ESPN and its effect on College Athletics

[Enhance]

Bowl record isn't that fair, all bowl games are home games for the SEC.

ESPN clearly has an effect on who makes the title game though. No need to look any farther than the damn preseason polls that they manipulate.

The SEC has teams start in high positions, there's no denying that, but are a television deal and high pre-season rankings really the only reasons the SEC has been so successful the last six years? Those rankings and the t.v. deal don't give them wins; somehow, they end up manufacturing them, and I don't think it has much to do with their presence.

It doesn't earn them wins, but it certainly earns them tiebreakers. Last year Alabama beat out Oklahoma State by .009 points in the final BCS standings.

The official BCS website is an ESPN site. Another thing that makes me feel like they are very involved in how those rankings turn out.

I think Alabama deserved to go over Oklahoma State, because I believed, in an head-to-head match up, Alabama would have won. I also think the the top six teams in the SEC are more talented and better coached than any other top six teams from any conference.

ESPN may have a say in their rankings, but it doesn't change that those teams have a lot of talent and great coaching. I guess that's my whole problem with people who say the SEC isn't better. Perhaps not as a whole, but if you took the four top teams from each conference and put them in a playoff, I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest the SEC teams win most of those match ups and end up being the final four teams. They've proven time and again, even against the top talent from other conferences, that they're better for six years running. They might have had some help getting there, but when do they get there, they put their money where their mouth is.

It's no more subjective than any other part of the country. Notre Dame gets fantastic rankings every single year despite having been irrelevant for two decades. Why? They've got tons of viewership and a big television deal to boot. The SEC isn't the only conference getting favoritism - I just wish this guy would have touched on that.

 

[mrandyk]

Yeah, the SEC is at least a little better than the other conferences from top to bottom, but they do have help on their side. Oversigning definitely makes for a stronger team, and conference when all but a couple are doing it.

 

[Notre Dame Joe]

Yeah, the SEC is at least a little better than the other conferences from top to bottom, but they do have help on their side. Oversigning definitely makes for a stronger team, and conference when all but a couple are doing it.

I think there are a few kyptonites for the SEC, scholarship limitations, kickback limitations, drug testing, grammar testing.

 

[MLB 51]

If anything. It has to help with recruiting. Seeing the same teams splashed across ESPN week in and week out sure doesn't hurt.

 

[VA Husker Fan]

The official BCS website is an ESPN site. Another thing that makes me feel like they are very involved in how those rankings turn out.

No, it's not.

bcsfootball.org Registry Whois

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Bill Hancock is with the NCAA. There's nothing about ESPN in the registry info.

 

[VA Husker Fan]

OK, if you click on the full standings, it takes you to the BCS standings on ESPN's site. I don't know why, but if that makes you uneasy, whatever. I felt a lot more uneasy when they used the media's poll in the BCS standings, which they no longer do.

 

[mrandyk]

Maybe it's not officially an ESPN site, but it has the same format and about everything you can click on links to the ESPN site.

 

[Enhance]

Yeah, I just don't think it matters very much. The SEC clearly has advantages, but before about 2008, ESPN was not crazy about the SEC over any other conference. It's interesting that the television deal coincides with the SEC's championship winning run, but I don't think it's much more than this - coincidence in conjunction with circular benefits for both parties. ESPN says the SEC is great, the SEC proves it's great, ESPN goes back to saying the SEC is great, the SEC proves it's great again, etc. Of course recruits are gonna see that and be interested in it, but I don't think it's necessarily ESPN's fault. Had the SEC started to suck a$$, ESPN would not cover them as much because fewer people would care.

 

[NUance]

Illustration of ESPN's relationship with the SEC: NSFW LINK (WARNING: Do NOT open this link unless you want to see an MS Paint picture of a large d!(k. Kissing a penis.)