ESPN is at it again

[stever20]

TV ratings and overall coverage show the Big East's failure on FS1 (for year 1 at least). Whatever money is lost between the AAC and Big East TV contract is gained back through exposure. I believe we only had 13 of the 18 BE games televised (when UC was grouped in the top 4 pod) compared to last year where all 18 games were on ESPN or CBS.

You do realize that almost ALL of our games were on national TV. That includes a ton of non-conference stinkers vs. MEAC/SWAC/DII/DIII teams. If you showed the equivalent of "Butler vs. Manchester" on national TV, what do you think your ratings would look like? It's almost the equivalent of asking what AAC ESPN3 ratings were. Our ratings increased through the season as matchups improved (conference games). The AAC does get a natural boost from being on ESPN networks but having the majority of your games on ESPNU/ESPN News and CBS Sports Network is something hardly worth boasting about.

It is such a joke saying that games vs MEAC watched by 8k fans means anything.

Also, you can't say anything about CBSSN as the Big East has the exact same deal with them that the AAC has. So, if it's crap for them, it's crap for us.

Also, wouldn't say anything on FS2 or FSN is national at all. It's not.

[Bill Marsh]

"...we were even mentioned on the PTI show..."

That's the first time I've heard PTI-attention as being a measure of success. I didn't even know the show was still on.

Based on the treatment all of us got over recent years, there is no freakin way I would want to still want to be on ESPN or any of their channels. They would be urinating on us during our telecasts and promoting upcoming ACC games, and all the while we'd be paying extortionists' protection money to hopefully get them to not insult us on their network, probably ESPN-3.

To the Cincinnati fan... most of us have no problem with the Bearcats or the AAC, and the Big East is not your enemy (well, Xavier is your rival)... we're actually cutting a new path that will open up better opportunities for the AAC and others due to (1) more sports network options when you're shopping your league around next time and (2) different paths/options/possibilities to take when fending off the Power-5 a-holes that are ready to leave the AAC, MWC and others behind as we speak... the P-5 are the hyenas that can't be trusted...

Excellent post. Wish that I could have spoken so eloquently.

[SJHooper]

NJRedman, dude relax...try to make one post not calling someone an "idiot" or "the dumbest fan" you ever met even though you never have.

I really hope FS1 grows a lot and becomes a much bigger name. I love that all our conference games are on TV. But with ESPN we still had ESPN3 covering the lesser games...even the exhibitions. And with ESPN3 you could pause, rewind, fast forward, and replay the games. With FS1 if you miss it and you don't have a DVR then you just have to read a recap and you missed the whole game. I still bet ESPN3 gets more viewers than the Big East games on FS1...wish that weren't true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were. I just fear that FS1 will never seriously compete with ESPN and after a while the Big East schools will be seen as mid majors and not really a big deal anymore forgotten about. I'm also worried about the upcoming season where there's a very good chance we get 3 teams in the tourney (G'Town, Xavier, Nova)...possibly 2 because Xavier lost Semaj which is huge. SJ never makes tourneys, PC loses a lot including their machine scorer Cotton, Creighton loses basically everyone and totally starts over, Butler has a lot to prove, Seton Hall lost some veterans and has a good class coming in but rankings mean nothing until you prove it as us Johnny fans know, Marquette lost Buzz one of the better coaches in the country, and I just don't see how anymore than 2 or 3 teams make the tourney. We may have 1 ranked team (Nova).

I know I'm going to come off as negative, but I'm just being honest and there is real reason for concern. Creighton did a good job giving us a strong first year, but now they are back to square one. Couple this with the feeling that SJ's top targets for 2015 Diallo and Briscoe are slipping away and the news that the P-5 is moving to further their agenda of a few superconferences which can lead to their own exclusive tournaments and take all the viewership and hype away from the non football schools, and I'm just not feeling too good.

Someone give me reasons to be optimistic...please...anyone!

[billyjack]

"...we were even mentioned on the PTI show..."

That's the first time I've heard PTI-attention as being a measure of success. I didn't even know the show was still on.

Based on the treatment all of us got over recent years, there is no freakin way I would want to still want to be on ESPN or any of their channels. They would be urinating on us during our telecasts and promoting upcoming ACC games, and all the while we'd be paying extortionists' protection money to hopefully get them to not insult us on their network, probably ESPN-3.

To the Cincinnati fan... most of us have no problem with the Bearcats or the AAC, and the Big East is not your enemy (well, Xavier is your rival)... we're actually cutting a new path that will open up better opportunities for the AAC and others due to (1) more sports network options when you're shopping your league around next time and (2) different paths/options/possibilities to take when fending off the Power-5 a-holes that are ready to leave the AAC, MWC and others behind as we speak... the P-5 are the hyenas that can't be trusted...

