Herbstreit: The year it changed was '99, when we went to Virginia Tech. Frank Beamer was trying to build a program, from a regional program to a national program. He had a national player in Michael Vick. People in California, in Florida—they didn't know what a Hokie was. They didn't know where Blacksburg was. Well, Beamer looked at GameDay as a 48-hour infomercial on his campus.
Beamer: That's the way I looked at it. Anytime you can get your brand on national TV and show what you're all about, you can't buy that kind of advertisement.
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Fuck E$PN
LOL
True, but to be fair without Thursday night football on E$PN we would not be where we are. Sure, the College Gameday coming to Blacksburg in 99 was huge, but it was really Beamer's embrace of Thursday Night games and being on National TV (at the time a bigger deal when not every game was televised like today) was what really helped bring the program to national prominence.
Yes, I agree with you, but also see Alum's post below. It all rings kinda hollow now.
And where is that, exactly? we are in a dying conference with a G5 apparel deal and on equal footing now with Liberty and JMU. That's where we are
Fair enough.
Maybe I should not have said where we are today, and rather where we got to during the 2000's.
I see this as Beamer's realization that he had to sell his product to the media, all media because they voted. You want votes, you have to show off when the eyes are on you. Beamer gave ESPN a game to watch on Thursday night with excitement in special teams you didn't see most other places. He opened up the doors for GameDay like no other. He normalized it because it helped him sell like no one else before. But that means he helped make ESPN. Is thrusday night still a thing with dud games? Would every campus welcome GameDay like they do now with out VT leading the way.
Sure we whored ourselves out for votes (which is what you have to do in football) but we lead the way making ESPN a major part of the sport.
Aww isn't that nice, and now the corporate sellout known as Kirk Herbstreit has no problems shoving everyone upon which they built their empire into the mud so they can make more money with their elite SEC daddys.
Guy can take all his sob stories with glowing reminiscing about what the sport used to be and shove it up his ass, as he and his shows and the power they have to influence everyone are a major reason why this sport is in as sorry a shape as it is now.
With the new P2, and Herbie being a Buckeye alum (and increasingly more a homer), what do we think his shelf-life is at ESECPN?
I'm a cynic, but I don't see why sports TV wouldn't move towards the news/politics echo chamber model. Fox will mostly ignore the SEC and hype the B2G, and and ESPN will become Paul Finebaum and friends.
We've been moving towards it for a while now, and I might even go so far as to say we've arrived there. Sure, it can get even more polarizing, but that's pretty much where we are with ESPN's coverage of the SEC this week.
Also, the guys on the ACC network were correct in their assessment of what the committee did, but after I watched a clip of them slamming the committee for 6 glorious minutes, I realized - if the shoe were on the other foot (lol, can you imagine 12-1 FSU getting in over 13-0 Alabama?), the ACC network would be applauding the decision. They'd have to be. It's their job.
So I guess we're already there. The only difference is, ESPN owns the various news networks for essentially every viewpoint, and they use the main network to steer public opinion to those assets that make them the most money. But they still make money off the rest of us with their other networks too.
It'd be like if one company owned each of the major 24 news stations, and also had a primary network that was universally accepted as "the neutral network" and they used that neutral network to steer public opinion to the opinions valued most closely by the network.
Hopefully Kirk's warm memories of Blacksburg results in his successful lobbying for Tech to be included in the P2 in the next round of expansion.
If so Kirk and I will be good.
Otherwise I tend to agree with GoKartMozart above.