Media is tarnishing college sports

[fortebleedsblue]

Maybe it’s just me, but the media is blatantly tarnishing collegiate sports. What happened to sports just being sports, or the student athlete? ESPN (MOSTLY IMO) along with some other media outlets are placing more emphasis and focus on off the field issues than the actual games. Drama seems to be their main focus now making sports seem more like a glorified reality show than anything else. From analyst talking day and night about the Miami scandal, anonymous sources quoting anonymous sources on conference realignments, burrowing up any possible NCAA violation to now the Penn State scandal college sports are being tarnished by the soap opera ESPN generates. When I’m watching a UConn game I don’t want a ‘Sports Center break’ to hear about whether or not Analyst think Cam Newton is guilty. The media is such garbage now days and they are bringing college sports down to their level. Is this what sells in sports today, a bash fest filled with anonymous sources on the latest scandals?

I direct much of this towards ESPN because when I watch fox sports network (not fox Sunday NFL) SNY or NBC sports it’s seems like what happens on the field is what matters the most. I can’t say the same for the ABC affiliate. Show me more high school games, play more soccer events, maybe have more fan events, heck even broadcast bowling … anything but the crap I’ve been witnessing as of late. ESPN is so worried about driving ratings up that they will stop at nothing, even if that means turning their bread and butter into a circus.

 

[Stinger92860]

I would content that the Colleges are tarnishing College Sports (Miami, Ohio St, Penn St, ACC greed, and to some extent us with Miles, laptopgate, etc.). .

 

[Husky68]

I would content that the Colleges are tarnishing College Sports (Miami, Ohio St, Penn St, ACC greed, and to some extent us with Miles, laptopgate, etc.). .

+1

 

[Dogdeacon]

Yep its not the medias fault. College sports got into bed with the media money and now that devil is running the show. And its forever been the case that scandal and controversy draws more people in than anything else. So ESPN and Yahoo and everyone else are going to keep digging up to grab more attention. Cam Newton is a bigger brand because of his 'scandal'.

If you want college sports left alone go to an Ivy league game or work your way down to D2 or 3. The purity is only there if un-touched by money. Otherwise if you want to watch the best athletes at the highest level you gotta live with the hypocrisy.

 

[jpm25]

It's not the schools. It's the media.*


*sarcasm

 

[Jarhead_1775]

Forte, I do agree on your point about the constant analysis from Espn. It truly is no longer news, much in the same way that fox "news", or any other 24 hour news network for that matter. It's no longer just reporting the news, it really is just entertainment. The problem is the people watch all this stuff and take all these analysis opinions as facts. I guess you could argue that maybe Espn started that wave. At first out of necessity to fill lots of on air time, then they figured out that people really want to watch this .
Where I differ is that the media is somehow responsible. I don't think you're suggesting that, but you seem to be heading in that direction. They are turning it into a circus, but it is a story that needs to be told.

 

[Scoe]

Well Pennstate has given the media alot of ammo, I agree though ESPN likes to jizz all over the place.

 

[Waquoit]

It's not just college sports, it's all sports especially pro. The game, the competition itself, is becoming less important. Many people on this board harp about things like the "game day experience" or the crowd not sitting in their seats all the time. The "game day experience" is not the game. Neither is the crowd.

 

[Vowelguy]

I would content that the Colleges are tarnishing College Sports (Miami, Ohio St, Penn St, ACC greed, and to some extent us with Miles, laptopgate, etc.). .

+10000000

 

[Dogdeacon]

It's not just college sports, it's all sports especially pro. The game, the competition itself, is becoming less important. Many people on this board harp about things like the "game day experience" or the crowd not sitting in their seats all the time. The "game day experience" is not the game. Neither is the crowd.

Very true, the difference with the pro's though is unless its a criminal offense (in which case it impacts an individual and maybe a team), the negative stuff doesn't threaten the very existence of the game or a team's ability to win games. That's why Reggie Bush's pro career continued regardless of USC penalties, though I suppose you could argue the negative press had a detrimental impact on his psyche and future performance.

But in college schools get penatlies, ineligible for postseason etc.. So the quest for negative stories regarding college athletics does in fact influence the games themselves. Ie. if Red Sox players drink beer and eat chicken wings during games its a negative story with legs but ultimately doesn't have any direct repurcussions for the team. If the same thing were to occur in a locker room at UConn and say the chicken and beer were freebies there'd be some future penatly impacting games.

 

[Kingspoint]

IMO, the television media has brought sports to the forefront of American entertainment. Without ESPN, Fox, ABC or you name the network, where would sports truly be? But I digress.

