If you'd like to know the current state of SportsCenter's coverage of CFB, they just ran a segment called "ACC Struggles in Week 1," citing BC, UVA, Clemson, and GT losing.• Virginia was picked last in the ACC and lost to #12 Tennessee.• Boston College and GA Tech were... pic.twitter.com/wvGURxuUXQ— CFB Kings (@CFBKings) September 5, 2023
How did ESPN cover the Duke upset of Clemson on Monday night? By sending out Finebaum to run his mouth like this:
Paul Finebaum says Clemson's "dynasty" is over after the team's loss to Duke https://t.co/KrJ16tPoek— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) September 5, 2023
And how did ESPN handle the news of the ACC expanding? By sending out Finebaum to run his mouth like this:
https://t.co/1QrUJm6xG7— Jeff Payton (@ke4ole1) September 4, 2023
At a certain point, its alarming that ESPN is actively trying to devalue the ACC, likely for their own benefit. And things like this absolutely make you question the intent and nature of the hit piece they ran last week on Whit Babcock and Virginia Tech in general.
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And I'll just say this. You damn well know that if Alabama or Georgia happened to lose to a school like Miss St, Missouri, or Vanderbilt in the opening week like Clemson just did to Duke, the narrative would be about how much of a bloodbath the SEC is, you'd have the victor vault up to at least the Top 15 in the country, and it would be a year long talking about about how strong the conference is. But when that same thing happens in the ACC, well, you get segments like the above.
Live by the orange, die by the orange.
Blows my mind that ESPN would push the ACC to add Stanford, Cal, and SMU, then proceed to talk trash about it and frame the ACC as weak. Crazy that they would devalue their own asset, but as you mentioned, they likely want to keep from having to pay the ACC more money A) because the deal they currently have is so far below market its a bargain, and B) ESPN has significant financial struggles and doesn't want to lose ACC brands to other leagues or be forced to pay more.
I firmly believe both that the ACC is undervalued and the SEC is significantly overvalued. ESPN knows if they lock down the most valuable products, they can get everyone else at a discount. And even if the ACC could swing its weight around and get more money we can't because we're locked into this contract
It's true that the SEC is more valuable right now than the ACC (by much less than the TV deals would indicate). But if 10 years ago ESPN decides to promote the ACC the same way they did the SEC is that still true? I think it's legitimately up for debate.
Right- when Missouri wins a conference game, they get ranked, because they won a great SEC game. Not so much for Duke. FSU lost for a month straight in the ACC last year and wiped the #2 SEC team off the field the other night. there has NEVER been that much difference as ESPN has played it up in reality.
Two of those being in conference losses really makes this look like bias reporting. The real stories should be FSU whooping LSU and Duke pouncing on Clemson. Those are the only ACC related storylines people at the office have talked about from Week 1.
I mean between FSU whipping the piss out of #5 LSU (a school that ESPN did not let us forget was a title contender this year) and UNC beating the hell out of Sackerlina (a team that ESPN did not shy away from hyping the hell out of because of their wins over Tennessee and Clemson last year) its very curious to now see that ESPN is spinning the ACC into having a bad 1st week because 3 of the predicted bottom 4 teams in the conference lost (one to another ACC school) and the only other loss being on the road against another ACC school.
Its absolutely bias reporting, but absolutely in the wheelhouse of everything ESPN has built itself on over the last 20-25 years. If it ain't something they stand to make a hell of a lot of money off of, its absolute shit. Just look at the way they buried NHL coverage since they lost the broadcast rights in 2005, to the point where even now, when they have it back, they still have First Take shitting on the league this year as not being a real sport.
ESPN serves to promote them and what they cover and nothing more.
That's really where the ACC is in a precarious position because the SEC has ESPN to constant trumpet them, B1G has Fox and NBC and the ACC had nobody.
Perception becomes reality and the Media companies have no interest in promoting the ACC at this point.
Fienbaum is ESPN's newest Beano Cook. Except instead of having a love affair with Notre Dame, Finebaum gets passed around the entire SEC.
now that's a name i haven't heard in a long time....
Reporting about the strength of a conference, then covering two in-conference games.....dude.....
As a conference, are we weaker because Clemson and GT lost, or stronger because Louisville and Duke WON?
Take this with a grain of salt. Like when the weatherman says it's partly cloudy or mostly sunny..... means the same thing.....
They will never be happy.
They will never make us happy.
But we can't just say fuck 'em, because we are tied at the hip to ESPN to broadcast our games, and we are dependent upon them for the perception of the conference. Recruits are seeing this shit and are being influenced in their decision-making based on this. They need to be called out on this, but from whom? Some niche reporting on sports journalism? That's not going to move the needle at all.
