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ESPN and the SEC have a cozy relationship that long predates the exclusive media rights deal that began this season. Between the SEC Network being run by Disney, the conference having tie-ins to so many bowls owned by the network, and the overwhelming amount of games the ESPN networks carried even when CBS got the pick of the litter, SEC football has just meant more to ESPN for about two decades.
You have no doubt heard the conspiracies. ESPN will step in when it needs to and tip the scales towards whatever SEC team needs the benefit of the doubt. The College Football Playoff is a TV show, after all. Wouldn’t it make sense for the network airing it to make sure one, or sometimes even two, teams from the conference that draws the best ratings are included?
Let me be clear, I do not think there is any way that anyone capable of divorcing themselves from emotion can believe Alabama didn’t deserve the final spot in last year’s playoff over Florida State, but what I will acknowledge is that this year, ESPN has gone a bit overboard. The talent is outright rooting for and lobbying the committee on behalf of the SEC.
This isn’t just happening on The Paul Finebaum Show, where such a conversation should occur. It’s not just happening on College GameDay, which was designed to set the tone of conversation about the sport. It’s happening in the middle of game broadcasts.
It’s shameless, and it undermines the credibility of a lot of knowledgeable and talented people.
College football is a game built on tradition. No one has more tradition than the SEC. Even the most casual of football fans can recognize Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee helmets. Adding Oklahoma and Texas to the lineup only strengthened that position.
The conference has three legitimate title contenders this year and will likely have four teams finish amongst the top twelve in the country. The SEC does not need the reputation assist from ESPN to get the deserving amount of teams into the College Football Playoff.
Joe Tessitore is taking time every week, in the middle of games, to spread propaganda. It’s happened multiple times this year and it’s always off-putting. Just this week, he was downplaying a truly remarkable season from the Indiana Hoosiers in the name of “justice” for three-loss SEC teams.
Tessitore is an accomplished broadcaster. He has his own legion of fans online because of the passion he brings to every assignment. Simping for the SEC is beneath him and it puts him in a position that justifiably draws contempt.
Expanding the College Football Playoff to 12 teams was never supposed to be about more representation. It was always a plan to get more money to the SEC and the Big Ten – the two biggest brands in the sport. In fact, those two conferences already have a plan to expand the playoff further and make any other conference participating even harder.
Despite all of that though, we have seen a lot of new names and faces rise up this season. Indiana deserves a College Football Playoff bid. SMU deserves a College Football Playoff bid. Ashton Jeanty at Boise State deserves a national stage.
It’s been an extraordinary season and the sport’s most powerful voice wants you to believe that none of it matters if it didn’t happen in a collection of 11 states in the bottom right corner of the country. Not only is it insulting, it doesn’t even make sense. ESPN carries a lot of conference’s games. Doesn’t it benefit the network to tell you that they all matter?
Greg Sankey, the SEC’s Commissioner, carries a lot of weight in the sports media business. It makes sense. He controls a desirable product. His network partner should want to keep him happy.
I don’t mind him lobbying for the quality of his teams and the depth of his conference. It’s what he’s paid to do. Seeing supposedly neutral parties echo his message without scrutiny or even editing makes a mockery of the network and the sport, though. It invites deserved skepticism of what SEC teams could accomplish without college football’s most powerful megaphone being drunk on the conference Kool Aid.
No one at ESPN has to listen to me. Everyone inside the SEC offices in Birmingham have every right to tell me to shut up. I am a peon. My hope is that those powers that be would consider that if someone like me, a guy that grew up inside of the conference footprint, graduated from the University of Alabama, and truly believes that SEC football is a product that has no equal, is making this observation, there has to be some truth to it.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
