MUST read article on ESPN's interest in SEC success - "Arkansas is Vanderbilt now"

[Bacon_Bitz]

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/the-worldwide-cheerleader-espn-and-the-college-football-playoff-20141028

The article is spot on, and points out a lot of what is wrong with ESPN's motives in covering sports.

The only thing I disagree with is "Arkansas is Vanderbilt now."  That ticks me off to no end.  I guess we are a bottom feeder b/c we haven't won an SEC game in so long, but I really do believe we would whoop some tail (about half the time) in the SEC east and other Power 5 conferences.

[holman24]

we r worse than Vandy at least they won a SEC game in the past two years

[Vantage 8 dude]

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/the-worldwide-cheerleader-espn-and-the-college-football-playoff-20141028

The article is spot on, and points out a lot of what is wrong with ESPN's motives in covering sports.

The only thing I disagree with is "Arkansas is Vanderbilt now."  That ticks me off to no end.  I guess we are a bottom feeder b/c we haven't won an SEC game in so long, but I really do believe we would whoop some tail (about half the time) in the SEC east and other Power 5 conferences.

So an article about college football with a Rolling Stone" tagline is now expected to be considered as providing sound/insightful material on the state of any college team?! I mean what next: "E" will now be the source for serious, hard hitting news coverage?

[The_Iceman]

we r worse than Vandy at least they won a SEC game in the past two years

You think we are worse than Vandy?

[cosmodrum]

You think we are worse than Vandy?

In real life, no. Trolling life, yes.

[Danny J]

we r worse than Vandy at least they won a SEC game in the past two years

Correct.....the last two years we are no doubt the worst team in the SEC in regards to wins/losses. I will also point out that had we played Vandy or UK or Tenn we would likely have a win by now. Just goes to show how fast and far behind you get in the SEC west when you basically throw away two years. I think we are on the right track now simply using the eye test. We are no doubt in my mind no worse than a 3rd place SEC east team and likely second.

[Dropkick]

You think we are worse than Vandy?

Do not feed the trolls!

[Bacon_Bitz]

So an article about college football with a Rolling Stone" tagline is now expected to be considered any sound material on the state of any college team?! I mean what next: "E" will now be the source for serious, hard hitting news coverage?

Did you read it, though?  Rolling Stone has always had a few decent articles in every magazine, and who else is going to call ESPN out for their shenanigans?

"Media today is a choir of witless parrots reinforcing consumers' preexisting predilections, an echo chamber that, at its best, rarely edifies consumers and, at its worst, actively manipulates them. Such criticisms were previously reserved for political and news coverage , but now we can't even trust the accuracy of reporting on our meaningless pastimes."

[holman24]

You think we are worse than Vandy?

The record in SEC over the past two years says we are and your record is the only thing that counts unless you think an 8 lose team deserves to be in the playoff this year

[Bacon_Bitz]

The record in SEC over the past two years says we are and your record is the only thing that counts unless you think an 8 lose team deserves to be in the playoff this year

Well, if your record is the only thing that counts, then Vandy and Arkansas are both winless in the SEC this year, and Arkansas is at .500 while Vandy I think beat UMASS and maybe an FCS team.  Troll away though.

[Atlhogfan1]

Florida State graduate

This is not an article.  It is an opinion column. 

I agree ESPN's coverage and hype of college football turned me off long ago.  I don't watch Game Day, rarely watch even a few minutes of CFL and believe ESPN has tried to help brand programs like VT and Boise.  ESPN has crossed the line but it is an entertainment network.  I do not believe they will affect the playoff selection.  Other political forces from the different conferences will do that. 

[The_Iceman]

The record in SEC over the past two years says we are and your record is the only thing that counts unless you think an 8 lose team deserves to be in the playoff this year

We are the only team in BCS history to play our first 5 conference games against teams currently ranked in the Top 10.

Vandy plays in the SEC East. So no, record isn't everything.

[holman24]

Well, if your record is the only thing that counts, then Vandy and Arkansas are both winless in the SEC this year, and Arkansas is at .500 while Vandy I think beat UMASS and maybe an FCS team.  Troll away though.

