F ESPN

[AZHuskiePop]

I don't care what ESPN does. What I want to know is why they are doing it. Their obsession with UConn, either by negative press or omission from the obvious like a sweet 16 appearance, is both blatant and petty. Some may want to call the conspiracy kitty, but I have to believe there is a reason why. If UConn was simply left out of the realignment game and chosen over as we were lead to believe, would ESPN really being trying so hard to devalue our brand? Think about it. There was some negative story on us almost weekly. For what we know, this doesn't make any sense.

I don't like to use the word conspiracy. ESPN is not a non-profit and they are not stupid.
It a conscience business decision. It's certainly about money but the real question is how do their actions make them more money or prevent them from making additional money down the road.
Flesh that out and you have your answer.
Theory 1
Not building us up insures that we remain in their time filler conference, it also insures, that conference remains available at the sale price they are paying.
Theory 2
They know we are already gone and are using their resources to marginalized a potentential competitor.
Buy the way neither of these strategies is original. Their effectiveness is really dependent on us.
ESPN has to maintain that balance between sports news network and sports promo media. If they lose the former it's a slippery slope to irrelenvency for them.
Even sport fans will figure out they are watching an infomercial after a while.