ESPN Requiem for the Big East

[DarthGrumpy]

This takes stones as the Big E gave life to ESPN and then stabbed it to death.

http://espn.go.com/30for30/film?page=requiemforthebigeast

 

[NotreDameJoe]

I'll watch, I am curious what they say about Pitt and Syr's role in negotiating a Big East contract while looking for a way out.

And of course to hear how ND gets blamed.

 

[buddy]

The should change the title to murder of the BE by ESPN and the ACC.

 

[Durks07]

I'll watch, I am curious what they say about Pitt and Syr's role in negotiating a Big East contract while looking for a way out.

And of course to hear how ND gets blamed.

I will bet any amount that not one word is said about Pitt and Syracuse's role in destroying the conference. As for the second part, no good (and logically sound story) is complete without ND being at fault.

 

[TerryD]

I never watch ESPN unless an actual ND game is on. Even then, I don't watch any pre-game, halftime or post-game.

I never watch Sportscenter or any other ESPN programming. Are Charley Steiner and Bob Ley still anchors?

As far as the Big East is concerned, it was doomed from the Eighties on. It just took a while to die.

 

[TRest]

I never watch ESPN unless an actual ND game is on. Even then, I don't watch any pre-game, halftime or post-game.

I never watch Sportscenter or any other ESPN programming. Are Charley Steiner and Bob Ley still anchors?

As far as the Big East is concerned, it was doomed from the Eighties on. It just took a while to die.

As long as it works out for the parasite, who cares if the host dies?

 

[TerryD]

As long as it works out for the parasite, who cares if the host dies?

From what I can tell from the history of conference realignment, all conferences are temporary business arrangements and all schools act in their own best interests.

Exclamations of "conference loyalty" die out quickly when a better deal comes along....for everyone.

It just so happens that ND finds its best interests better served by independence rather than full membership. That is the only difference.

All schools will move and use conferences to their advantage. All schools look out for their own best interests.

If one believes differently, than one would believe that UConn owes it to their "conference brethren" to stay in the AAC and help the other schools out by sharing the wealth created by UConn basketball programs.

We all know that is not the case, nor should it be.

 

[Fishy]

If I were a Notre Dame fan, I would probably have a similar, predatory view of things.

 

[whaler11]

I will bet any amount that not one word is said about Pitt and Syracuse's role in destroying the conference. As for the second part, no good (and logically sound story) is complete without ND being at fault.

Probably because it's going to be a basketball documentary about the 80's directed by a Georgetown fan.

It's going to be Ewing, Nova, Mullin, Pearl. It will get into Iverson/Allen only to contrast it to the mid 80's.

 

[Kevin Caliendo]

Uconn is barely mentioned in this documentary, just a heads up. The 90s and 2000s are not mentioned except in terms of the first schools leaving for the ACC.

 

[captainron2]

It isn't often that they let the murderer give the eulogy.

 

[CL82]

It isn't often that they let the murderer give the eulogy.

post of the week

 

[Waquoit]

If I were a Notre Dame fan, I would probably have a similar, predatory view of things.

At least they are nice to your face.

 

[Waquoit]

Uconn is barely mentioned in this documentary, just a heads up. The 90s and 2000s are not mentioned except in terms of the first schools leaving for the ACC.

Same with the book Big Hoops. The sad fact is we have never been considered part of the club.

 

[FrostyNuggets]

This whole thing makes me feel like Tanner, with beer in hand, throwing a crummy trophy at the Yankees.

 

[Sea Goat]

Uconn is barely mentioned in this documentary, just a heads up. The 90s and 2000s are not mentioned except in terms of the first schools leaving for the ACC.

Yes - looks like the ESPN producers were trained at Kremlin - they know how to make it appear you never existed. Yet they are able to focus on ancient history where it suits them.

 

[whaler11]

Do you guys really not understand that the 30 for 30 documentaries are made by individual independent parties and not by ESPN?

Ezra Edelman made the documentary and the content is what it is because he's a 39 year Georgetown fan from DC.

Do you seriously believe that ESPN directed the content to exclude UConn? Do you wear your tinfoil hats outside the house - or is that just too awkward?

They tell Spike Lee, Johnny Knoxville, Billy Corgen, Ron Shelton, John Singleton and all the others what the content of their films will be? Sure thing.