ACC Commish needs to get on the phone and start laying into some ESPN execs over this crap. Does he have any leverage? Can a media contract be dissolved if they can show that one party is actively working against another party's best interests? And if we could, should we? Right now we're getting more per school than the Big XII-II-II+II+II-II+?, and more than the Pac was offered. If we use this biased journalism to (tortuous interference?) to break from ESPN, are we going to get anywhere near what we're getting from anywhere else? We may be locked into this deal long term, but it may be better than the alternative.
Excuse the word vomit. Just putting some thoughts out there.
Not VT, just the public.
VT we cannot go to war with anyone. Just put their heads down and win games. Until VT Football is in the top 15 consistently, we are just another pawn in their game.
And no need to blow up the world because someone said something mean about the entirety that we are attached to (good or bad.) Just gotta take it and take care of what we can take care of, the next game.
This, My interest in the overall sport is waning rapidly. I'll still follow and root for the Hokies, but I am starting to care very little about the ACC and college football in general.
This is where I am. The annoying - FSU football- is now 10X more annoying now that they can simply buy players and have 7th year covid guys etc. They were annoying enough before- now having Michigan States best WR running up and down the field with immediate eligibility sucks. VT can't keep up with that shit.
Thus my kind-of-serious desire to just quit trying and join with other like-minded and still pretty interesting left-behinds and build a new league.
Insane that they would trash their own product and at the same time the acc would not be talking to their lawyers about defamation
"ACC Struggles..."
Where's the defamation? Where's the harm?
There's nothing on that bone for a lawyer to latch onto.
Want big bad ESPN to stop being mean? Win.
Does Clemson's lose "hurt" the ACC. Yeah, to an extent.
Were they going to win it all this year anyway? Nope.
Only thing the ACC can do now is play spoiler, and again, win.
Yeah, you can't defame by opinion. Only by bad "facts".
Lol ok you caught me I'm not a lawyer guys I just threw out the only word that made sense to me 🤣. My point was it's such a bullshit tactic that ESPN would go out of its way to trash one of its assets while praising the other in similar circumstances
The point of this post is the ACC is winning and ESPN is choosing to minimize it. Winning will change public opinion but it won't fix this problem
But what's the problem? that ESPN are full of Dingii?
Or is the fact that the ACC really doesn't have a contender?
Public opinion is one thing, but who cares. There's a playoff system now to take public opinion mostly out of the equation. And let's not fool ourselves that if it comes down to a 1 loss Clemson and a 1 loss Miss St who would get the nod 99 out of 100 times. It's early in the season and the big mouse is just filling air space since 2 f their biggest sports aren't in season yet.
Public opinion will never be out of the equation while recruiting high schoolers is a thing.
Public opinion will never be out of the equation as long as playoff bids are subjective and based on politicking a selection committee rather than a walled off merit-based entry determined solely by on-field wins and losses.
I'm more concerned about the impact of public perception on recruiting. If that is still a problem, then we're never going to have to worry about being left out of the playoffs due to the impact of public perception on bid extensions.
Ship has looonnngggg sailed. Long. SEC food is better - just is. SEC punters are better- just are. Vandy is better than VT- just is. etc. Sport talk radio doesn't cover college football. They cover the SEC. CBS doesn't cover college football, they cover the SEC. That wont change for years.
Agreed. The cow is 2 counties over, no reason to be concerned about the effects of the rope on the gate now.
She gone.
And with the way CFB is headed, we don't have millions to throw at it. It's all gone.
One article on ESPN after week 1 isn't moving the needle on recruiting. Not one inch. Good or bad.
Yep, they started saying it long before it was actually true. Now that it is true they still far exaggerate what the talent disparity actually is
NFL Draft Rankings Over The Last 5 Years (thru 2021):
Players Drafted By Conference Average
1. SEC 21
2. Big Ten 14.21
3. Pac-12 13.17
4. ACC 13.14
5. Big 12 10.3
6. American Athletic 7
7. Independents 6.29
8. Mountain West 3.26
9. Conference USA 2.5
10. MAC 2.36
11. Sun Belt 2.1
Couple more tid bits:
-The SEC led the nation's conferences in NFL Draft picks for the 16th consecutive year in 2022 with 65 selections, which ties the SEC and national record. The SEC also saw 65 selections in the 2021 Draft.
-This marks the eighth straight year for the SEC to see 50 or more players taken in the NFL Draft. Only twice in the last 27 years has another conference other than the SEC seen 50 or more players drafted.
-The SEC has averaged over 50 selections per draft since 2006.
Yep that's insane. Thank you for illustrating what I was saying
How many last in the league compared to other conferences? How many are drafted because they came from the SEC and got more exposure?
