Oh the irony here. Can't wait for the possibility of him beating the Yuckeyes.
Welcome home, @ChaseHerbstreit! ใฝ๏ธ Signing Day Central ยป https://t.co/ilH2IYp4t0 #GoBlue | #ProcessOverPrize25 pic.twitter.com/sual3ct38qโ Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) December 8, 2024
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Not a other team for Kirk to fawn over, ugh
Two things:
This has to make for some interesting family dynamics.
And, good on Kirk obviously supporting his son with this choice.
Fuck Herbstreit, total sellout for the big 2. Terrible takes on today's playoff selection.
If I grew up watching this kind of commentary as a kid I would not still be a fan of the sport today
Kirk and his ilk stood in the way of modernizing and reforming CFB for years. He's a big fan of the Rose Bowl which kept the old Bowl spoils system in place for way too long and stood in the way of an actual on-field championship determination for a long long time.
Kirk is also a talking points machine that just nakedly says the things that are best for ESPN. They position themselves as stewards of the sport but they are very much not acting as such. Increasingly they are driving the sport on the business and even on-field sides and not just covering it.
I stopped watching virtually anything ESPN produces outside of actual live sports after the Craig James / Mike Leach / Bruce Feldman fiasco*. There might be actual journalists working for ESPN but one cannot take the network seriously as a source of unbiased coverage when they have such large financial stakes in the leagues they are covering. It used to be even the appearance of a conflict of interest was something that a news org would work hard to avoid. Now they have straight up business relationships with different conferences. They direct conference realignment, maybe not in a provable in court way but certainly in effect. ESPN has contributed to the destruction of many rivalries in the hunt for better TV packaging and ratings and now that they've been caught with their dicks out in an era of cable cutting things are going to get even more Hunger Games.
*For those that don't recall, Craig James' kid (Adam James) was at Texas Tech and was being either disciplined for being a disruption in practice or held out of practice for a concussion protocol depending on which account you believe. Craig James was one of the studio personalities at the time and ESPN leaned hard into the story line that Mike Leach had "locked his kid in a closet" in various, precarious-sounding locations. The James family and ESPN big-timed Leach and Texas Tech, punished Bruce Feldman for having written a book with Leach which ESPN had approved but later asked him to stop promoting because ESPN was involved in a lawsuit against Leach, and Leach was ultimately fired ahead of being due contractual bonuses.
The reporting on this is murky and shitty because of ESPNs entanglement and things have only gotten worse. Oh and now ESPN is either pursuing or consummating an ownership arrangement with a gambling services provider so that will work out well from a conflict of interest standpoint I'm sure.
https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2011/feldman-leaves-espn-for-c...
https://www.texastribune.org/2017/11/01/fired-2009-football-coach-mike-l...
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/316733-daddys-little-girl-adam-james...
"He's a big fan of the Rose Bowl which kept the old Bowl spoils system in place for way too long and stood in the way of an actual on-field championship determination for a long long time." - Why have something unique? Why have a great setting for college football at 2pm on NY's day in beautiful Pasadena? Why do that? Why support that? When you can have a coveted "playoff" game at oversized airplane hangar Jerry World that has ZERO college football ties or tradition? Why do that? The Rose Bowl was unique. The Premier League, NHL, NBA have nothing fucking like it... that sucks right? So yeah, let's get rid of it. Let's make it like Chargers/Chiefs was last night- indistinguishable from 100 other games. Also I might remind you - the Rose Bowl played host to probably the greatest natty game in our lifetimes- as it "stood in the way" of crowning a champion.
We can still have the Rose Bowl. We actually do still have the Rose Bowl. They still get their sunset over the San Gabriels, etc. No one is taking that away.
I submit though that Rose Bowl using its position as a hammer to avoid even the concept of a one true champion isn't great either. And they did just that for a long long time. They opposed the BCS that gave Virginia Tech its one shot at a natty. They opposed the four team playoff. They opposed expanding the playoff. That best ever natty game between Texas and USCw ruffled feathers at the time because it wasn't a Big Ten team in the game I am sure.
And yet we are in the first year of what might be the most exciting CFB post season in recent memory and not just a coronation between the Big Ten and the Pac-10/12 (RIP).
I mean lets just outright say it.
Herbie has become an ESPN shill over the years and its only getting more blatant as the years pass. His hammering of FSU last year while now crying over Bama and not saying a goddamn thing about UGa being down their QB and looking mediocre at best against Texas just shows how far he's fallen.
They all sold their souls for the college football money grab and they can all fuck off. I'm not surprised he is sending his kid to Michigan, he left his morals behind decades ago.
