STF Fan Rant
Today's fan rant comes from La Rev of the excellent Gonzaga blog La Revolucion.
This rant and I go way back. We're like old buddies, that is if one of the old buddies spent every waking moment calling the other one a stupid buttface.
Today's fan rant comes from La Rev of the excellent Gonzaga blog La Revolucion.
This rant and I go way back. We're like old buddies, that is if one of the old buddies spent every waking moment calling the other one a stupid buttface.
West Coast Conference's Big Monday TV Deal, you are a stupid buttface and I hate you.
If you read my blog (who doesn't?), you're probably one of the countless (ok, five) readers who've told me to get over it already. I can't help it, though, because it's just that lame. Let me break down how lame it is, for those of you who don't follow WCC basketball religiously.
For the last three seasons, the conference has had a deal with ESPN where the network plays a select handful of WCC games as part of its "Big Monday" extravaganza. In all, a very reasonable-sounding plan to get more exposure for a conference that used to only get it by having a bunch of funny-sounding schools that got killed by Gonzaga (or briefly challenged Gonzaga only to fade into bolivian within a few years). Of course, because it's the WCC and nobody cares, the games got the Midnight Eastern time slot. Also of course, because only the craziest basketball fan wants to watch Portland play San Diego, no WCC team got to play a Big Monday game without playing it against Gonzaga.
In the mean time, Gonzaga has scored itself a pretty nice TV deal, with every non-Big Monday game being picked up by Fox Sports and broadcast throughout the West Coast and beyond (I'm in DC, and thanks to a five dollar package through Comcast, I can watch all the FSN games). There was a time, not so long ago, when Gonzaga would have killed for the WCC to get any sort of national TV deal. Hell, when I was a freshman in 1999, my buddies and I would sit around watching Sportscenter on the off chance that we would see some GU highlights.
What could I possibly be complaining about, especially knowing where we were in 1999 and where we are now, with a bunch of games broadcast throughout the country? For starters, the start time is completely ridiculous, and frankly, kind of insulting. Roughly 8o% of all Americans live in either the Eastern or Central time zones. That means 80% of you, even if you wanted to watch Pepperdine play basketball, would have to stay up till 11 or 12 just waiting for the game to start. Who's going to do that? Better still, who's going to stay up for the next two hours to wait to see how the thing finishes?
I'm not crazy enough to stay up that late, even for the Zags, but I do set my DVR so I can wake up the next morning and watch before work. So, the other day, I saw Gonzaga completely demoralize Pepperdine, courtesy of Big Monday. The conference cannot possibly be happy about that. This exposure they wanted, you know, the one that would take them out of the "We Get Smoked by Gonzaga" shadow, seems to have come full circle, as ESPN broadcasts to all the basketball crazies crazy enough to stay up and see that you have been smoked by Gonzaga.
The WCC can tell themselves all they want that ESPN wants to give them publicity or whatever. Having watched the GU-Pepperdine laugher (and it was a laugher, trust me on this), I can say anyone who still thinks that is fooling themselves. The ESPN production team even took the opportunity to endlessly show screen-wide graphics advertise their upcoming schedule of games, including when one offense was bringing the ball up the court or when one team or another was shooting free throws.
Sure, ESPN gives constant Carolina-Duke reminders in all their broadcast, but at no point in this Louisville-Marquette game I'm watching have they ever blocked out the whole screen with said reminders during play. ESPN doesn't care about you, WCC. Oh, they like having you around. You're good for free advertising, and they'll give up the chance to air a back-to-back Sports Center for you, but that's about it.
The WCC can tell themselves all they want that ESPN wants to give them publicity or whatever. Having watched the GU-Pepperdine laugher (and it was a laugher, trust me on this), I can say anyone who still thinks that is fooling themselves. The ESPN production team even took the opportunity to endlessly show screen-wide graphics advertise their upcoming schedule of games, including when one offense was bringing the ball up the court or when one team or another was shooting free throws.
