Buckeye Blogger NetworkIn this week’s edition of news and notes, we take a look at the ever swirling world of college “playoffs”; helping you get to the bottom of the matter. You can probably guess where this is headed…
Never forget
Buckeye 411
(Gee) knows more about bow ties than he does about journalism.
Probably true, but since Gordo is a fifteenth level bow-tie ninja, what does that say about your point?
OT J.B. Shugarts (seventh or free agent): Good size, but had false start and some foot problems with the Buckeyes.
Books. Saving Lives For Years.
With the “off season” (or as Urban calls it- “Hunting Season”) upon us, SBP takes a bit of a different twist. Usually focused on news and updates from OSU press conferences and weekly preparation, during the off season, we’ll use this spot to affirm my ADD and help you stay on top of news from the national scene. In other words- things that you might have missed or will want to print to read during those boring meetings or your “consulting” trips to the washroom. I read it so you don’t have to.
Bowl championship Series
But because the agreement between cable network and bowl series has to make you wonder where the relationship between ESPN and the football it pretends to cover begins and ends. Are they partners? Is this a legitimate subject-reporter situation? Once ESPN buys access to an event don’t they then turn from journalist to promoter?
Don’t answer.
Everyone already knows.
When ESPN selectively covers stories, as it does during a college football season, and attempts to dictate what is news and what is not to the public, how can any of us not be left wondering if they’re really reporting the news or simply protecting their bowl-week product? After all, they’re in this thing together now. When they’re slow to break a story, can we be sure why?
Today marks the sacred celebration of Festivus, so we here at tBBC have been prepping for the Feats of Strength- JoeD used to wrestle, Rob and Jason have Buckeye football backgrounds, but my money’s on Jim… I think he brings a ton of tenacity to the table.
Anyway, another important Festivus tradition is the “Airing Of Grievances”… and we turn the mike over to our friend and investigative reporter Westy, who weighs in on the state of the sport in Columbus and beyond.
So what do you say now that the news has been handed down? The Ohio State University will be punished with additional scholarship losses, and most notably no Bowl game in 2012. If you’re anything like me you spewed a line of almost incomprehensible obscenities and threats at your radio while driving back to work from your lunch break. But pause for a moment and take a look at the bigger picture with me, if you will. College football is broken. No not in this “everyone is cheating, oh heavens to betsy!… quick get Grandma off the roof!” sense of the word broken. It’s broken in the sense that it’s dominated by greed and money, and the game quite frankly doesn’t matter anymore. Let me list for you a few of the plethora of reasons college football is broken…
Locked And Loaded
The biggest source of sports news in the world is ESPN. This goes for college football as well. There are other sources out there (you’re reading one right now), but if you want to talk the head honcho — you talk ESPN. ESPN has a financial contract with the SEC; a FIFTEEN year contract worth several billion dollars, to show SEC games on their family of networks. They are in every sense of the phrase, “in bed” with the SEC. Pause and think about that for a moment. The number one source of college football commentary, reporting, news, etc … has a vested interest in seeing only ONE of the eleven major college football conferences succeed. Am I the only one who noticed the conflict of interest there? Am I the only one who doesn’t wonder aloud if all of their hardcore investigating into Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon, UNC, USC, etc, etc… is just a bit curious since they by in large ignored situations at Auburn, Georgia, South Carolina, LSU… How many of you can tell me what the cases even WERE at all four of those SEC schools?
Think for a moment if the President of the United States, (be it Barrack Obama, George W Bush, Harrison Ford, whoever…) had all of the major new networks on his side. Let’s say that maybe those networks have a contract with the President, where they get to show his public addresses on their networks, in return for a huge chunk of money. No switching to Fox or to MSNBC for the opposite prospective, they both like the guy and dislike his rivals…. Does that make your stomach turn a bit? Does that make you wonder about the “slant” they’re giving their information? ESPN is to sports, what MTV is to music, only ESPN doesn’t air Jackass (although you’d never know the difference if you looked at their commentary line up, ahem, May/Holtz/Corso/Herbstriet/etc). Read More
Obligatory Rose Bowl Photo
Ah, the most wonderful time of the year. As if you needed an excuse to sit around and watch football, having it on eleventy days of the week means that you’ve got a built in excuse to avoid certain members of your family and drown out your kids’ “holiday pageant rehearsal” noise.
