re: Miss State womens basketball

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Would love to see proof you have of this.

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Not like I am a big fan of Wiki, but this is clipped from Geno's Wiki page LINK

The rivalry between the Huskies and the University of Tennessee Lady Vols extended to Auriemma's relationship with Volunteers counterpart Pat Summitt, who retired in 2012 and died in 2016. The two, through print and broadcast media, were often at odds. In 2007, Summitt, who believed Auriemma had used less-than-honorable tactics in his successful recruitment of Maya Moore, canceled the yearly game between the two programs.

Conversations with UT staff from the time and some confirmation from some ESPN folks who would not go on the record. It later came public but the was watered down and Connecticut was found guilty of a secondary violation and not punished for the ESPN trip and tour. Die was cast that the NCAA would not pursue ESPN interference so they have been doing so ever since at the benefit of some schools and the detriment of others.

Was at a Final Four sitting next to several ESPN folks and learned a top WBB player at the time had worked for ESPN for all 4 years of college. Was shocked as it had never been mentioned on ESPN of said arrangement. Was intrigued and leaned over to ask why it had not been made a public story and they all shut up for the rest of the game. Clearly obvious they had not meant to spill the beans which made the arrangement suspecting my view. Player was well known and a program changer. Lost much faith in impartiality of ESPN after this incident and several "flips" with suspected undue ESPN influence observed since.

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They had everything to do with turning around their respective programs, not ESPN.

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You are fooling yourself. The more ESPN grew the more exposure they gave to the folks lucky enough to be on the ground floor. I am not inclined to all out conspiracy as much as control of cheap local content. If ESPN had founded in Kansas, the Jayhawks would have been the recipient of the support above and beyond the normal.

Rasmussen established the network to broadcast CONNECTICUT sports and built their initial facility on a former dump in Bristol CT. Back then you had the Big 3 (ABC / CBS / NBC) and programming that was done after the late news and the late show. 24 hour feed needed live content and Uconn was next door and provided cheap content. It is less than 50 miles from Bristol to Storrs.

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ESPN was founded in 1978

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ESPN was conceived in May of 78 but did not officially launch till late 79. First full year did not occur till 1980. Between 80 and 84 seems you saw Connecticut and ACC content including lesser sports because the Big 3 held a lock on the power conferences of college sports and that was the content ESPN could get. In 84, ABC bought ESPN and the US Supreme court struck down the NCAA monopoly which allowed the CFA to form.

In between those 5 years, Connecticut and ACC staffed both in front of the camera and behind it and set a bias trend going forward to this day. Again, not saying this is an intentional conspiracy, but to ignore the cozy nature early on is just putting your head in the sand.