And who have we beat???  like I said until you can come up with a way to count moral victories or only use computer rankings on strength then we are the worst in the sec over the past two years.

[holman24]

We are the only team in BCS history to play our first 5 conference games against teams currently ranked in the Top 10.

Vandy plays in the SEC East. So no, record isn't everything.

ok show me where the team from the top 5 conf went to the national championship with a worse record than someone with a better record

[ricepig]

You think we are worse than Vandy?

Florida State graduate

This is not an article.  It is an opinion column. 

I agree ESPN's coverage and hype of college football turned me off long ago.  I don't watch Game Day, rarely watch even a few minutes of CFL and believe ESPN has tried to help brand programs like VT and Boise.  ESPN has crossed the line but it is an entertainment network.  I do not believe they will affect the playoff selection.  Other political forces from the different conferences will do that. 

I was trying to find where he went to college, that always seems to enter in these type of articles......

[Hogwild]

ok show me where the team from the top 5 conf went to the national championship with a worse record than someone with a better record

2007 LSU

[Inhogswetrust]

People that pay attention to ROLLINGSTONE about sports need to quit listening to the subliminal messages in music.............

[holman24]

2007 LSU

there was a one loss team and everyone else had 2 loses nice try but you lose.

[Hogwild]

I win because I can count to 2, something you seem unable to do.


2007
Ohio State 11-1
Kansas  11-1
LSU 11-2

http://www.collegefootballpoll.com/2007_archive_bcs.html

[WarPig88]

You think we are worse than Vandy?

If you by recent success and recruiting rankings, then the argument can be made that we could be.

[bphi11ips]

Foolishness.

[Wants2Win]

The fact the comparison can legitimately be made gives me the sad.

[hogsanity]

If we're Vandy now can we have the baseball scholarships they offer?  How about the DeMarini contract?

no joke right there

[passinghog]

It's trash. Even Cowherd said yesterday that Arkansas and Tennessee are a year away from where they want to be. Anyone with a clue would never confuse us with Vandy.

[hogsanity]

The article lost all credibility when the sentence ".....prop up a SEC that s arguably in a state of decline....". How do they possibly figure that? Just because non traditional teams like MSU and old misses head the league this year does not mean the league is in a state of decline.

[Hogfaniam]

Schools are only as good as the coaches they hire. 

[Hogarusa]

We are the only team in BCS history to play our first 5 conference games against teams currently ranked in the Top 10.

Vandy plays in the SEC East. So no, record isn't everything.

BCS era ended in 2013 so we are actually the first team in playoff history to earn the distinction.


And i take it by the comments in this thread that nobody actually reads the magazine.  Are you guys under the assumption that they only talk about music?  Me confused

[Hogarusa]

It's trash. Even Cowherd said yesterday that Arkansas and Tennessee are a year away from where they want to be. Anyone with a clue would never confuse us with Vandy.

Is it trash because Cowherd said that?

[Dirty]

we r worse than Vandy at least they won a SEC game in the past two years

With this statement above tells me you have no clue!

[SPAL]

I hope this Holman cat is fake.... I'm hoping it is a parody account like pond water jack or OTR. Nobody can surely be that stupid can they?

[Hogwild]

You think we are worse than Vandy?

If both teams played on a neutral field we beat Vandy but 20+ points.  But I don't think that is what the writer is saying(then again it is such a poorly written article). 
We are the 'new Vandy' since we haven't won a SEC game since 2012. Vandy had back to back 9 win seasons coming into this year.

[hawgbawb]

Too bad we don't get to play Vandy, Florida, So Carolina or Tenner. We'd beat them all.

[HamIAm]

from the article

ESPN has invested heavily in the SEC of late – highlighted by its launch of the SEC Network in August – and needs at least one, ideally four, of the conference's teams to make the inaugural College Football Playoff, to which ESPN holds exclusive broadcast rights (the first set of Playoff rankings will be unveiled tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET on the network as well).

A poor argument on his part. He's grasping at straws hoping to generate pressure on the selection committee to limit the SEC to one team and/or possibly give it a lower seed. No one thinks for one minute that there will be 4 SEC teams in the playoff.

