiracy. SEC had the top teams for a while, so there is all this media hype about the SEC being the best, SEC gets its ESPN channel, etc. Recruits then think SEC is the best, so they go to SEC teams, and SEC teams get better, which results in more hype. It's a rich-get-richer situation. You see the same phenomenon for individual teams like Alabama.

Don't forget we have for a long time been not just the "ACC" but "the ACC on ESPN", and we have a big ESPN tie-in.

The Texas A&M hype was really weird though. I think maybe it is just people always go crazy over a team that has a good showing at the beginning of the year. I guess "wow, Texas A&M is the öööö" is more interesting to people than "I think we need to wait a few games". Last year it was FSU and Winston, and it turned out they really were good.
 
I dont recall ESPN & other media pursuing Cam Newton, like they
have for Jameis Winston.

HOw come ESPN doesnt use PAC12 "people" to do PAC12 games, or ACC "people" to do ACC gaems on ESPN, instead of using the same suck-azz SEC uber whores Palmer & Pollock.

Paul Finebaum, anyone ? Hello ?!?!
 
I'd stack Baylor and/or TCU up against ANYONE in the SEC.
 
3GT said:
I dont recall ESPN & other media pursuing Cam Newton, like they
have for Jameis Winston.
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What? Your memory is short. The media went ape**** over Cam.
 
There was certainly a lot of fairly damning circumstantial evidence put together. I knew Nick Marshall had some off the field problems, but I never thought to contrast his problems to coverage of Winston's problems. I can understand coverage of the rape allegation, but the media did really run away with that dumb Internet meme thing. It becomes even worse with the contrast to coverage of Cam Newton. There was a good bit of coverage of how he got kicked out of UF and how his dad solicited payment from MSU, but I don't know. The coverage just had a different tone, especially these pundits who question Winston's ability to "lead teammates." None of that stuff was said about Cam Newton.

But one issue with these corporation-hating articles is they always assume the corporation is far more competent than they really are. I like the idea of the evil Mickey Mouse working behind the scenes to shift the story of the SEC and then get higher franchise fees for its SEC Network. There might be a little bit of truth to that, with ESPN executives wanting Fowler or Herbstreit to plug the games on the SEC network and get higher ratings. But narratives can also become monsters that grow without corporate oversight. Sports pundits needs some sort of narrative, whether it exists or not. Dispassionate analysis is boring, sort of like reading my posts, and so anything that's even mildly true like the SEC is the best conference (it is) gets blown way out of proportion.
 
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