Excellent post. Wish that I could have spoken so eloquently.

Hey, thanks Bill!

[stever20]

it's possible more than 3 make the tourney. I mean, we had a pretty mediocre pre-season this past year, and got 4 in(albeit pretty luckily). The key is in the OOC quite frankly. If you only go 9-4 or 8-5 OOC, you have to make up the ground in conference play. Even going 10-3 which is what a lot of teams did- you have to go 10-8 or better to even just have a shot.

There is serious reason for concern. I think next year will really be crucial. If we have another bad year, I think the schools are going to have to seriously re-evaluate everything and quite possibly deviate from the 10 team format. I really do think that the schools were taken aback by 3rd place Xavier being the next to last team in as well as 4th place PC only getting in via the auto bid. Don't think they ever thought for a second that could happen. Also the fact that the A10 got 6 in as well while we struggled to get 4.

I suspect we may see a lot of movement quite frankly after all the P5 stuff gets setttled in August.

[NJRedman]

NJRedman, dude relax...try to make one post not calling someone an "idiot" or "the dumbest fan" you ever met even though you never have.

I really hope FS1 grows a lot and becomes a much bigger name. I love that all our conference games are on TV. But with ESPN we still had ESPN3 covering the lesser games...even the exhibitions. And with ESPN3 you could pause, rewind, fast forward, and replay the games. With FS1 if you miss it and you don't have a DVR then you just have to read a recap and you missed the whole game. I still bet ESPN3 gets more viewers than the Big East games on FS1...wish that weren't true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were. I just fear that FS1 will never seriously compete with ESPN and after a while the Big East schools will be seen as mid majors and not really a big deal anymore forgotten about. I'm also worried about the upcoming season where there's a very good chance we get 3 teams in the tourney (G'Town, Xavier, Nova)...possibly 2 because Xavier lost Semaj which is huge. SJ never makes tourneys, PC loses a lot including their machine scorer Cotton, Creighton loses basically everyone and totally starts over, Butler has a lot to prove, Seton Hall lost some veterans and has a good class coming in but rankings mean nothing until you prove it as us Johnny fans know, Marquette lost Buzz one of the better coaches in the country, and I just don't see how anymore than 2 or 3 teams make the tourney. We may have 1 ranked team (Nova).

I know I'm going to come off as negative, but I'm just being honest and there is real reason for concern. Creighton did a good job giving us a strong first year, but now they are back to square one. Couple this with the feeling that SJ's top targets for 2015 Diallo and Briscoe are slipping away and the news that the P-5 is moving to further their agenda of a few superconferences which can lead to their own exclusive tournaments and take all the viewership and hype away from the non football schools, and I'm just not feeling too good.

Someone give me reasons to be optimistic...please...anyone!

I call you the dumbest fan i've met because you are. You whine about how bad our situation is, you say things that don't make sense and rewrite history. Tell us again about how good ESPN was to us and how they never talked bad about us.

I call you these names because you are an embarrassment to your fellow SJU fans and alums. You give up on the team constantly at the first sign of adversity. Ask the rest of the posters how quickly you were off the band wagon once they struggles last season? It's clear you are a newer fan, it's clear you didn't go through the bad years of the 00's. You need to man up and quit being so sensitive to everything. You make everything out like it's the end of the world and it's not.

We've given you reasons to be optimistic but you refuse to see them. The fact that you think ESPN3 is so great, yet when I was back in NYC with my cable provider I was unable to get ESPN3. I was shut out of SJU games. So your idea that it would be better for us to play on ESPN3 instead of national TV on FS1 shows why I call you such names. Life's tough get a thicker skin if you can't handle a couple of names being thrown your way on a message board.

[billyjack]

NJRedman, dude relax...try to make one post not calling someone an "idiot" or "the dumbest fan" you ever met even though you never have.

I really hope FS1 grows a lot and becomes a much bigger name. I love that all our conference games are on TV. But with ESPN we still had ESPN3 covering the lesser games...even the exhibitions. And with ESPN3 you could pause, rewind, fast forward, and replay the games. With FS1 if you miss it and you don't have a DVR then you just have to read a recap and you missed the whole game. I still bet ESPN3 gets more viewers than the Big East games on FS1...wish that weren't true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were. I just fear that FS1 will never seriously compete with ESPN and after a while the Big East schools will be seen as mid majors and not really a big deal anymore forgotten about. I'm also worried about the upcoming season where there's a very good chance we get 3 teams in the tourney (G'Town, Xavier, Nova)...possibly 2 because Xavier lost Semaj which is huge. SJ never makes tourneys, PC loses a lot including their machine scorer Cotton, Creighton loses basically everyone and totally starts over, Butler has a lot to prove, Seton Hall lost some veterans and has a good class coming in but rankings mean nothing until you prove it as us Johnny fans know, Marquette lost Buzz one of the better coaches in the country, and I just don't see how anymore than 2 or 3 teams make the tourney. We may have 1 ranked team (Nova).

