Assassin™

Particularly when it comes to there biases and not-so-hidden agenda on college football. This of course isn't a new, spontaneous disdain that I developed for their broadcasters, but it was re-fueled last night during their BCS bowl game break down special.

The topic of course was...the BCS bowl games, and analysis of who did and didn't make it in. With Rece Davis as the host/moderator/only sane person on the set, they had both the Gameday crew and College Football Live crew on hand (Lee, Kirk, Mark, and Lou, BCS loyalists all). The question asked was something along the lines of, "Considering the strength of the Mountain West Conference this year, the history that Utah and Boise State have in bowls games, and the fact that none of the BCS conference had undefeated teams, did Utah and Boise State get the considerations they deserved?"

Kirk was the first to respond, and he answered honestly that Utah did not receive the considerations they deserved. When followed up with a question of "should they have" by Rece Davis, surprisingly, Kirk responds, "No".

He flat out admits that he's not giving Utah the considerations that he knows they deserve, and has only fallacious and condescending remarks about the MWC to back himself up, basically with a "Come on, it's the just the Mountain West" type of attitude. The focus then shifted to the guy who never seems to have his dentures on tight enough, Lou Holtz. He spews some BS about the Utah not having had "week-in and week-out" competition in the MWC.

What these two blowhards fail to realize is that they are actually going against what the BCS rankings actually say right now, and also with what just happened during the season. As the Mountain West champion, Utah is ranked far ahead of both the Big East's and ACC's champions, which should suggest that the MWC is a hands down better conference, right? Yet I have no doubt that if the ACC or Big East had an undefeated champion right now, they would either be in the national title game, or at the very least in the discussion for it. They wouldn't be written off for having played in the ACC or Big East, no matter how overall shitty those conferences were this year. Also relevant is how much better the Mountain West was this year than the Pac-10 (6-1 in head-to-head matchups between the conferences), yet good ol' Mark May is still going off on how USC (whose one loss was to a team that the undefeated Utes beat) still has an argument that they should be in the title game.

My point here is not to make an argument that Utah should be in this year's national championship game, it is to highlight how biased and dishonest ESPN's coverage of college football is, among other sports. How long are they going to keep putting LeBron James on a pedestal a defend him from seemingly everything negative anyone else in the sports world says about him? How obvious is it that the reporters cream in their pants every time Terrell Owens or Bret Favre open their mouths? And I'm convinced that the network as a whole would follow Tiger Woods into a burning building if he told them he'd let them film him his doing fist pumps for the Sportscentre intro.

Particularly when it comes to college football, ESPN is to the BCS officials what Fox News is to the Bush Administration.

Brandon

ESPN does suck so lets look at the Mountain West Conference as a whole.

Air Force (8-4). They were beaten by Utah, BYU, TCU, and Navy. Wins over BCS Top 25 opponents: None. Best Win: Houston.

BYU (10-2). They were beaten by TCU and Utah. Wins over BCS Top 25 opponents: None. Best Win: Air Force.

Colorado St. (6-6). They were beaten by Air Force, BYU, Utah, TCU, Colorado and lost to California 42-7. Wins over BCS Top 25 opponents: None.

New Mexico (4-8). They did beat Arizona who is decent but lost to Tulsa 56-14, Texas A&M 28-22. Wins over BCS Top 25 opponents: None.

San Diego St. (2-10).

TCU (10-2). They were beaten by Utah and Oklahoma. Out of conference: Lost to Oklahoma 35-10, beat Stanford (5-7), beat SMU, beat SF Austin (FCS). Wins over BCS Top 25 opponents: BYU.

UNLV (5-7). Wins over BCS Top 25 opponents. None.

Utah (12-0). Out of Conference: Beat Michigan (3-9), Weber St. (FCS), Utah St. (3-9), and Oregon St. Wins over BCS Top 25 opponents: BYU and TCU. Oregon St. is not ranked in the Top 25 of the BCS off losing to Oregon after giving up 700 yards and 65 points. Oregon St. also lost to Penn St. 41-14 and Stanford. They finished 8-4 with wins over USC (their claim to fame), Hawaii, Washington St., Cal, Arizona, Washington, Arizona St., and UCLA. The PAC-10 has two teams ranked in the BCS Top 25...USC and Oregon.

Wyoming (4-8).

From what I can see the Mountain West is fat at the top with TCU, Utah, and BYU. Their best non-conference win is Oregon St. BYU, Utah, and TCU have a combined conference record of 21-3.

Assassin™

I should have added, "or to get into a dick shriveling endless circular argument with Blitz over whether or not the Mountain West is a good conference."