‘Cause, really… how many times can a person botch “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas” on the recorder before some sort of homicide happens?
And, since you’re going to watch the games anyway (or at least tell people that you are- what you do with the LSU/Alabama matchup is your business) you might as well win something, right?
So- it’s time for The Buckeye Battlecry Bowl Spectacular!!!
For the last TWTW of the season, I was digging deep for musical inspiration. While I’ve been playing the new Black Keys album non-stop, I wanted to find something that encapsulated the anticipation and pleading that so many are involved in these day- all looking toward a special event at the first of the year. So, here you go.
For what was supposed to be the pinnacle of the college football regular season, this week’s games were incredibly disappointing. Not for the action on the field- there were a lot of spectacular plays and performances, but the behind the controversies that impacted the games overshadowed the work of coaches and players.
Let’s start with Friday Night’s clash in Eugene. While the Fighting Neuheisels went out guns blazing (or pop guns popping) and managed to keep the game under the 30 point spread, the subtext for the entire matchup was that this game was not the “legitimate” Pac-12 title game: The Southern Cal Trojans, who had beaten both of these teams, sat idle due to the Reggie Bush situation and the NCAA’s response. So, after all of the realignment and festivities, even Oregon’s big win has a dented trophy as for the case in Phil Knight’s house.
That’s not to say that there weren’t fireworks in the game- check out Friday’s “Catch Of The Day” from UCLA’s Nelson Rosario:
On Friday, tBBC turns 5. Or, as Jeff says “we’re old enough to be in kindergarten!” which will come as no surprise to all eight of our regular readers. You’ll also be happy to know that we’ve officially stopped eating paste.
You guys lasted five years?
So, to celebrate we “veterans” are taking a look back and re-posting our favorite articles from our time on the intertrons. Since I’m going first, I’m going to reach deep into the archives to pull up something from our time at SBN- my suggestions for “fixing” the BCS via conference realignment/expansion. Building on some of the “Bowl Crap” series that I did, I was working with Rob Harley’s ideas and those of a faithful reader, but it’s interesting how close to this is to what might be happening over the next week or so.
Granted, my idea included 6 conferences and not 4; but it did forsee a situation where the conference championship games were the first round of the tournament. Looking back… I think I like where we’re headed better.
Oh, and this was originally a two part post, so if you print it for “reading” at “work”, be warned that it may be a longer trip to the lounge than usual. Enjoy!
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For the record, I’m not a proponent of playoffs. I actually liked the way things used to be with conference bowl tie-ins and such; arguing about who was #1 back in the day was a part of the enjoyment of the game, in my opinion.
But, since you asked me, if we were going to have a playoff this is what it should look like. Unlike some people, I’m not going to tell you what won’t work- I’m taking a flier on what would ooze awesomeness. Caution is advised; some items may shift during the duration of this posting. Read More
You will be assimilated
Update: Well… huh. The SEC has stated that they’re not extending an offer to aTm at this time, bringing this whole shebang to a screeching halt.
Sources say that the argument over who might be the 14th team and Aggy counterpart was partially responsible for the decision.
No word yet on whether or not the Big 12-2 will just preemptively break up with aTm in response to their looking around at other suitors.
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After last summer’s exciting adventures in conference expansion, it seems as there might be a nice refractory period for at least a couple of years.
Ah, but like an addict jonesing for the next hit, university administration, conference leadership, and sports fans across the nation couldn’t stay away from the possibility of becoming bigger and better, particularly where money and egos are involved.
Yup, I referred to Freud… since much of what is going on seems to also be impacted by a sense of fear and frustration; schools not getting the respect they deserve, so leaving for greener pastures becomes a bright, shiny option.
The major factor, as before, is TV money. Just like the BTN started this gunfight last year with it’s ability to pay programs more than they might have been getting from other conference revenue sharing agreements, network exposure and cash are also at the heart of this wave of rumors.
Just a quick update on our Bowl Picks Challenge…
We keep telling ourselves that...
Because I know you’re dying to find out, here’s how your intrepid bloggers did head to head making picks using all their knowledge and insight:
Yeah, we’re not headed to Vegas anytime soon.
In terms of the “Audience Participation” contest, here’s how we finished up-
So, Ty Kelly… come on down!! You win the “honor and privilege” of a guest post here at the mothership. Shoot us an email and we’ll get things set up.
Stay tuned to this space for future contest announcements and so forth… thanks for playing!