Back to your original question/comment about sports being just about sports.

Everybody loves a good scandal/drama laden story (especially if it doesn't involve them), and college sports has been more than happy to provide the source, at least this year. Whether the scandal is full of controversy or something good comes out in the end, the bottom line is this - Americans thirst for that kind of stuff and can't seem to get enough of it. So whether we like it or not, the likes of ESPN will continue to quench that thirst until they're given something else to replace it. Though the manner in which ESPN or whatever sports channel may choose to cover the scandal/drama will be agreed to by everyone, in the long run I believe it will help get sports entertainment back to what it should be...focused on the game and the student-athlete. I say this because no team or university wants to be cast in a bad light, and making sure the student-athlete represents the school and themselves in a positive light WILL become the covered story...as warriors on the field, gentlemen off it.

Having said all that, let me tell you what really bothers me about sports media coverage? It's having to listen to all of those experts espouse their opinions. For the most part I could care less what they have to say, just let me enjoy the game. Because this is what I think about experts and opinions. An EX is a has been, and a SPERT[sp] is just a drop of water under pressure. And an opinion...well it's like an a##hole, everyone has one, and they usually stink.

 

[Carl Spackler]

The business of big time college athletics could use a real good enema. That's all I see happening. The focus in the ideal, utopia is the student athlete. We're pretty far away from that right now in the way universities and leagues of universities are operating. All the media is doing is making money for themselves, and sooner or later the pendulum will start to swing back toward the focus on the actual games and athletes.

What I think is becoming clear, is that in the 24/7 information age when anybody with an internet link can create a wave of public opinion - in this day in age, the lack of a true and fair way to determine a national champion in college football is a phenomenon who's 120+ year run is coming to an end.

The media can't force it to happen, the people in power in the organizations themselves have to make it happen.

I hope the NCAA takes the necessary steps to eliminate the BCS and implement a playoff system among the 11 division 1-A football conferences.

The concept of a superconferences is just dumb, and the fundamental problem behind all of it, is that there is no way for the national championship to be fairly earned on the field of play by any of the 120 schools that compete at the division level.

 

[Dogdeacon]

IMO, the television media has brought sports to the forefront of American entertainment. Without ESPN, Fox, ABC or you name the network, where would sports truly be? But I digress.

Back to your original question/comment about sports being just about sports.

Everybody loves a good scandal/drama laden story (especially if it doesn't involve them), and college sports has been more than happy to provide the source, at least this year. Whether the scandal is full of controversy or something good comes out in the end, the bottom line is this - Americans thirst for that kind of stuff and can't seem to get enough of it. So whether we like it or not, the likes of ESPN will continue to quench that thirst until they're given something else to replace it. Though the manner in which ESPN or whatever sports channel may choose to cover the scandal/drama will be agreed to by everyone, in the long run I believe it will help get sports entertainment back to what it should be...focused on the game and the student-athlete. I say this because no team or university wants to be cast in a bad light, and making sure the student-athlete represents the school and themselves in a positive light WILL become the covered story...as warriors on the field, gentlemen off it.

Having said all that, let me tell you what really bothers me about sports media coverage? It's having to listen to all of those experts espouse their opinions. For the most part I could care less what they have to say, just let me enjoy the game. Because this is what I think about experts and opinions. An EX is a has been, and a SPERT[sp] is just a drop of water under pressure. And an opinion...well it's like an a##hole, everyone has one, and they usually stink.

Answer to that one is easy, stop consuming it. I listen to way less sports radio, like many (I think) watch way less sportscenter, and pre-game shows are out of the question. However for me big part of this is life point and I simply don't have the time that I did in my twenties. Nevertheless there are so many other things to do and accesible entertainment today versus 10 or 20 years ago that tuning in to sports analysis isn't an efficient utilization of leisure time. Likewise sportsradio's "create divisive opinion" format is so blatantly obvious these days that its rarely worth listening to.

Of course the negative part we are all feeding (myself included) is checking the news on-line constantly. Thus competition for BREAKING NEWS is having an absurd and detrimental affect on just about everything with sports no exception. Hurts more in sports as its supposed to be a fun diversion about games versus say celebrity culture where drama is the entirety of the thing.

 

[BlueMAB]

I tend to think that college sports is ruining college sports since most of the off the field problems are a result of people not related to the media in any way, but that's just me.

Don't like the non-stop coverage? Stop going to espn.com and stop watching sportscenter. Watch the games on TV and listen to the broadcast on the radio. It's even easier to sync the two together with pause/play options.