Sure, ESPN gives constant Carolina-Duke reminders in all their broadcast, but at no point in this Louisville-Marquette game I'm watching have they ever blocked out the whole screen with said reminders during play. ESPN doesn't care about you, WCC. Oh, they like having you around. You're good for free advertising, and they'll give up the chance to air a back-to-back Sports Center for you, but that's about it.
Honestly, I don't care about the WCC either. Honestly, it's a rinky-dink conference that's probably more comfortable having its winner get a 15 seed than it is having an ESPN deal. But since Gonzaga's been sold down this ridiculously stupid river (go ahead and check the schedule to see how many WCC Big Monday games don't feature Gonzaga), it annoys me. It annoys me that the conference talks about getting exposure when the only reason it gets exposure is because Gonzaga's playing (not being arrogant, just being truthful). It annoys me that I have to get up so early just to watch a freaking basketball game. It annoys me that ESPN uses the games to advertise itself. There's so much "You'll take what we give you and like it" about the whole thing that at this point, I can't help but laugh.
Ha ha, WCC Big Monday TV Deal, you stupid buttface. I hate you.
9 comments:
Your point is well taken. My point that goes along with yours is ESPN should try and get the MWC back in their late Big Monday dealie. But unfortunately ESPN probably doesn't want it since the MWC has their own TV network now.
Just another case of ESPN's East Coast bias. Damn the man!
I still don't understand what this guy is upset about. Does he want ESPN to show Portland/San Diego at 9 p.m.?
The contract - which remember, includes broadcasting the conference tourney on the four letter network - is great for the WCC, and is envied by all other comparable leagues.
It's nice having the WCC tourney on ESPN, but it comes at the expense of holding the GU fans, players, and coaches hostage the rest of the season.
Beyond that, ESPN is relegating many of the non-Big Monday games that it carries to ESPNU, a terrible channel right now.
Ideally, the game would be moved up 2 hours and put on the deuce, or drop ESPN and let GU stick with FSN all season. I'd be surprised if the # of viewers of all WCC games goes down.
As a fan of the Mid-American Conference, which is lucky to get more than two regular-season basketball contests per season broadcast on ESPN/ESPN2 every year, I hereby offer to take all those nasty Monday night ESPN games off your hands.
(About ten years ago, the MAC's football package with ESPN was much more limited and similarly, every game featured Marshall, since they were the most successful program in the league at the time. Marshall fans were extremely arrogant -- even unbearable -- back then, but none to my knowledge were outright presumptuous enough to whine about said exposure or their time slots on the network...)
If you're somehow trying to make the argument that the deal is unfair to any WCC team not named "Gonzaga," you need to make that more clear.
I don't think I'm trying to make any argument other than that the Big Monday deal sucks for Gonzaga. Kudos to the WCC for pulling that crap off...it doesn't serve a purpose for Gonzaga.
You're missing some major common-sense points here.
It's "BIG MONDAY", meaning they want three games to go on at night sandwiched around a hopefully well-rated SPortsCenter. Would you rather them have games tip off midnight EAST-COAST time?
So what Pacific Time Zone conferences can ESPN put on there? The Mountain West has a deal with Versus, and the Pac-10 is locked in with the FOx regional channels. Gonzaga is a single-handed ratings boon. Much like Duke, they could be playing a no-name school in a 20-point win and it'll rate better than most other comparable games in the same time slot.
ESPN is in the business of making money. That means ratings and promotion.
The WCC is in the business of building good basketball teams and promoting them regionally if not nationally.
The Midnight Big Monday deal is good for both... So realize that your sleep schedule has little to do with the two parties' rationale here.
It's pretty elementary.
Poor MWC, now we'll never EVER see their games. Seriously, though, with the power of TiVo and DVR, it is more possible to see these games. I recorded Portland vs San Diego.
Then again, I watch too much obscure basketball.
-Pico
i don't quite understand your rant. yes, it is always GU on Monday night - they are heads and shoulders above the rest of the WCC, so why not put them on TV. and yes, it is on late on the east coast, but i'm not going over to the gym at 4PM so you can watch in prime time back east.
you seem to be doing more complaining about GU lately...face it, the ciderella days are long gone..we're moving beyond mid-major even. this is what comes with it. get over it.
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