How ESPN is destroying sports for profit

[knapplc]

A must-read for anyone who thinks ESPN's involvement in amateur athletics is a good thing.

The Smartest Guys in the Room
Late last month Kelly McBride of The Poynter Institute, which has been masquerading as ESPN's independent ombudsman as of late recapped ESPN's scorching conflict of interest in college football realignment. She closed her rambling piece (if even I think you're rambling...dude) with the following laugher:

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.
It's an absolutely breathtaking statement coming from a think-tank that is allegedly, you know, actually watching the network it is supposed to be independently reviewing and critiquing.

There is zero conflict of interest for ESPN's business to cover Ohio State the way that it has. For Texas, however, there would be. Not only can't ESPN be reasonably expected to objectively cover Texas sports, it isn't even allowed to: It's actually written into the Longhorn Network contract.

Remember this the next time you're breathlessly hoping that College Gameday comes to town. ESPN is everything that is wrong with sports. The sooner they die, the better.

 

[Foppa]

Wow. Not that this is surprising by any means. Has the NCAA said anything about this? Or is there anything they can say?