As you know some of that is chicken /egg.... Oh he's in the SEC, so he must be good, so we should draft him. There is a ton of that- especially in the mid rounds.
And as we all know, this also happens with recruiting rankings.
Oh, a SEC team offered him, he must be good, so his ratings bump up.
Oh, the player went somewhere that isn't SEC? He must not have had a committable offer or the team changed priorities, so his ratings take a hit.
And then with all these players on their inflated rankings get into the season, well the SEC deserves all the hype, because they're the ones dominating the recruiting rankings, so obviously they have the best players and best teams, so they must dominate the polls. And for about 20 years the conference refused to play OOC games that were either not at their home venue or at a venue deep in SEC territory, rarely playing top teams in other conferences that weren't in-state rivalries, so they made sure they had the advantage in any game they played. So most years their OOC scheduling, especially for the top teams in the conference was stuffed with patsies at home so that the big losses the conference had was against each other. And that means that whenever a SEC team upsets another SEC team, well thats just validation that the conference was elite and beating up on itself.
Repeat that process for 10 years and you have a machine that convinced the public that a team who didn't even win its own division deserved a spot in the National Title game.
Of course these players are actively sought after by NFL teams. And there's a reason why the vast majority of NFL teams run through coaches and GMs a few times a decade.
And goes to my point that an article in week 1 isn't moving the needle for recruiting. It's already been moved.
You mean like the below fact re U of F's trip to Utah??
"The Florida Gators will travel to Salt Lake City to take on the No. 14 ranked Utah Utes on Thursday night, marking the first time the Gators have played a nonconference road game outside of the state of Florida in 32 years.
The last time Florida played a nonconference road game outside of Florida was on September 21, 1991, when they lost to Syracuse 38-21. That was 11,667 days ago, according to Brett McMurphy."
That is so fucking pathetic. Like when Alabama played Texas in the rose bowl it was like the second time in 100 years they played west of the mississippi
Is Brett McMurphy the expert on calendar date spans? ;^)
I don't have a problem with that so much if there are non-conference in-state opponents who are worth a damn.
Florida @ FSU/Miami/UCF doesn't upset me as much as VT/UVA @ Liberty/JMU/ODU
The worst game you can schedule is a no win game. Like playing on the road at Marshall for example. No win. Like giving ODU's program air and legitimacy- why? - no win for VT- none. Schedule William and Mary and VMI if you are pinching pennies- you will beat them- and then fill the non con with P5 teams so you aren't a punchline if you lose and if you win- you get respect and it's probably on a major network somewhere for exposure. Really not that hard.
The only reason we should ever schedule a road game against Marshall is because they helped us big time when ECU threw a fit. But that's a big thank you for helping us our in a tight spot, not a normal thing.
I was going to say, isn't this game exactly that? They did us the solid, and in return we're going to Huntington
Now that's being too nice to ECU. Every time this comes up, its worth explicitly saying they weaponized a $10k discount on the amount we paid them to play in Lane in 2007 because they happened to be the first game to be played in Lane after the shooting on campus earlier that year, in order to garner public support after they bailed on the 2019 game in Lane, and only had us know it happened because the ECU Equipment account on twitter posted the arrival of their team and equipment in Orlando for the game the next week.
FSU just made a supposed "title contender" look like they belong in the Sun Belt. The game was not as close as the score. And there's a good argument LSU could be the 2nd best team in the SEC
Yeah if FSU stays healthy and executes like they did on Sunday I don't really see them tripping up until they meet Georgia.
Yeah if FSU stays healthy and executes like they did on Sunday I don't really see them tripping up until they meet
GeorgiaVirginia Tech. FTFYone can dream can't they!
I mean that one year in the late Beamer years they should have destroyed us but we hung in there until I think Kevin Benjamin killed us late. So we have a history of playing them tough. (I don't think that will happen this year but you never know)
It will literally never be good enough for ESPN. I mean the ACC was winning with Clemson and FSU winning titles within the past 10 years, and it didn't matter. Nothing the ACC will ever do is ever going to be good enough, because every accomplishment has always been brushed aside as a bright spot in a terrible conference, and any other team that steps up will always be viewed upon as a product of the bad teams just dragging everyone else down.
Exactly.
Why I said they will never be happy, and they'll never make us happy. Tis what tis.
You need to figure out what ESPN needs and provide it. Make sure they know it.
That's how to win back ESPN.
That's hard to do when their needs are 'SEC empire building and monopolizing' and we're the ACC
There is more than 1 thing ESPN needs.
