ESPN has decided to drop its co-sponsorship of the American Football Coaches Association's Top 25 poll two weeks after coaches announced they will publicly disclose their votes for the last regular-season poll but not for preceding rankings. more http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2005-06-07-poll_x.htm
"Shortly after last season ended in a swirl of controversy, the Associated Press pulled its poll out of the BCS formula. BCS officials have been working on developing another poll to replace the AP's. Voters in the new poll probably will be former coaches and athletics administrators." I hadn't heard this...and it scares me.
I heard the Opelika-Times-Union-Blind Man's Center-Nursery Newspaper would gladly take over.... Didn't they give AU the national title last year?
Similar to what I was thinking. Someone else will take over and ESPN hopefully will realize just a tiny bit that they are not as important as they might think.
I'm already there. It's rare that I watch ESPN anymore, primarily because of the obvious pimping of their parent network. Not that pimping is bad, but don't try and play yourself off as "journalistic" programming when it's far from the case. The Berman schtick and the SS Boo-Yah got old a long time ago. I will continue to watch College Gameday until the first available alternative becomes available - after all, it does have some good informational value. But it galls me to see the hosts overhyping any particular team for the sole reason that said team is playing on the ABC's game of the week. If the college players were paid I might feel differently about it. ESPN lost it's journalistic integrity when it became an entertainment property of the Disney family. - steps down off soapbox -
This allows ABC/ESPN to now push and promote who it thinks should be National Champs. With no sponsorship dollars going to a particular entity it's free to push who it wants. It's kind of similar to the year ABC/ESPN vaulted Charles Woodson to the Heisman Trophy over Peyton Manning with their giant media backing. They were Woodson's own personal PR agency.