I know I'm going to come off as negative, but I'm just being honest and there is real reason for concern. Creighton did a good job giving us a strong first year, but now they are back to square one. Couple this with the feeling that SJ's top targets for 2015 Diallo and Briscoe are slipping away and the news that the P-5 is moving to further their agenda of a few superconferences which can lead to their own exclusive tournaments and take all the viewership and hype away from the non football schools, and I'm just not feeling too good.

Someone give me reasons to be optimistic...please...anyone!

Read through the sensible posts about the Big East in this thread and on this site. There is everything to be optimistic about. Your pessimism is a result of watching too much ESPN I would guess, and being constantly exposed to the ESPN Psy-Ops Team's constant drumbeat against logic and reality.

But here's a quick nugget for you to consider --> 15 or so recruits in the Top 100 will be making their way to Big East campuses in a couple of months... everyone except ESPN and stever think this is inconsequential... logic and reality and probability tell us that this is excellent for the near future of the Big East.

[SJHooper]

NJRedman, dude relax...try to make one post not calling someone an "idiot" or "the dumbest fan" you ever met even though you never have.

I really hope FS1 grows a lot and becomes a much bigger name. I love that all our conference games are on TV. But with ESPN we still had ESPN3 covering the lesser games...even the exhibitions. And with ESPN3 you could pause, rewind, fast forward, and replay the games. With FS1 if you miss it and you don't have a DVR then you just have to read a recap and you missed the whole game. I still bet ESPN3 gets more viewers than the Big East games on FS1...wish that weren't true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were. I just fear that FS1 will never seriously compete with ESPN and after a while the Big East schools will be seen as mid majors and not really a big deal anymore forgotten about. I'm also worried about the upcoming season where there's a very good chance we get 3 teams in the tourney (G'Town, Xavier, Nova)...possibly 2 because Xavier lost Semaj which is huge. SJ never makes tourneys, PC loses a lot including their machine scorer Cotton, Creighton loses basically everyone and totally starts over, Butler has a lot to prove, Seton Hall lost some veterans and has a good class coming in but rankings mean nothing until you prove it as us Johnny fans know, Marquette lost Buzz one of the better coaches in the country, and I just don't see how anymore than 2 or 3 teams make the tourney. We may have 1 ranked team (Nova).

I know I'm going to come off as negative, but I'm just being honest and there is real reason for concern. Creighton did a good job giving us a strong first year, but now they are back to square one. Couple this with the feeling that SJ's top targets for 2015 Diallo and Briscoe are slipping away and the news that the P-5 is moving to further their agenda of a few superconferences which can lead to their own exclusive tournaments and take all the viewership and hype away from the non football schools, and I'm just not feeling too good.

Someone give me reasons to be optimistic...please...anyone!

I call you the dumbest fan i've met because you are. You whine about how bad our situation is, you say things that don't make sense and rewrite history. Tell us again about how good ESPN was to us and how they never talked bad about us.

I call you these names because you are an embarrassment to your fellow SJU fans and alums. You give up on the team constantly at the first sign of adversity. Ask the rest of the posters how quickly you were off the band wagon once they struggles last season? It's clear you are a newer fan, it's clear you didn't go through the bad years of the 00's. You need to man up and quit being so sensitive to everything. You make everything out like it's the end of the world and it's not.

We've given you reasons to be optimistic but you refuse to see them. The fact that you think ESPN3 is so great, yet when I was back in NYC with my cable provider I was unable to get ESPN3. I was shut out of SJU games. So your idea that it would be better for us to play on ESPN3 instead of national TV on FS1 shows why I call you such names. Life's tough get a thicker skin if you can't handle a couple of names being thrown your way on a message board.

Why are you so angry?

[stever20]

NJRedman, dude relax...try to make one post not calling someone an "idiot" or "the dumbest fan" you ever met even though you never have.