SEC is providing something(s) ESPN needs. Perhaps SEC empire benefits ESPN in some way. ESPN doesn't do it out of the wonderfulness of their heart. How exactly do they benefit by that? Why the SEC? Why can it not be a different conference or more than 1 conference, etc.
Figure out what those other things are. Figure out how to provide one or more of them.
I think the SEC is very insecure and wouldn't be surprised if there was some back room hand shake deals for the ESPN to heavily promote the SEC and trash other leagues. Football is literally all the SEC has really so they want to ensure they are promoted as the best. Helps them maintain their perception and competitive edge with recruiting, and makes ESPN a ton of money. So win win for both of them.
It also doesn't strike me as total coincidence that in the buildup to their first huge media deal with ESPN (circa 2007/2008) there was a non-stop hype fest out of nowhere over the SEC. Florida boatraced Ohio State in the title game in 06/07 and I was shocked that most of the media and Florida players were hyping the SEC instead of just their own team. Lots of "SEC-speed" type of commentary started then along with "SEC" chants at games and went full speed after that. Also keep in mind that at the same time, prior to that first big ESPN-SEC deal, the ACC had just completed its expansion and was hyping itself as a super conference, and also then had the highest per team payout for media rights of any conference. I think it was a power play by the SEC and ESPN.
The part that chaps my behind is the support VT gave when they were trying to get Thursday night football off the ground.
True, it was good for us too but, they were not getting the greatest traction.
The people running ESPN now are not the same people running ESPN then. They don't remember what VT did for them.
Ok, I'll say it:
Fuck ESPN.
I've had two competing thoughts percolating around in the back of my head for a while now.
1. ESPN has killed college football. the fatal stab wound is there, we're just waiting for it to bleed out and for the body to be found. ESPN (and the SEC) think that when they kill off CFB as a national ecosystem, that it's going to be like the NFL and I'm going to choose my favorite SEC school and transfer my support from my current loyalties. (one of which is wife's Vanderbilt undergrad, but in this hypo Vandy's getting tossed). I've already made the conscious decision that we're not going to watch as much football this year, much less parking on the couch and completely dedicating our entire Saturday to watching the biggest 2-4 games in each time slot all day. We watch our teams, maybe some other game with interesting storylines like Coach Prime (especially since I live in CO and am surrounded by Buffs), but other than that we're going outside and doing something else. I'm not the only one who isn't going to give a fuck about Alabama playing Texas in the NFL triple-a super bowl.
2. And this seems far less likely, but I can't help but see some support for the proposition. Maybe we're not stuck in the GOR and contract with ESPN, but maybe ESPN is stuck in the GOR and contract with us? The whole point was stability so that the shitbag Marylands of the world couldn't run at the first sign of adversity (side eyes FSU here). Maybe that stability is a good thing, ESPN's bitten off more than they can chew or afford and the next contracts for the SEC and BIG are going to look more 2-PAC and less ALL OF THE MONEY FOREVERZZZZ. Maybe ESPN is collapsing and doesn't have all the money to flash around. If the SEC is stuck with 30mil/yr/school or an Apple contract based on carriage, which way would they go? I'm not buying another streaming package just to watch the SEC, my interest has been due to convenience. Maybe we just gotta keep the band together until the rest of the CFB comes back to earth.
I think #2 is very unlikely, but by basing my fandom on #1, I start to prepare myself for the more likely future, and maybe by turning off more SEC games, I make #2 a little more likely to happen. Either way, I wish we'd gotten that natty before the whole thing collapsed.
I have been long wondering about #2 and how long is the huge contracts for B1G and SEC going to be sustainable. The advertising revenue just isn't there anymore to justify those contracts.
Like the NFL, not only will they be sustainable, they will continue to grow out of control. Ad revenue doesn't support Amazon paying a billion dollars per NFL game either. It's king football. the next SEC contract will drawf this one
I very much hope you are wrong. (But suspect you are right).
For all of the conspiracy theorists out there, ESPN just dropped a lengthy expose on the Isi Etute case. From 3 years ago. Have to say, it is beginning to feel a little like they have it out for VT.
I read it. Doesn't really come across bad for VT and it is/was news.
For lots of people, anytime a football player is involved in anything bad, espcially a killing, it is proof of how bad athletes and especially football players, are as people.
That piece was well written and researched. I thought it did a good job of putting the facts out there without being salacious or trying to assign blame. The article portrayed a tragedy befalling two families and left things so the reader could decide if the outcome of the trial served justice appropriately.
They also dropped today that we are on "Upset Watch" by Purdue. The comedy there being ESPN FPI before the season started had Purdue as favored to win this game.
LINK
Drink
Hadn't read the other thread so took me a minute....
Cheers
I hope VT uses this as motivation.
VT absolutely has a lot to prove here.