Put your "way back" helmets on and remember back to August of last year when it was announced that ESPN had reached a 15-year (YIKES!!) agreement with the SEC for exclusive television rights to sporting events for the hugegantic sum of…
2 BILLION dollars!!!
Remember I told you this was a very very very bad thing for sports fans in general (ok, let's face it ESPN is already become a bad thing for sports fans but at least they used to show some objectivity). Well get ready because the spoon feeding is about to begin.
Alabama's annual spring game isn't just attracting huge crowds. Now the Crimson Tide's A-day game will have a national television audience. ESPN announced Tuesday that it will televise the game nationally on Saturday, April 18.
This is one of the most ill-conceived ideas out of all ill-conceived ideas; this gives bad ideas a bad name. Sure I'll watch the Blue/White game it's an excuse to tailgate ed.note- ok, it's an excuse to drink, no I really don't need an excuse but it makes me feel less of an alcoholic if others are drinking with me but if you are seriously considering watching another team's glorified scrimmage, one that isn't in your conference or on your schedule then you are:
A) Addicted to college football and need help; like real professional help
B) Bored out of your mind and are out of beer and all the stores are closed and all the bars are closed and those old prescription pain pills sitting in the back of your medicine cabinet look too scary for you anymore.
How many people outside of the state of Alabama are going to watch this thing, I mean really?? Come on, this is as transparent as Fox's "fair and unbalanced" approach to news; ESPN is plugging anything that slightly resembles the SEC. What's next a night out with Tim Tebow's aunt?
Announcer: This Wednesday see how Bingo is played with SEC speed… only on ESPN.
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5 comments:
It was only a matter of time. They had Florida's Spring Game Festivalpalooza last year as well, though not sure if the contract was finished by then.
Fox sports is really our only hope, if ESPN/ABC don't have some heavy competition, someone with some financial backing, ESPN will have a stranglehold on the sports world. Duke basketball 24/7!!
It's too bad NBC and CBS won't grow some balls. I know CBS is already digging into the SEC's pants at every turn, but they do only broad cast one, maybe two games per Saturday. NBC, well, they're love affair with the Irish is just hurting everyone.
Let's hope the Big Ten Network starts to gain more respect, and then proceed to throw that new-found weight around.
Yeah right...
Really, the move to acquire rights by ESPN was a preemptive grab so no one created an SEC Network like the BTN, so from this point forward I will now refer to ESPN as the SEC Network.
The traditional networks will never compete with ESPN, unless they create sports only networks, as they have other programming to show (and are required to on Sat/Sun mornings). Yes, they may broadcast one or two games a weekend but that can't compete with the 48/7 coverage of ESPN/2. As you said, FSN is really our only hope as of the moment.
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