I really hope FS1 grows a lot and becomes a much bigger name. I love that all our conference games are on TV. But with ESPN we still had ESPN3 covering the lesser games...even the exhibitions. And with ESPN3 you could pause, rewind, fast forward, and replay the games. With FS1 if you miss it and you don't have a DVR then you just have to read a recap and you missed the whole game. I still bet ESPN3 gets more viewers than the Big East games on FS1...wish that weren't true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were. I just fear that FS1 will never seriously compete with ESPN and after a while the Big East schools will be seen as mid majors and not really a big deal anymore forgotten about. I'm also worried about the upcoming season where there's a very good chance we get 3 teams in the tourney (G'Town, Xavier, Nova)...possibly 2 because Xavier lost Semaj which is huge. SJ never makes tourneys, PC loses a lot including their machine scorer Cotton, Creighton loses basically everyone and totally starts over, Butler has a lot to prove, Seton Hall lost some veterans and has a good class coming in but rankings mean nothing until you prove it as us Johnny fans know, Marquette lost Buzz one of the better coaches in the country, and I just don't see how anymore than 2 or 3 teams make the tourney. We may have 1 ranked team (Nova).

I know I'm going to come off as negative, but I'm just being honest and there is real reason for concern. Creighton did a good job giving us a strong first year, but now they are back to square one. Couple this with the feeling that SJ's top targets for 2015 Diallo and Briscoe are slipping away and the news that the P-5 is moving to further their agenda of a few superconferences which can lead to their own exclusive tournaments and take all the viewership and hype away from the non football schools, and I'm just not feeling too good.

Someone give me reasons to be optimistic...please...anyone!

Read through the sensible posts about the Big East in this thread and on this site. There is everything to be optimistic about. Your pessimism is a result of watching too much ESPN I would guess, and being constantly exposed to the ESPN Psy-Ops Team's constant drumbeat against logic and reality.

But here's a quick nugget for you to consider --> 15 or so recruits in the Top 100 will be making their way to Big East campuses in a couple of months... everyone except ESPN and stever think this is inconsequential... logic and reality and probability tell us that this is excellent for the near future of the Big East.

Recruiting rankings a lot of times are meaningless. You as a PC fan should know that after the last 2 years.

You act like everything is just rosy. It's not. For gosh sakes our 3rd place team was in the PIG this year, and our 4th place team only got in the tourney because they won the conference tourney.

Bottom line- it's not as rosy as you make it out to be, but it's not as bad as Hooper makes it out to be. The truth is somewhere in the middle. I personally think it's a smidge closer to Hooper, just because of how poorly we performed on the court this year. I do think if that happens again, we see some changes in terms of getting up to 12 teams, which helps somewhat artificially getting extra teams in the tourney. Also, I think FS1 is another reason why I would say it's a bit closer to Hooper...

[Michael in Raleigh]

ESPN is very, very obnoxious with the way they present things about the Big East and a number of other topics. I understand many Big East fans, if not most, are not fans of college football, but it happens in that sport. Their narrative is that the SEC is the greatest conference ever. Some boneheads even say things like "it's better than ____ [whichever the worst NFL division is]," and actually mean it when they say it. It's unbelievable.

Anyway, that article was complete garbage. In addition to the errors and grossly misleading things said about Marquette, it also labeled Clemson as a bad job, even though Clemson is a relatively low-pressure ACC job where success can be achieved (NCAA Tournaments under Purnell; I digress, but why can't he replicate at DePaul what he did at Clemson) and simple progress, without even making the NCAA Tournament, is rewarded with a contract extension (Brownell). Nobody's saying it's a premier hoops job, but I'd say it's a pretty good gig. Even the FSU job, despite heavy competition from in-state Florida and from elsewhere in the ACC, is good because of lessened pressure and because success can certainly be had. They were one missed shot from the Elite 8 in 2011 and won the ACCT in 2012. Meanwhile, Tennessee wasn't immediately on the "worst" list with the financial debt the athletic dept. has and after losing a Sweet 16 coach to... Cal? Ridiculous. The article was so bad that I don't think it's necessarily just another anti-Big East type article. It's just plain, old-fashioned bad writing.

I fully understand ESPN carries a disproportionate influence over college sports, but they're not alone. There's also Fox, which is only going to grow in power and influence. Big East fans out to go to their website to read about college sports. There are also other sites which aren't driven to promote specific conferences' agendas at all because their companies don't have media rights to any leagues. Sports Illustrated and Yahoo have great writers who are read at similar rates as ESPN's writers, and often are better. They're going to give their honest opinions, and even if readers disagree with those opinions, by and large they can know their opinions weren't written with ulterior motives, i.e., to promote their own products and diminish others'. Check out SI's conference previews. Not everything they say is gushy over the Big East, but it's not for other leagues, either. They're just giving their assessments.