Looking forward to the upcoming college football season, except for ESPN’s coverage, which again will be accompanied by the systematic disparagement of the Big East.
No other sport in any conference has had to endure the barrage of insults from a TV network. Ever. You know how television personalities want everyone to like them, rarely dissing individuals and teams, muchless an entire league. The bias makes no sense, yet the negativity toward to the Big East is so blatant.
Doubtful ESPN analysts are responding to an official memo from the organization. Not necessary when the leanings of the top brass are so visible, permeating into the comments of the robots, the on-air personalities, doing their bosses’ bidding.
The bias was evident even during the 2006 season when both the Univeristy of Louisville and Rutgers football teams were ranked among the top 10. West Virginia was also in the top 20 but the ESPN barbs continued unabated. Some objective observers believed that UofL would have competed well against either Florida or Ohio State in that national championship game.
The Atlantic Coast Conferene, meanwhile, has been sparred from the belittling despite a miserable showing in BCS bowls. The ACC disaster begins with the 2-13 record in BCS games, which trails the Big East (7-7). West Virginia’s 70-33 thrashing of Clemson in last year’s Orange Bowl should have slammed the door on any questions about the ACC’s worthiness.
The Big East and ESPN are supposed to resume negoatiations on a new contract in September but don’t expect much to happen. There are reports that the conference is looking forward to working with NBC/Comcast on a more lucrative arrangement for the Big East.
If football is king of college sports, ESPN may have ensnared itself into a losing proposition with a deal with the ACC that runs through 2027. The ESPN network jocks will be pulling out all stops to prop up ACC football while downplaying the Big East. The network has a major financial stake in the outcome.
As one blogger put it so succinctly, the Big East will be a better football conference in 2013 than it was in 2011. The average college football fan won’t believe that because ESPN won’t let them believe that.
Sign this petition on boycotting ESPN:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/boycott-espn-for-its-smear-campaign-against-the/
Yes, we did do the search and you can hear it out of Jurich’s own mouth.
Wilke- UL tried like crazy to get in the Big 12. They at no point turned a bid down.
Tried indicates past tense. Pretty sure it’s not over. Wilkie may have been referring to this report: http://uoflcardgame.com/?s=motsinger&x=24&y=9
I thought our ticket to the Big East got us out of the mid-majors in football. I do not care what Tom Jurich or Dr. Ramsey say, turning the Big 12 down to work on building Big East Football let TCU and West Virginia get our place in the Big 12. If we do not get added to the Big 12 now, this will become the stupidest mistake ever made by Louisville Atheletics since I have been following them since 1971!
But those guys will run the selection committee.
What goes around comes around, Wilkie. Let’s just hope it happens during our lifetime.
Northwestern, Indiana, Purdue, Minnesota all garbage, any of those top 6 BE schools are better than them yano, so it’s not like their incompetant. They are good football schools and Boise State is as good as the Oklahoma’s, Texas’s, Florida’s, Michigan State’s and the Penn States. Nobody wants them to be good because that would upset the self proclaimed royalty of college football. It’s BS. All about the money. College football is easily more corrupt than the NFL.
Good point Craig. The self-proclaimed royalty is a large part of what’s wrong with the college football system. If you don’t have a tradition from yesteryear, they don’t want to recognize you, wanting you to accept your position in the system and not attempt to get better. Bringing it back to the original topic, ESPN promotes the old hierarchy and shoves it down the throats of the viewing audience.
Right now these are the Top 5 teams as percevied by the media:
1. Boise State
2. Louisville
3. Rutgers
4. Cincinnati
5. Houston
6. South Florida
Not to good!
Add Temple, Memphis and San Diego State to your football lineup and you open yourself up to questions regarding the legitimacy of being considered a top level football conference. The national perception of the Big East is at an all time low and until things play out is probably deserved.
Well you also have to look it this way…those championships/bowls won and big games played in by Miami, WVU, VT, BC were done while all those listed were Big East members. Those schools that left for the ACC have not replicated half of the the national success that they did while in the Big East Conference. It’s says something about the conference and not just the individual programs listed.
Big East is 7-7 in BCS bowls. Take away Miami’s BCS record (3-1), WVA’s (3-0), and VT (0-1) and that leaves the CURRENT Big East teams at 1-5. Not an impressive record. The lone win is Louisville. Cincinnati was undefeated and got their lunch handed to them by Florida. UConn got bitch slapped by OU. THIS is why the BE isn’t given any credit. All of their good/great teams are gone.
Congratulations GPP on a very creative approach to revising history. You obviously aren’t aware of what Charlie Strong is doing at Louisville. The dissing of the Big East was still happening while West Virginia was still in the conference. Nice try, however. Oh, and you forgot about Boise State.
I think B.S, because the ACC knows that they can never match up with the Big East. They only steal teams. Watch, we will rise again.