How would 4 SEC teams in the playoffs be beneficial to ESPN's Playoff viewer ratings? They will likely get more viewers with 4 different conferences represented. People want to see how the conferences match up. They've already seen how the SEC matches up against itself. In addition, casual fans are more likely to watch if their region of the country or their conference is represented.  At most I could see where they might want 2 SEC teams, one on each side of the bracket, so the anti-SEC crowd would tune in to root against the SEC.  But 4 SEC teams would drive off a large portion of their potential viewing audience.

SEC network ratings won't go up simply because the conference gets 4 teams in the playoff.  With the possible exception of a few games chosen to entice people to want the network, most of the SEC network games are the less attractive conference games of the day. The better SEC games will be on tv elsewhere.  Are non-SEC fans going to watch them all?

[Mick Hogger]

Rolling Stone also has started printing articles about wrestling and country music because they've lost so many readers with their BS political hatchet jobs that no one takes them seriously anymore. A lot of their comment sections are concerning the misinformation in their articles. They are dying for page hits.

[ballz2thewall]

its an opinion piece.

the problem with articles like this is that we don't know if the writer is a college football fan, or a sports fan.  those that are not are more likely to point fault in the direction of the top of a particular endeavor.

here's another example using rolling stone.  i've been a fan and reader of the mag since the 70's.  i would read the artists reviews when new albums are released and new bands launch.  here's a problem that is always present; many times the reviewer is not really familiar with or even a fan of the genre.  fans of hard rock don't need to be reviewing madonna.  pop fans don't need to review metallica.  yet, it happens frequently; more often than not.  rolling stone reviews on blues are terrible and hugely biased.  occasionally a reviewer is open minded, and sometimes they are in the playground that fits them.

the same thing [bias] is possible here.  i don't know this writer.  his anecdotes are basic and contextually suspect.  for example, did he mention that winston won the hiesman as possibly a reason why there was so much focus on him?  if he did it was in passing [i'll have to go back and look].

poll bias existed long before espn.  as far back as the 70's at least. notre dame, penn state, michigan and ohio state benefited hugely from media bias for years.  i recall many times those team would require 3 losses before they would drop out of the top 15 [yes; often they'd still be in the top 20 (25 spots didn't come till later)].

but another poster here said it.  why would it serve the network to push for more sec teams?  wouldn't one serve it well enough?

these are just a few rambling thoughts and comments....

[Vantage 8 dude]

Did you read it, though?  Rolling Stone has always had a few decent articles in every magazine, and who else is going to call ESPN out for their shenanigans?

"Media today is a choir of witless parrots reinforcing consumers' preexisting predilections, an echo chamber that, at its best, rarely edifies consumers and, at its worst, actively manipulates them. Such criticisms were previously reserved for political and news coverage , but now we can't even trust the accuracy of reporting on our meaningless pastimes."

Problem is that the optimum word in your comment are a FEW decent articles. While I don't think that ESPN is the savior or anything else that's necessarily good about college football, in fact I think much of the big money greed has doubtless been birthed by the deep pocketed networks such as "eSPIN, I'm not sure we should necessarily use an article out of Rolling Stone to get our "facts"; opinions perhaps.

Tell you what: next time Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine or some such sports publication discusses the merits/draw backs of singers and other performers feel free to believe it to be the gospel 'cause we all know that's where their expertise lies. 

[GolfnHog]

It's trash. Even Cowherd said yesterday that Arkansas and Tennessee are a year away from where they want to be. Anyone with a clue would never confuse us with Vandy.

except for Holman24 but he's never had anything to be happy about.

[popcornhog]

we r worse than Vandy at least they won a SEC game in the past two years

They don't play the same teams that we play, doofus.

Plus we're improving and they're on a major downswing.

And then there's overall win/loss, team support, etc.

[Dirty]

Holman24=troll

Stirs the pot and runs!

[aar0n]

Things I'm always amazed at when it comes to Hogville  -

1. How many people actually fall for/feed the trolls that can't even form a coherent sentence, let alone a decent thought.

2. The mods that allow these trolls to stick around and ruin this board. 

[hogfan870]

Seriously, it takes way more than 2-3 down years to become Vandy.  They have had decades of this.  However, for the last 2-3 years we have been Vandy level bad.  That hurts, but it is true.  Who in the league has ever had a losing streak like this.  Maybe Vandy, maybe Ky.