I know that you guys know this- but in production meetings these talking heads are told what to argue. It was 1 million % clear that Joey Galloway was the one that was told to argue for Alabama. He was shameless and kept saying, "well SMU lost" and kept hammering the SOS talking point supporting Bama. He was told to do that. Last year Orvlosky saying that "This FSU team did NOT go undefeated" - because they won with Travis- totally forced and he was told to argue that- no chance he thought that. Also on college game day - mouth breather McAfee and Desmond are told who to pick, etc. It's entertainment- nothing more.
Saban also failed to cover himself in laurels for being unbiased as well, trotting out the same dumb things that got Greg Byrne a community note on Xitter.
(Saban and Byrne both wah-wah'd about having to play hard OOCs and maybe they just would take their ball and not do that anymore when the issue was the three in-conference losses and the Alabama OOC had only one P4 FBS team on it, at sub 0.500 Wisconsin)
That's funny I thought the exact same thing about Galloway. It didn't seem like an organic opinion at all and he doubled down on points that made no sense logically. He got his orders from somewhere
Ever since they hit on the "loud arguments drive ratings" formula it's been a shitshow from an analysis standpoint.
the part of this that I find weird is that people actually enjoy that. The "loud arguments" drove me away. I don't enjoy that. Never have. I remember when Skip Bayless and Stephen A Smith were shouting at each other was kind of the point where I just lost interest in watching those types of shows. I just don't understand the appeal. I find it to be cringy and repulsive and I always felt icky and uncomfortable watching it.
It's the same thing with Pat McAfee. There's an audience for that guy, apparently. I'm not part of it for sure.
When he stood on his chair and did the "whose that coming down the street" bullshit Saturday, I turned it off.
same for me. and most the time is clearly so scripted and fake. i used to watch the NFL draft, and eventually that even turned into mel and todd arguing over player rankings and yelling at each other, and you could just tell it was an act, completely fake.
i actually don't watch any shows on espn anymore, but that is more because i am always outside with my kids after work, same on weekends.
The only one of those shows I will occasionally watch is PTI, but largely because Tony and Wilbon both used to write for the Washington Post so there's a local connection for me - but I can only manage it from time to time, and they really aren't all that loud relatively speaking.
PTI only works because of Tony and Wilbon and their friendship and respect for each other. It sucks when they have guests. Even when they're good friends with the guest too. Every other show from them sucks. It's just yelling. When Tony and Wilbon yell they sound like they're joking with each other. Every other show just sounds mean.
If ESPN and the CFP were consistent, Georgia wouldn't have a bye or be in the playoffs because they are not the same team without Beck.
Yup, FSU them.
Wasn't the NY times the only organization reporting anything of journalistic integrity on Leech? It was insane that no one asked questions and just bowed down to Craig James.
It was a complete and total shambolic cluster and hasn't really improved.
Oh that's cold... and I love it. Can't wait for Kirk to wear the half n half sweater during the "a game" broadcast
Herbstreet can suck my balls. 20 years ago I thought he was OK, but now he's just another sellout douche like everybody else at the four letter. Seriously, fuck him. And if we ever get GameDay back we should tear their set down during the broadcast. Rant over.
And build our own set using only Lowes products
Lowes Knows.... College Football
I mean, does it matter? Kid's getting a scholarship and to experience college football.
I hate Kirk but I've read OSU fans made his life miserable and he had to move out of the Columbus area.
Don't blame his kid for not wanting to follow in his footsteps.
And find it kinda funny his kid singed with UM as a final "take that" for what they did to him (and family by extension) in Columbus.
Keep in mind- he is a walk on... so I think there is some needling on both sides. Michigan trolling OSU basically risk free. The kid will never play QB for Michigan.
Needle away. Those old effers in Columbus are stewing just at the thought of him wearing maize and blue.
Who cares. Hopefully Kirk chokes on the biggest foreskin in history...
Herbie's son made a wise choice, because today Michigan got NO REAL SANCTIONS from the NCAA for wide scale cheating of course. nothing of substance. A fine and penalties for scum that aren't there anymore. No reduction in scholarships, no NIL restrictions, no bowl bans, nothing of note. Of Course
Yup. I'm with you on this one.
I'm shocked.
Well, not that shocked.
but only because it's Michigan - if this had happened at, like, VT - death penalty
Total fucking joke. They openly cheated and were not penalized in any real way. VT should cheat at every chance- in fact we should advance film like Stallions did THIS season. What will happen? nothing.
we absolutely should - and if we get caught we shouldn't care - and if the *waves generally* "authorizing body?" rake us over the coals and we get kicked out of the ACC (a blessing, IMO) we just countersue for damages with Michigan's case as Exhibit A and take all our "lost" ACC revenue as a lump sum and join one of the big dog conferences.
So, we want to get caught. Devious!
Can't ban them from a post season play. That would hurt the conferences revenue.
Yep. Total sham