(EDITED BY AUTHOR: 9/20/2006 - 9:37 p.m.)
Several years ago when the SEC inked the deal with CBS, I thought it was a brilliant move. Being on CBS meant that each game was coast-to-coast, national coverage--no regional BS. At the time, what better method for promotion of the conference. Couple that with having the the ESPN and ESPN2 prime-time games, and we were tops in the nation as far as coverage. The heiarchy was: CBS got first pick, ESPN got second, ESPN2 got third, and JP got whatever was left. Add in the occasional FSS game and the SEC was pretty much guaranteed that 3 out of our 4 televised games each week were nationally covered. No more excuses of the west coast or Midwest not seeing our games (that some thought affected SEC teams' votes in the national polls). Again, this was (in my opinion) a brilliant coup by Roy Cramer of pretty much coming as close to possible to monopolizing the "national" airwaves with SEC football. BUT, this was based on one assumption...
That assumption pretty much held true until sometime in the not so distant past. This assumption was that the networks would cover their respective games and Gameday would continue to set up at the game that had the most impact on the world of college football that week--the "marquee game" so to speak. I actually think they did this up until sometime last year when someone realized that by placing Gameday at an SEC campus for a big conference game was actually promoting a rival network and possibly persuading viewers to watch our games rather than the regional ABC or afternoon ESPN games.
So, now you have Gameday showing an obvious bias towards whoever is on the ABC/ESPN network (basically every major conference except the SEC). Like it or not, Chris, Lee, and Kirk have become icons of the college game. Thier opinions and quips are heard by more college football fans than all others combined (no actual stat to back this up, but I would bet the house on it). As ridiculus as some are, that's what's going on the airwaves. Combine that with Gameday's reluctance to come to an SEC site, and you have an entire nation (college football fan nation) giving instant credibility to opinions that, to me, have lost all sense of journalistic integrity. Im talking about SPORTS journalistic integrity. Say what you want, but until recently (last 5 years or so), there usually was little doubt about who the best handfull of teams in the nation are. The commentators voiced their opinion based on the teams, facts, analysis, and their experience in covering/playing/coaching the game.
Now, there is almost this cloud of uncertainty of whether this or that team should be promoted simply because they are not being televised by our network. It's like the kid's book, "The Emperor Has No Clothes," everyone knows the truth (or what they believe to be true) but are somewhat timid to voice their true opinion because of certain rammifications from network bigwigs. In the article that Fowler wrote (and wrote so carefully and politically savvy, I might add), I can honestly say that I got the impression that he feels very uneasy about this whole thing.
I would hope that the fact the tail is wagging the dog in college football is no earth shattering fact to most by now. I can remember being shocked when networks pretty much took over the setting of game times to meet current programming. Not saying it's a bad thing, but it's clearly the tail wagging the dog. Now, add marketing, licensing, etc. to the deal--and there's no end in sight. It' kinda like putting a frog into a pot of boiling water--he will immediatly jump out. BUT, put him in a pot of cold water and slowly turn up the heat, and he will die. That is how I see college football. Take the way the game was covered 10-15 years ago and compare it with today. To me, it has drastically changed. But it has been small changes each year. Not all have been bad. But, if you keep pecking away at integrety and soon there is nothing left. So why even try to pretend any reamins at all (which is what I think Fowler is saying to a certain extent).
So, now, back to our current television contract with CBS. What looked like was a brilliant marketing deal years ago may actually be hurting the SEC today because of the rluctance of the ABC/ESPN jauggernaut of college football being reined in on promoting the "CBS" teams too much in fear of losing ground. Like the guy from Gatorcountry said, until Fox or CBS puts together their own traveling commentary/opinion team, there is no end in sight.
Well, that's most of my rant. Sorry for the long post. I don't even know if it makes sense, but it makes me sick.
