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WBB : ESPN + LHN = Bristol West?

Posted on 11/21/14 at 8:30 am
Posted by Cheese Grits
Wherever I lay my hat is my home
Member since Apr 2012
54952 posts
Posted on 11/21/14 at 8:30 am
For those who may not know, Pat stopped playing Geno because ESPN allowed Uconn to use their facilities in Bristol to recruit players for Uconn. In a decade recruiting shifted heavily from the Vols to the Huskies as did ESPN press in the off season and regular season.

Texas A&M and Baylor were running WBB in the B12 a few years ago. Now TAMU upgrades to the SEC and joined the "unloved" by ESPN - which was good enough to land 8 teams in the 2014 tournament - who seems to push the ACC instead, even tho the attendance and results do not warrant it. here are the numbers for both.

Big 5 by NCAA Championships
(8) SEC
(4) PAC
(3) B12 - 1 = 2 (2011 B12 NCAA win was TAMU, now in SEC)
(3) ACC - 1 = 2 (2006 ACC NCAA win was MD, now in B1G)
(1) B1G

Big 5 by NCAA Attendance
#1 SEC = 934,931
#2 B1G = 887,791
#3 B12 = 797,254
#4 ACC = 676,685
#5 PAC = 380,960

Now look at this years Top 20 recruiting classes :
30.00% ACC = #1, #2, #6, #7, #17, and #20
30.00 % B1G = #8, #10, #12, #13, #16, and #18
15.00% B 12 = #4, #5 Texas, WTF!, and #19
10.00 % PAC = #9 and #11
10.00 % SEC = #14 and #15 - No TAMU in Top 20
05.00% AAC = #3

SEC WBB is becoming the Rodney Dangerfield of the sport if you look at it via ESPiN coverage and now Texas via ESPN is getting the unearned love normally reserved for the ACC.

40% of the preseason Top 10 are SEC schools
#2 South Carolina, now #3 even tho still undefeated
#4 Tennessee, now #5 even tho still undefeated
#5 Texas A&M, now #6 even tho still undefeated
#10 Kentucky, now #9 even tho still undefeated and beat #9 Baylor
Posted by ShaneTheLegLechler
Member since Dec 2011
60249 posts
Posted on 11/21/14 at 9:15 am to
quote:

Now TAMU upgrades to the SEC and joined the "unloved" by ESPN


I don't really follow women's basketball but this doesn't make any sense since ESPN runs the SECN and I imagine WBB will be a huge portion of programming for the network in the winter season
Posted by tmc94
Member since Sep 2012
11559 posts
Posted on 11/21/14 at 10:58 am to
think this is a bit :tinfoilhat:

ESPN is a business and as a business they will always have a bias towards things that make them money. They also have announcers and those announcers naturally have a human bias. These two things may create the appearance of an agenda.

Duke is being talked about because they are really good. The announcers may not be familiar with SEC WBB. If you asked me to call an SEC football game, I could provide in depth analysis of a lot of it because I'd seen them all play. If you asked me to call a B1G game, I might spend the time talking about Bama or MSU or the playoffs. Or I might talk about what restaurant I went to last night because frankly I don't have shite to say about Purdue or Illinois.

Give the announcers time to learn the teams. The network is new and many of the teams are new to them. But long term it's going to be impossible not to be biased towards the SEC simply because a WBB recruit is like 5 times more likely to be on national TV playing for an SEC school that any other school. That's going to be a huge boon.
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