 

[Fishy]

Have you decided to adopt the cranky old man persona 24/7 now?

Do you realize that the 30 for 30 stories are conceived, produced, funded and owned by ESPN?

They're not the result of some indie film maker chasing a muse - you're not getting a nickel from the WWL unless they're on board and they're not getting on board with anything that makes them look bad.

 

[whaler11]

Have you decided to adopt the cranky old man persona 24/7 now?

Do you realize that the 30 for 30 stories are conceived, produced, funded and owned by ESPN?

They're not the result of some indie film maker chasing a muse - you're not getting a nickel from the WWL unless they're on board and they're not getting on board with anything that makes them look bad.

It's not a persona.

Yes, many of them are independent people chasing muses. This is how a Georgetown fan ends up making an 80's Big East documentary. Could 'The U' have been made by someone who didn't love that era of Miami football?

So a bright guy you believes that UConn and really a bunch of other Big East schools were left out of this documentary not because the director has a hard on for Syracuse/Georgetown - but because ESPN exerted editorial control over the content?

That there is a conspiracy so deep at ESPN against UConn that you can find it in this documentary.... but all the UConn fans and alumni who have worked there have been kept in tbe dark?

If ESPN circulates a dumb memo about the cafeteria it gets posted on Deadspin, but the powerful anti-UConn message that they incorporate in television, their website and now in their film division they keep under wraps?

So I can tell you what restaurants Harold Reynolds sexually harrasses women in, and I can show you pictures of the broad Steve Phillips slept with - but the UConn conspiracy comes without any evidence beyond things like a perceived lack of respect from a non-employee Georgetown fan in a documentary.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

post of the week

Great post. Don't forget the accomplice . . . Notre Dame. Never should have let that piece of crap school suck the life out of the conference.

 

[huskyrob1]

The should change the title to murder of the BE by ESPN and the ACC.

…..and also add how Nero/Tiberius=Mike Tranghese/Lou Vealparm fiddled while Rome burned.

 

[Mots010]

The show started with a really interesting history on how the conference started. Then it spends several minutes on the last game at Manley Fieldhouse, and follows that with a 30 second clip of the last Syracuse/GT game at MSG last year. I turned it off there. Maybe someday someone will properly document the history of this conference. The Syracuse/GT rivalry was relevant for about 10 years. Then they might as well have renamed it "The battle for 2nd Place".

 

[billybud]

While I am not a basketball guy, I find myself agreeing with the "cranky old man".

If...If you are talking nostalgia and the Big East basketball of the 1980's...you are talking about the rivalry of GT and Syracuse.....even I remember this rivalry..

Georgetown finished #1 in 80, 82, 84, 85, 87, and 89....,Cuse was #1 in 81 and 88

Syracuse finished #2 in 1980, 84, 86, 87, and 89.

These two teams were the face of the Big East during this decade.

I would bet the focus of this piece is a nostalgic lookback at this rivalry...more then some chicanery at the ESPN "let's screw UConn" Division.

 

[upstater]

While I am not a basketball guy, I find myself agreeing with the "cranky old man".

If...If you are talking nostalgia and the Big East basketball of the 1980's...you are talking about the rivalry of GT and Syracuse.....even I remember this rivalry..

Georgetown finished #1 in 80, 82, 84, 85, 87, and 89....,Cuse was #1 in 81 and 88

Syracuse finished #2 in 1980, 84, 86, 87, and 89.

These two teams were the face of the Big East during this decade.

I would bet the focus of this piece is a nostalgic lookback at this rivalry...more then some chicanery at the ESPN "let's screw UConn" Division.

Did you watch it? Providence and Seton Hall were featured too.

If you want to look at a rivalry, you explain your focus. Writers and directors also title their work correctly. REQUIEM FOR THE BE is a title that speaks to the entire history of the conference.

Here is a number you'll find interesting: Between 1989 and 2008, Georgetown made only one Final 8. And that is why this director thought the history of the conference ended in 1989.

Think about that. What if FSU football had been in 3 championship games in the 1980s, winning one of them, and then you went 20 years playing in just one bowl game after New Year's. What would your perceptions be?

 

[billybud]

Well...if you watch a nostalgic FSU film...you can bet it focuses on the 1990's and not the 2000's.