And I do have to point out that A&M is not "currently" top 5.  They were when we played them, but they aren't now and they aren't that good.  That was really our opportunity to end the streak.  I don't give us much shot this weekend, but I sure hope we can win one of the last three.  Otherwise, the whole Vandy reference continues to become closer to correct.

[Bacon_Bitz]

Problem is that the optimum word in your comment are a FEW decent articles. While I don't think that ESPN is the savior or anything else that's necessarily good about college football, in fact I think much of the big money greed has doubtless been birthed by the deep pocketed networks such as "eSPIN, I'm not sure we should necessarily use an article out of Rolling Stone to get our "facts"; opinions perhaps.

Tell you what: next time Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine or some such sports publication discusses the merits/draw backs of singers and other performers feel free to believe it to be the gospel 'cause we all know that's where their expertise lies.

Never said it was the gospel, just some food for thought.  Makes some good points, general arguments seemed reasonable overall.  Hyperbolic in a few places, sure, and it's suspicious that the author is an FSU grad, but I do think ESPN needs to be called out increasingly more by other media outlets for its biases.

[Danny J]

Seriously, it takes way more than 2-3 down years to become Vandy.  They have had decades of this.  However, for the last 2-3 years we have been Vandy level bad.  That hurts, but it is true.  Who in the league has ever had a losing streak like this.  Maybe Vandy, maybe Ky.

And I do have to point out that A&M is not "currently" top 5.  They were when we played them, but they aren't now and they aren't that good.  That was really our opportunity to end the streak.  I don't give us much shot this weekend, but I sure hope we can win one of the last three.  Otherwise, the whole Vandy reference continues to become closer to correct.

I agree but will add that Carolina at some point had loss 17(?) straight SEC games maybe more.

[TheGunther]

ESPN is the worlds largest bandwagon fan. When I was a kid I couldn't get away from how great the BIG 10 and PAC 12 were. Constantly propping up teams so that USC and Ohio state were performing some miracle run to the title.

They will play the hot hand until the SEC loses and loses favorites . In fact, I'm sure they can't wait to tell they were there first when the SEC's run ended as they are shaking the hand of the new flavor of the week.

[hogcard1964]

Correct.....the last two years we are no doubt the worst team in the SEC in regards to wins/losses. I will also point out that had we played Vandy or UK or Tenn we would likely have a win by now. Just goes to show how fast and far behind you get in the SEC west when you basically throw away two years. I think we are on the right track now simply using the eye test. We are no doubt in my mind no worse than a 3rd place SEC east team and likely second.

Kentucky is better than us.

[Danny J]

Kentucky is better than us.

You think they take us on a neutral field? I am not so sure but could happen. Kentucky is definitely better this year than they have been in a long time. We have no common opponents to date so hard to say for sure since we don't play head to head.

[PORKULATOR]

Obviously written by someone who hasn't seen us play.

[Hogfaniam]

Kentucky is better than us.

Nope...but I'm biased

[hogcard1964]

You think they take us on a neutral field? I am not so sure but could happen. Kentucky is definitely better this year than they have been in a long time. We have no common opponents to date so hard to say for sure since we don't play head to head.

Kentucky is entering a tailspin, but yes, they're further along than us.  They'll be in a bowl this year and have a lot to build on going into next season.

[Hogwild]

LSU, South Carolina and Texas A&M haven't lived up to preseason expectations, and Arkansas is Vanderbilt now.

Look at how bad the entire sentence is.


Ok, South Carolina has been a flop, but Ole Miss & Miss. State have been better than expected.

LSU is @ #16, the were preseason #15.

Texas A&M's record is right where everyone though they would be, maybe better. Losses were expected @Bama & @USCe. Toss up against Ole Miss, Miss. State, &
Arkansas. They have 3 losses, and should move to 6-3 with a win over ULM this weekend.

Arkansas is Vanderbilt, but can still go into a Big 12 team's house and win by 20+; beat a team that Northwestern couldn't.

A&M, LSU, Auburn, & Bama losses have all come against teams in the Top 8.