I could easily negate your one-sided review of the Mountain West by comparing them to what the Big East, ACC, and Pac-10 accomplished this season, but I have enough sense to realize that none of that is relevant to the point I was making. I won't be following in your practice of willful ignorance.

I was pointing out that Kirk Herbstreit himself said Utah deserved the opportunity to rise higher and be considered for a national championship, then immediately said that he personally still would not give that consideration solely because of their conference (which is at worst, the 4th best conference). Again, if anyone in the ACC had gone undefeated, you would undoubtedly have these chumps at ESPN talking about how they should be in a title game.

Food for thought: The ACC champion Virginia Tech is ranked 19th in the final BCS standings...a whole 3 spots behind 16th ranked BYU, who is only the 3rd best team in the Mountain West.

This thread was meant as commentary on ESPN and their blind loyalty to the BCS, among other sports figures. Again, it was not meant as a venue to argue about the Mountain West. I only mentioned it as an example of a prominent ESPN broadcaster clearly showing his bias and straight up admitting that fairness and objectivity play absolutely no part in how he analyzes college football teams.

Brandon

Why are you getting so defensive? I didn't say that you said Utah deserved to be in the national championship game.. I took it upon myself to look at the conference as a whole because you and others have taken umbrage with Kirk's supposed unfair analysis of the Mountain West.

I'd have no problem with you or anyone saying that the Mountain west is better than the Pac-10 or the Big East..especially..

But I have heard a lot of complaining in recent weeks over Utah going undefeated and not having a chance to play in the game, but I think the BCS got the title game right with possibly the exception of Texas..

Utah certainly did not get screwed and hey, they have their chance to prove the doubters wrong against Alabama.

Assassin™

I'm not getting defensive, I'm reiterating my point so this thread doesn't get diverged, which always seems to happen when you're in the mix. I know you didn't say anything about Utah...that's why I said I should have added to my original statement to say that I was not arguing for the Mountain West either.

Selective reading really is unhealthy.


You also took it upon yourself to completely misinterpret what I was saying in this thread. It was not Kirk's "supposed" unfair analysis of the Mountain West that I was referencing, it was Kirk's admitted unfair analysis of Utah as a title contender. Kirk Herbstreit is a generally well respected college football analyst and commentator. He is, for all intensive purposes, ESPN's most prominent college football analyst, yet he operates under the most biased and illogical principles when it comes to his assessments of teams. This perfectly represents the larger narrative I was trying to construct of ESPN.

...do I really have to quote myself AGAIN!?!? How many times do you have to read a sentence before the message gets across? Hopefully, the 3rd time is a charm:

I mean, shit, I literally prefaced my entire last post with this, and you're still trying to go back to an argument about Utah and the national title?

Unbelievable.

Brandon

lmao.. you have some serious anger issues. I have no problem if these analysts are biased, they are no different than the political media.. they all have their agendas.. what I do have a problem with are voters such as those in the Harris poll who still think teams like Penn St. are 'undefeated'.

Toaster Oven

no you just have a problem with the big 10 as a whole.

I'm also confuddled by your new posting style, but alas I won't delve into that as it will turn into a roundabout argument.

__________________

Brandon

What? I was not aware that I had a new posting style.. but ok.

Assassin™

I'd wager that this is an example of what CP means by new posting style. As of late, you've been repeatedly manufacturing these false representations of people. Most of the time, they're not even based on reality, at least the way the rest of us perceive it. Anger issues? I would like to think that people can communicate with each other back and forth without there being an assumption that anger is the only motivation for them to do so. I don't have "anger issues", I just don't appreciate ESPN's pandering to certain sports entities. If I was literally angry about it, I'd probably do more than just post a thread on some online forum where a few dozen people may read it.

It's occurrences like this that really make me wonder if you're saying these ridiculous things disingenuously just to start arguments and/or present me unfavorably, or if you actually believe everything you're saying and think that it's at all totally accurate and relevant.

Dishonesty or Ignorance. Please pick one.

...and the political media is utter trash as well. How can you not have a problem with a news source being biased? Was it all just an act before, or are facts truly irrelevant to you? I have huge issues with the American news media as well, as should every person who values truth and fairness.

Brandon

That's why I don't listen to the Lee Corso's of the world.. He's not giving us his 'analysis' he's merely making it all about Lee Corso..

I actually like their show though, it makes me laugh.. but I don't put any stock in what they say. I've got the facts in front of me to make up my own mind..

If anything, Captain Planet was trying to bait me into another big 10 argument.. but honestly, they aren't worth my time..